Last Minute Gift - Hand Tie Bouquet

Uh oh! We are due to visit a friend and are stuck for ideas for gifts. Whoops. 😰 Left it a bit too late again.

As we are officially in spring, flowers come straight into mind. We love gifting handmade gifts - to us, it's the personal touch, there is just something magical and touching about it. Something unique, something you have created, your own mark.

Recently in our local supermarket, we have been spotting some really beautiful tulips, they have two color shades on them, a bit like oriental lilies but with a more rounded edge. So why not make a hand tie bouquet since tulips are in season? 🌷

To add a personal touch, we have used our wrapping paper, which is perfect for this occasion as it is perfectly trimmed for small bouquets e.g for half to a dozen of tulips, or roses. Thought about using mini roses too for this bouquet as there was a beautiful orange bunch, but the heart has been stolen by the beautiful dual tone on the tulips. 

This is how we made our bouquet:

1) Trimmed the leaves and ends of the stalks 

2) Blot dry any excess water. If you are traveling a long distance or have a good few hours to go before you pass on your gift. You may wrap a soaked cotton wool with water and bind it with cling film. Making sure the water doesn't seep through the cling film to dampen the paper but enough to keep the flowers moist. 

3) Tie the bouquet with a rubber band

4) Choose and tear a sheet of wrapping paper from the Gift Wrapping paper book 

5) Lay the wrapping paper in a landscape view. Lay the flowers on top about 45 degrees of the wrapping paper.

6) Roll wrapping paper to form a cone around the bouquet.

7) Secure with your choice of ribbon.  

Et voilà ! A little quick and easy handmade gift, (That you made it yourself! High five! 🙌) - a perfect, small personalised present. 💐 

Online with FY

Yay! We are now stocked online with FY http://www.iamfy.co  - a fun, trendy online accessories destination that stocks everything from jewellery, headphones, stationery, nail art, printed scarfs (yum!), and some really gorgeous wooden sunglasses which we are so totally eyeing on.

The styled photo shots on their website are just so fun, and witty. We are ever so thankful that they have made our stationery look so cool on their website, which we have taken a few snippets from their website. Thank you Team FY!

Here's our top picks from FY's gorgeous selection :

1. Diary Necklace in Gold by June T

2. Savannah Zebrano Sunglasses by PALO

3. Landscape Silk Scarf by Marta Veludo

Guess what we will be bagging soon? 

Sow Blooming Plants

Ey up duck! Daylight Savings this weekend, 1 less hour to decide what to plant. SOW... why not follow our guide from our new English Gardener's Pencils Set :

The colours of our pencils are designed to reflect the actual petals and stamen.

The plants and the flowers chosen that are perfect for Gardeners or if you have friends that are interested in botany. This include:

• Poppy (red petals, and black stamen)
• Daffodil (yellow outer petals, and orange inner petals)
• Forget me Not (blue petals and yellow stamen)
• Sweet Pea (lilac petals and purple stamen)
• Cactus (green stem and silver white spikes) 
• Venus Flytrap (green leaves and red flowers)

Have a bloomtastic weekend + P.S. Forget me Not.

London Travel : Weekend Guide : Let our Underground Pencils Guide You

As part our product descriptions, we include a section called "Designer's Random Facts" to detail our inspiration / reason behind our creations.

Traveling is one our favourite past times, (especially via public transport). For our London Underground Pencils, we have picked 6 of our most frequented London Underground stations. Based on the London Tube map concept, we have created an animated gif to showcase some of our favourite hangouts in London, easily accessible for tube, especially for an unplanned weekend.

• Columbia Flower Market on Sunday  - ( Orange Overground Line ) 
• Camden Town Canal Walk to Little Venice - ( Black Northern Line )
• Visit the Shard - ( Silver Jubilee Line / Black Northern Line ) 
• Head to Smack Deli for a Lobster Roll - ( Red Central Line / Silver Jubilee Line ) 
• Refill at Poîlane for a coffee + a tartine - ( Yellow / Green Circle and District Line  ) 
• Cartoon Museum for some comic love - ( Blue Piccadilly / Red Central Line )

P.S. Mind the foiling. Our pencils have the colour of the tube lines and the colour of the interchanges all covered.