Paper | Petal & Pins

January 12, 2018

Pussy Cat Pussy Cat Where Have You Been

vintage postcard I discovered this postcard amongst some things at my mother’s house last year.

Sent to my grandfather when he was five, it’s postmarked December 23rd 1917 and the handwritten greeting from an aunt is delightful.

With good intentions of letting those playful kittens deliver a Christmas greeting again I photographed the card so it could arrive in a very different type of mailbox via this blog – 100 years after it was first sent!

I pondered where one of our petal & pins greeting cards may turn up a century on from now and thought it was the perfect example of why a handwritten card will always be so much more meaningful than tapping out a text.

So my apologies for it being belated – I hope you had a jolly Christmas and Best Wishes for 2018!

Sandra X

May 29, 2017

Moments In May

Another month is drawing to a close – where did the time go! Here are a few moments in May to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It started with a trip to Adelaide for the Bowerbird Design Market, a fun three days to showcase all things petal & pins, chat with familar faces and new amongst the market goers, catch up with other designer makers and have a glass or two of South Australian wine… envelopes

when we got back we couldn’t put it off any longer – we needed more envelopes – that’s 5000 sitting on our doorstep…so I’ve been ‘sleeving’ cards… Autumn patterns

I started @thehobarthaberdasher on instagram to sell some of my sewing stash…fabrics, trimming, beautiful laces – if you’re a sewer or crafter take a look, I’m happy to post world wide!

petal & pins greeting card and quinces

and while I’ve been giving away bags of apples from our garden, someone gave me quinces from theirs. With a supply of homemade quince jelly from last year I decided to just use them decoratively – a large bowlful on the dining table and that lovely yellow was perfect for a photo prop with my banksia rose greeting card don’t you think? handmade postcards

I did a ‘Postcards Over the Edge’ Workshop with Tasmanian artist Lynne Fellowes at the Schoolhouse Gallery – a fun and creative way to spend a day with a couple of friends…

cherry tree in autumn and I’ve watched the cherry tree turn golden and loose it’s leaves…so in the garden I’ve been sweeping and raking.

What have been some of your Moments in May?

1 Comment

March 12, 2017

Challenge & Inspire

International Womens Day 2017

I celebrated International Womens Day by chatting to my dear friend Deb on the phone while we both had a cup of tea – it’s a bit of a tradition now that we do this on International Womens Day and you can read about how this tradition grew in my post Serendipity & Teacups.

I’ve met and been inspired by a lot of amazing women over the years teachers, colleagues, customers and peers and I met a whole new bunch of amazing women recently when I attended Katie Hunt’s Paper Camp in Los Angeles.

Paper Camp Tradeshow Bootcamp is a 2 day workshop for small independent stationery designers wanting to wholesale their designs in the US and thinking of showing at the National Stationery Show trade fair in New York – (a girl’s got to dream!)

It was all sorts of amazing – the practical and insightful program delivered by Katie and the other wonderful ‘camp councillors’ generous with their knowledge and experience , the open armed friendliness and conversations with the other ‘campers’ over meals and a wind down glass of wine each evening.

Two days of stationery talk and learning with other people as passionate about it as me was more incredible than I could have imagined and importantly SO useful for turning ideas and dreams into plans and moving forward.

Our list of stockists is growing and this year includes our first UK one! – Atelier 19 in Chelternam and a new US one, Lavender Hill Florals in Indiana so if there isn’t one near you yet hopefully there will be soon.

To see if there is see our stockists list or browse our range on the petal & pins online shop – we ship worldwide!

PS. the lady with the violet hat is from our new Atelier Pétale range and of course the perfect floral choice for International Womens Day!

3 Comments

February 6, 2017

Loose Threads

I’ve been wanting to make some handmade paper again for ages.

I’ve been collecting loose threads from silk fabric scraps to add to a recycled paper pulp mix, storing the lustrous strands in a heart shaped chocolate tin from Maxim’s De Paris until I had that elusive spare moment to do it.

Sunday morning I finally got around to it having decided that soaking some shredded old bills and correspondence earlier in the week would be a way of prompting that elusive spare moment to appear!

I went for a fairly rough mix – I like how you can spot the odd hint of a typeface and I also threw a handful of geranium petals in…and some glitter too!

6 Comments

December 18, 2016

Free Xmas Gift Tags

petal-pins-gift-tags

I’ve designed a few decorative things for Christmas 2016 including gift tags which feature my vintage wooden reindeer bought years ago on a Canadian adventure with a garland of flowers from my garden.

I’m giving a free set of printable tags to subscribers of the petal & pins online shop newsletter so if you would like to receive them (perfect for making sure you don’t get caught short when doing any last minute xmas eve wrapping!) you can subscribe by going to this link –

petal & pins newsletter + free xmas gift tags

February 12, 2016

You Make Me Smile With My Heart

For ~~weeks~~ months we’ve been busy preparing for petal & pins debut at our first ever trade fair next week in Sydney and if that wasn’t excitement enough, tomorrow we have our first design market appearance for 2016 at The Barn Market.

Being the day before Valentine’s Day there is sure to be a little love in the air and I’ve been making paper ephemera love tokens to sell along with the Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe cards and prints.

paper ephemera

I chose our beautiful Elliot Erwitt’s Paris book to style a photo with. On a trip to Venice a few years ago we saw a wonderful exhibition of this famous photographer’s work at the La Casa Dei Tre Oci gallery on the island of Guidecca.

My love tokens have various little salutations, some romantic, some cheeky!

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I dedicate this post to Mr Petal & Pins – as Ella Fitzgerald sang in My Funny Valentine – ‘you make me smile with my heart’.

PS. Let’s go to Venice again!

Sandra X

7 Comments

October 17, 2015

A Bag Of Grapes

I’ve been making paper cut signage for my market stall inspired by the class I took with paper cut artist extraordinaire Miso last year.

Mr Petal & Pins translated this design into a rubber stamp for paper bags.

The stamp arrived just in time to use for the Spring markets, along with an abundance of grape hyacinths in the garden to decorate my stall and create some new dresses for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

Now we’re making plans for Xmas markets including traveling to Sydney for one!

You can find a list of market dates and card stockists here.

7 Comments

September 8, 2015

fleurs en papier

I was going to photograph my Spring garden today but it’s raining.

Instead I ‘m sharing with you my ‘Paris Flowers’ that I made earlier in the year.

I called them this inspired by the combination of soft pink wash I painted on the paper and black satin ribbon bows that form the sepals.

Paper flower making seems to be having a ‘moment’ by the stream of gorgeous ones appearing in my instagram feed lately.

There are some exquisite ones by artists making them from crepe paper, special crepe paper mind you not the flimsy bright coloured stuff of kindergarten craft memories.

I think though my métier is for using real flowers for my garden fairy dresses so my fabric scissors are safe from being given over to paper anytime soon.

4 Comments

Category: Paper

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: