Monday 9 December 2013

DIY gift wrap




I love making gift wrap, but it can be time consuming. One year, I painstakingly hand stencilled a sheet with deer, fairies and sparkles...half a metre took half a day. This year, I have discovered a far simpler approach, but with just as brilliant effect. 

Take a couple of rolls of inexpensive brown paper (mine is £1 a roll from Asda, and is a good, thick quailty)- I always think this is instantly Christmassey! And then a couple of these bad boys...

Chalk markers. Intended for non-pourous surfaces, but brilliant on brown paper. 
I haven't chosen particularly festive colours, but they tie in well with the ribbon and tissue paper I have. And anyway, who says Christmas has to be all red and white. 

Next up, stretch out your paper, and begin dotting your pen in a random (or uniform, its your paper!) pattern...


Throughout the roll I change colour, so I can cut different pieces...



Allow to dry well, before wrapping up your gifts!
Its a very simple, quick process, but it turns out really well, leaving room for elaborate bows, ribbons and tags. The chalk dries with a lovely opaque, matt finish, and the brown paper actually looks really expensive. 






Happy Wrapping!

Emma x

Thursday 5 December 2013

Walking in a winter wonderland... Inspiration for the festive season.

Recently, I popped up to London to visit my very good friend Lexi (she writes The Lex Chapter, a fabulous lifestyle blog documenting her amazing adventures). Whilst we were trying very hard to be well behaved (aka, not go on a crazed shopping spree), we headed to temptation alley to test ourselves, Regent Street...

We stopped by H&M to sneak a peak at the newly launched Isabel Marant + H&M collection- or at least what was left of it. Seeing as we arrived at 11.30am, a lot of the stock had already been sold, but there were still plenty of hard core fashion lovers grabbing what they could. To be honest, it was a little overwhelming (even for hardened shoppers like us!), and we couldn't believe the vast quantities people were buying! Deciding that despite the lovely clothes, it wasn't for us , we carried on down Regent Street...



After a quick whizz around the new J.Crew store, we noticed the fabulous decorations in the window...

Giant tassel garlands; gorgeous and perfect for a Christmas decoration. I'm currently putting one together so will post that up soon!

A trip to Anthropologie proved even more inspirational!

Gorgeous glass letters- I'd love having our initials on our tree!


HOW cute are these little fella's?! Definitely something to recreate at home!



Making sure Lex dragged me out before I could buy up the whole store (theres something magical about Anthropologie anyway, but at Christmas?! Wowza!), I made a mental note to have a go at crafting these decorations for our tree this year. Posts on how to coming soon!


Next up, just for pure luxury, we stopped by Fortum and Mason...




look at that bad boy of a chandelier...i won't be doing a post on recreating that!
Roaming around, looking at all the gorgeously packaged food, impecable presentation of tableware and the amazing decorations, we agreed it definitely felt like Christmas ("You can see why the Queen likes it!", quipped Lex). 

The sweet counter!

Admiring the window displays


Love the tiny tree and mince pie selection!

Messing around on the stairs... We may have pretended this was our home at Christmas!





I had a fabulous time with a fabulous friend, and have come home with plenty of Christmassey ideas for decorations to be made! 

Love Em x x


Tuesday 3 December 2013

Christmas is coming...




I love Christmas. Love it. The food, the festivities, the fun...



But what I really love is the spirit and feeling that comes with a really good Christmas. The generosity people show each other, getting together with family and friends, not the must have gifts and blowing your budget on, let’s face it, things that will be forgotten by the New Year. 
Normally I love to shop, and enjoy buying gifts, but this year, I have decided that the Christmas rush just isn’t for me. I don’t want to be shoved and jostled in an overheated shop; there’s no dignity to be found squabbling over the last jumper in Topshop…I want to be cozied up at home, having fun and drinking tea!

 Another concern is the obvious cost- the mounting price of a mountain of gifts combined with the nature of self-employment (film and TV tends to be quiet over Christmas for most), can make Christmas unnecessarily stressful.

Instead, this year, I’m going back to basics. Christmas is the time of giving, and I’m making a concerted effort this year to try and put together some very personal and homemade gifts for my nearest and dearest. Rather than bags and bags of gifts that they maybe don’t even want, I’m concentrating on one small gift that they’ll hopefully really enjoy.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be covering knitted items, soft toys, yummy treats, and the all-important gift wrap and cards. Presentation is key! Then there are the decorations!

This is the first year I have had a home of my own to decorate at Christmas, having either been at my parents, in a shared uni house or away travelling in previous years. I am VERY excited, but trying very hard not to go mad! We’ll be buying a real tree and I’m going to try and make most of our decorations!
To begin the frugal yet fun approach to Christmas, here is a snippet of the gift and decoration list I’m aiming to fulfil.

A selection of chutneys, biscuits and chocolatey goodies for parents and in laws!

A lovely chunky knitted snood, so easy yet so fabulous for my brother’s lovely girlfriend

A hand knitted cardigan and matching hat for my boyfriend’s little sister (we’ve always gone overboard on gifts before- we love to spoil her, but I think it’s especially important we don’t with the children to help them appreciate things).

Handmade Christmas stockings for two new baby cousins in Australia; need to be made soon and sent early!

Hand knitted hats for Grandparents.

Hand made animal toys for children of friends.

Stockings for my boyfriend and I!

A whole mix of tree decorations

Printing wrapping paper and gift tags

Christmas Card ideas


Here’s hoping I can complete it, this blog will definitely be my motivation!

Emma X



Monday 2 December 2013

Bonjour! My very first post...

Hello,

Welcome to Pochette & Paperflower, my new blog, and a creative outlet for all the projects I get up to. 

Having worked as a free-lancer in film, tv and theatre for the past few years, I'm hoping this is the start of my own branch of creativity.

 As much as I have loved the jobs I have done, its always nice to create something that is your idea; hopefully the skills I've picked up along the way will serve me well! 

Working in film and television often means there are periods of frantic, mad work ( 80 hour week anyone?!), and then times when work is quiet and things wrap up (usually around the festive period, and man, do I love it!). 

Currently on a festive rest, I'm hoping this blog will keep me out of mischief (not that I'm naughty, but a girl can't shop or sleep all day everyday...), and I'll begin by uploading a few festive projects soon.

Much love,

Emma