christmas
Christmas Emojis From Finland
illustration, designCommentThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland has created some iconic emojis to celebrate the culture and important icons of Finland.
From Christmas emojis, where, of course Santa is a part; as Santa lives in Korvatunturi, Lapland, and the reindeers too! Iconic inventions including the Nokia 3310 phone (remember the snake game and that iconic phone tune), and the Finnish traditions such as the Sauna, Moomin are all part of this super cute emoji set.
Can’t wait to see these super cute emojis being animated into short Christmas animations. Ho ho ho!
These cute icons are available to download via iTunes on the Apple Store / Google Play.
Meet : The Clever Badger
stockistsComment
Becca + Lewis : The truly Awesome duo behind The Clever Badger
It's our honor to have the cutest catch up with our stockist and collaborator : The Clever Badger an online gifts and greeting cards company supporting independent designers. You will never run out of fun, goof, laughter and warmness with this adorable couple : Becca and Lewis , the duo behind the brand and the brains behind the pencils which we collaborated with for The Clever Badger Boxes including "I NEED COFFEE", "FUDGE OFF" and "I HATE MONDAYS".
Beyond the giggles, we explored a long admirable trait that we loved about The Clever Badger - running a business together as a couple. And then of course ... fun ... carpool karaoke ... sarnies ... upcoming trends... so read on.
I AM A : THIS MAY BE A CHICKEN AN EGG QUESTION - DID THE BUSINESS NAME "THE CLEVER BADGER" COME FIRST OR THE CONCEPT OF THE BUSINESS ?
Becca : We had the concept of a design gift shop first and the name came second. We spent many afternoons trying to concoct the perfect name, I remembered Lewis thinking of a really good suggestion ( for the life of me, I can't remember what this was ) and so I rubbed his chin and called him a clever badger ! Cringey pet names are a big thing in this household I'm afraid.
I AM A : WHAT ARE THE TOP 3 TIPS YOU CAN SHARE WITH US ON RUNNING A BUSINESS AS A COUPLE ?
Becca : Our top 3 tips are :
- Remember to have some down time. We normally go for a walk in the woods near our house if we're getting a bit stir crazy !
- Always listen to each other and spend time checking in with each other. Our TCB ( The Clever Badger ) mostly meeting always features a slice of cake .
- Always remember to have fun together. We do tend to have a weekly nerf gun battle !
I AM A : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SANDWICH AT ALL TIMES ?
Becca : Fish finger sandwiches with mayo have to be my favourite!
Lewis : Roast beef & onion baguette!
I AM A : WE ARE JUST OVER 3 MONTHS AWAY FROM CHRISTMAS . WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE KEY CHRISTMAS GIFT TRENDS THIS YEAR ONLINE ?
Becca + Lewis : We do believe the pin and patch trend will carry on going. It really seems as if it's here to stay for 2017. Another big trend is the hygge way of living, any accessories or lifestyle gifts the encompass the relaxing nature of the Danish living style will be key for Christmas.
I AM A : For carpool karaoke, which song / songs will you be singing ?
Lewis : Dolly Parton (any song) or Majestic by Wax Fang
Becca : Anything Abba related or KISS! I think we might have the weirdest taste in music ever…
I AM A : Which is your favourite : Rainbow / Unicorn / Fries ?
Becca : Rainbows! I’m a colour magpie
Lewis : Fries !
I AM A : Favourite Quote of the Day ?
Lewis : I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul
Becca : Not today Satan! (You can tell who the intellectual is) haha ...
Thank you to Becca and Lewis , for all your time for the interview. It's been such a pleasure and nothing but fun. Thank you for the pictures too. We love them !
#Dontmissout on all the curated colorful goodness from this adorable duo by following their store and social media updates :
- Website : http://www.thecleverbadger.com
- Instagram : @thecleverbadger
- Twitter : @thecleverbadger
- Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thecleverbadger
- Pinterest : https://uk.pinterest.com/thecleverbadger/
Best piece of wisdom : "Always remember to have fun together" + have Cake !
Tree Massive - Grow the Tallest Tree in Instagram
designCommentChristmas is full of fun, cheer and Christmas Tree! 🎅🏻🎄
On Instagram we have recently been contacted by New Future Graphic (NFG Studio) - A London based full service Creative Agency, as they have started a very fun and creative grow a Christmas tree project on Instagram called "Tree Massive".
What does the Tree Massive project involve?
Digitally we need to decorate, create, embellish 3 Instagram squares - i.e. Three different Christmas tree image layers to help stack up the digital tree and make it grow tall, massively, fun and colourfully! YAY! This type of project is right up our alley - as it has all the fun factor and we like to create digital illustrations.
