Craft Night

As I have mentioned before, once a month I meet with my lovely London girls for a craft night. Tonight it was my turn to host it and we learned how to make fabric iron-ons. Unfortunately, two of the girls, Steph and Amy, couldn't make it but we had a new entry in the gang, my hippy grandmum who provided some free entertainment. 

The table was full of colourful fabrics and cards. We made fabric iron-ons and decorated tote bags and greeting cards. I had a wonderful time, thank you girls!

Turning 33

On July 17th I celebrated my 33rd birthday! 

I have been celebrating every single birthday of my life since year 1. When I was little my parents used to organise afternoon parties at their house with friends and family. When I grew up I took the lead and organised my own parties, with their help, of course. Before I moved to England, I usually organised evening parties at my parents' garden. Then, even if I wasn't living in Pescara anymore, I still tried to go home for a couple of weeks in Summer around the time of my birthday and I celebrated a couple of times at the beach or at other venues. The last few years, instead, I have celebrated in London with a barbecue, a pic-nic at the park and lavish dinners. This one has definitely been the mellowest birthday celebration, but fairly so given my level of energy.
The day started with a lovely breakfast prepared by Rob: cappuccino and English muffins with Nutella. Rob had decorated the kitchen with Union Jacks bunting and bought coordinated napkins. It was lovely. Then he went to work and I spent the day at home relaxing. I was still off work so I went from the bed to the rocking chair to the couch to the chair outside on the balcony. I get tired so easily these days that I can hardly stand up. The real celebration happened in the evening when Rob took me out for dinner. It's not easy to dress up with this big bump, but I did my best.

Rob chose a very nice restaurant just two minutes away from our flat, Chop House. The table they reserved for us was perfect and with a stunning view of the Tower Bridge. Dinner was simply delicious and we were even lucky enough to be entertained by the opening of the Tower Bridge. We spent more than two hours in the restaurant and then back home where Rob asked me to lock myself in the bedroom as he needed to do something in the kitchen for me. Surprise surprise, a birthday cake with candles was waiting for me on the kitchen table! You are never too old to blow birthday candles!

Next to the cake was also a little blue Tiffany bag. I got so excited! That was my gift, a lovely pearl bracelet.

I already have the silver version of it, a present from mum and grandmum from a couple of years ago. Now I hope to increase the collection! I like all these three, for example. I think they would look very nice all together.

Anyway, another year has gone and next year there will be a little someone next to me who I am sure will enjoy blowing the candles for me and opening my gifts!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, cards and presents. Love you.

New Project

I have just bought this Martha Stewart Doily Lace puncher and can't wait to work on my next project.

I want to make beautiful cards like these:

Ashley Pahl has an amazing esty shop, one of my favourite, full of cute and lovely items. Lots of inspiration there!

Valentine's Day - My fabric cards

And now, my cards...

{Two Hearts}

{Strawberry Heart}

{Love Set}

Do you like them?

Valentine's Day - Letterpress Cards

Valentine's Day is about a month away but hearts and heart shaped objects seem to be everywhere already. I am working on my Valentine's items and while browsing for inspiration I could not avoid to notice these beautiful letterpress cards. Aren't they lovely?

{FatBunnyPress}

{finedaypress}

{penelopespress}

{tuttaloupress}

New at valeasc

It's a lovely Sunday morning, it's very sunny out and I feel regenerated after a long night sleep. Rob is not feeling well these days, unfortunately, so we are home resting. I take this opportunity to update my etsy shop.

I have just listed two new items, go have a peak! The gift tags are a colour variation of my quite popular red and white, balsa wood gift tags. Do you like them in lilac too? While the pom poms and doilies cards are something I have had in mind for quite a while but I had never had the time to work on. What do you think? Aren't they super sweet? They would be lovely for a baby shower, don't you think?

Happy Sunday to you all!

Never Give Up

Just saw this on Design is Mine. Remember my recent post about me trying to figure out who I am? Well, I think I really needed to look at this notecard today. Thanks!

October Giveaway

Can you believe it's already October? Where did Summer go? I want it back!!!
Today the sky in London could not be grey-er and more depressing and it has been raining since early this morning. I need something to cheer me up!

As promised a little while ago, it is now time for another valeasc giveaway.
It's almost that time of the year again and since I am getting ready to go to The States, I thought it would be appropriate to devote this month giveaway to halloween.
So here it is for you: a set of six happy halloween cards. from my little shop . The cards feature an original valeasc design, printed both on front and back, while the inside is left blank for your own message.

Not so much into ghosts and monsters but still a big fan of halloween? These cards may be for you then!

For a chance to win please do one (or more) of the following things:
1) follow my blog
2) leave a comment to this post
3) follow me on twitter (valeasc)
4) tweet about it (and let me know!)

All by Wednesday 6th. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on Thursday morning.

Good luck!!

Not successful, but fun!

As some of you have been asking about last Saturday fair, I figured I would write a little post about it to sum up the events of the day.

As you all know, I was VERY VERY excited to be at this We Make London fair. It was my first experience and didn't really know what to expect.

Well, we booked a taxi to pick us up at 9.15am. The fair was held at Chelsea Old Town Hall, in King's Road and we live in the London Bridge area. It only took us 10 minutes to get there, so we decided to have breakfast, well our second breakfast, in a cafe' nearby. At 10.00 on the dot we are heading to the Hall. Lots of girls with big boxes and bags are all around, it's a sign that we are in the right place.

Chelsea Old Town Hall looks beautiful and there are so many crafters around, I am overwhelmed! And scared...I look around and all the stalls look so professionally set up, you can tell it's my first time! My supporters, Rob, Ilaria, Elena and Amy, keep telling me that my stall looks great but I can see the others, and they are better, much better! Lots of inspiration for next time :)

The weather was just glorious and as we feared, there were not many people around. I bet all Londoners were at the park! I would have gone to Regent's Park myself if I didn't have to be there! My good friends Mike and Natalie came by too, which was super nice, and it was very good to have a chat with them.

Despite the paucity of visitors and activity, the day went by very fast and I had lots of fun! I was very lucky to be surrounded by best friends and to have two lovely girls as neighbours, both stalls looked amazing. I met very talented artists and brilliant people. Didn't sell much but it was wonderful to be in such an inspiring place surrounded by beautiful handmade stuff.

I am now looking forward to the next one...

valeasc summer fair

Hi everyone!

I am delighted to invite you all to my first stall sale! My hobby is about to become more public! valeasc is taking part to the "We Make London" fair this June, in London. Details on the invite. If you are in London, please come by to say hello and show your support! If you are not in town, I would really appreciate if you could spread the word!

Many thanks,
Vale

I would like to hear from you

{16 gift tags}

{happy birthday cards}

{two birds love cards}

I have worked on a couple of new designs recently and would like to hear your comments.

Do you like them? All three are available to buy in my etsy shop, spread the world!

Congratulations

{photo from flickr}

And the winner is .... Amanda Barnes who said: "These cards are adorable! I'd love to win :)"
Congratulations Amanda! I will be in touch soon.

Thank you everyone for playing! Next giveaway coming up soon...stay tuned!

New Giveaway

{Picture taken with the help of my colleague and friend Mike Priddy. Check more of his work here.}

Yes, it's time for a new giveaway!
It has been a while since valeasc has offered a giveaway and thought this could be a good moment.

valeasc is happy to give away a set of six beautiful thank you cards. A modern, sleek and cute valeasc design is alchool-free printed on white, 350 gsm paper. Together with the cards you'll receive six matching brown-chocolate C6 envelopes.

More pictures here.

For a chance to win, please post about this on your blog, tweet, comment below and spread the word! You have time until March the 6th to leave me a comment. A winner will be chosen at random on Sunday the 7th.

Good luck!

Paper doilies

New at valeasc. Set of three colourful A6 folded cards embellished with white paper doilies. Available in my etsy shop.

Pictures taken with the help of my colleague and friend Mike Priddy. Check more of his work here.

Figaro qua, Figaro la

My dream car, Nissan Figaro! Check it out here.

That special place in your heart

Currently loving the works by Bombus.

Is there a special place in the world that is particularly meaningful to you? The place where you were born, you grew up, you went to school, you had your first love, your favourite holiday town, your happy spot in the world? You can't go back there that often? Then, frame it in your heart!

See more of their product here.

We have a winner!!

Many congrats to Lucia who is the winner of this giveaway!
I will send the cards later this morning and hope you'll receive them on time for Xmas!

December Giveaway

It's time for another giveaway and what better time than Xmas for a gift!

The giveaway consists of set of 5 humorous (and useful!) Xmas cards with red envelopes.

The outside of the card reads:

All I want for Christmas is you

and a thousand other things (check wish list on my blog)

Decorated with three little modern black trees and printed on metallic sheen paper.

Hand it to husbands, boyfriends, relatives and friends who after many years can't still get what you really like!

For a chance to win leave me a comment by Tuesday the 15th and tell me what's on top of your wish list this year...

Good luck!

More pictures here

The cards are otherwise on sale in sets of 10 in my etsy shop

All I want for Christmas...

My Christmas cards are finally ready!

I am particularly happy with this one...probably because I can relate to what it says :)
"All I want for Christmas is you
and a thousand other things (check wish list on my blog)"

It's a funny, humorous, and useful card to hand to husbands, boyfriends, friends and relatives who still don't get what you really like!

Available to buy in my etsy shop.

More cards to show you soon...

Congratulations!!

Beatrice is the winner of this giveaway. Many congratulations!! Will soon send you the cards.