What did we create?
We stayed conventional, as we love baubles on Christmas trees. We decided to use our own hands to create the baubles and using the concept of dove hand shadows by overlapping our hands to make "Dove Hand Shaped" baubles - signifying peace, love and cheerfulness. After which we fasten these baubles to the trees with neon fluorescent ribbons. It's a combination of black and white photography, and some illustration - mix and matching.
Oh did we say that we also spread the rainbow hues across the 3 Instagram tree layers? 🌈🖌
Interested? What do you need to do?
Join this fun and festive project!
- Head to Tree Massive's website http://www.tree.construction (we even absolutely love how creative the web address is 🎄😋🎅🏻💻)
- Read the instructions available and download the templates
- Start creating
- Submit your 3 tree layers back to contact@newfuturegraphic.co.uk
- Wait and see the tree grow!
- 👀 Take note! Quick quick there is still a bit of time as deadline is 21st December, 2015 and they will top the star on the tree! 🎄✨
Happy creating!
How to Make A Match Box Advent Calendar
diyComment1st Decemeber! That's one of our favorite dates in the year. Why? It's 24 days to Christmas - and every morning, we can pop open the windows of our advent calendar, which only happens in the month of December. Every day, we eagerly look forward, to unveiling a little surprise - and of course, every day just gets that little bit closer to Christmas. Yay!!!
If like us, you like making something, and like gifting sweet little gifts, this tutorial on making your own advent calendar may be just up your alley.
Tools, Materials and Ingredients
- 24 match boxes ( recycling old match boxes will be the best )
- scissors
- double sided tape or glue ( our preference is to use a sticky tape roller such as the "Bostik Sticki Tape Roller" available from Ryman, as it keeps all sticking job dry and neat)
- 24 little gifts to fill the match boxes
- 3 pieces of A4 paper to print the numbered Match box wrappers that can be downloaded here
Cut each individual dates out and use either double sided tape or glue to attach the designs to the boxes. The designs will work for small rectangular boxes too. The idea is to make sure the designs cover the top of the box, or wrap around the box in the case of a match box.
After the boxes are numbered with the individual days, fill them with little gifts. Our favorites have included:
- tictacs
- gold / silver chocolate coins available from Waitrose
- finger tattoos available from Paperchase
- hair bobbles
- key rings
- glitter paper clips
- stickers
- hand written messages
- vouchers
- pin badges
- lottery ticket
- nail clipper
- cute buttons
- matches (why not?)
After the boxes are filled. Mix them around to mix around the dates.
To display the match boxes, you can affix these boxes on to the wall with tape that does not strip off the paint from the wall e.g. 3M Command Poster Mounting Adhesive Strips, or simply line them up on a mantelpiece.
Have fun and happy counting down to Christmas!
I AM A Stationery Gift Store Opens at London Old Street Underground
event, designCommentYay! I AM A Stationery Gift store has arrived at London Old Street Underground station! We are OPEN - hip hip hooray!
For our pop up store design, this is our approach : our stationery gift products are colourful, we wanted to create an ambience of a book store where people can enjoy and take time to immerse into the products and have a good giggle at it. Hence, we have taken a more white "clinical" approach to the asethetics to the store.
White back wall, plywood shelves with white metal brackets - a clean background to display the multi color block English Idioms notebooks.
Clear see through pyrex clinical beakers as pencil stands for the themed pencil sets, natural color peg board for our alphabet wall to fit the alphabet badges from A to Z.
Neon pink vinyl to display our range of products like a menu, and also our I AM A photo wall to allow people to express themselves and tell us their state of mind. And of course, smiley. He appears at the light box, with one side of the light box being the logo and the other being smiley so that he smiles at all the commuter to Old Street Underground station.
Here's some photos of the store, come visit us and have fun. We are only here for 2 weeks till the 14th December 2014.
Our store front, yay, baby - we have all your stationery gifts ready for gifting!
Neon pink vinyl menu on the side wall
Our white paper carrier bag packaging. We have received a lot of awesome love from it and great comments. Every one had a good smile from it, we even had a number of offers just to buy the carriers. Pretty flattered.
We love to make you smile - smiley smiling to all commuters to Old Street Underground station! Yipppeee!
It's the gifting season. Gift stationery this Christmas and we will happily tailor your christmas gifts to your budget.
We would like to thank the Appear Here team for preparing and coordinating the lease for us, London Underground to let us make you smile at Old Street Underground station. and Love Print who applied our lovely neon pink cut vinyl.
Harper's Bazaar Christmas Gift Guide
pressCommentYay! Press time. Our Goodies Gift box is featured on Harper's Bazaar Christmas Gift Guide.
