How to Make A Match Box Advent Calendar

1st 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!

How to Make Frankenstein Frank Halloween Treat Bags

Two days to Halloween! We've got the pumpkins ready what about T-R-E-A-T-S? Yay! Treats!

To hold the treats we have created some Frankenstein paper bag toppers to decorate paper bags with , apt for Halloween parties to fill with sweeties and treats. Something fun for your neighbours, family and friends for the festivities. Trick or treat? Definitely it's a treat from us.  

1. Tools and Ingredients

• scissors - from Tiger
• stapler - from Muji 
• sweets and treats  - we have chosen pretty foiled assorted toffees from Waitrose and our own metallic badges featuring Wallace the Worm , Bart the Bat and Zac the Zombie
• silver party paper bags - any colour will do, we have done it on brown paper bags, stripey bags, they work a treat too! 
• A4 paper to print Frankenstein Frank. Frank can be downloaded here

2. Print out Frank the Frankenstein. You will need one Frank per paper bag.

3. Unleash Frank by cutting him out.

4. Fill a paper bag with sweets and treats. Add a few plastic creepy crawlies like plastic spiders, plastic bats, or eyeball chocolates, sugar mice, denture gummy sweets etc ... if you have them.  

5. Fold Frank in half. Fold down top of paper bag, the height should be around the same as Frank. Matchy - matchy !

6. Place folded Frank over the top of the the paper bag. Staple around Frank's nose to secure the bags. ( Frank already has a few scars, he is just missing a nose piercing. 😊)

7. Repeat steps for more Franks. Et voila! Here are your very own Frank the Frankenstein topped candy bags. Perfect for Halloween treats.  

Happy crafting and Happy Halloween! 👻🎃🍫🍭🍬🕸

P.S. We would love for you to show us if you have done this tutorial by hash tagging your posts with #FrankensteinFrank . Can't wait to see them !

New 3 Pack

We have been enjoying working on collaborations. One of our latest is with The Clever Badger. They are a super duper cute company, based in Kent that sells an array of very fun cards, stationery and gifts. In addition, they have a monthly subscription box of goodies called "Badger Box".

Back in May we started a conversation on working together on a customised item for their themed boxes. (Hooray!!! We are absolutely chuffed to bits.) The theme was Office Life - Working Nine to Five.

To suit budget and the purpose of the gift box, we worked on new packaging for a set of 3 pencils, as our standard size has so far been a pack size of 6.

We are so pleased to see how the new pack size turns out after a few rounds of testing with our peel and seal plastic bag manufacturer in Nottingham, which works at the speed of lightning in terms of turnaround - absolutely awesome manufacturer. A big thank you to them!

Last but not least, the printing of new paper pencil band wrappers to fit the new pack size. YAY! Et voila - we have a new pack size of 3 pencils. 

If you are interested to have your own set of 3 pencils, please contact us via our Contact Us page and we look forward to working together with you on your ideas. 

On Board the London Underground

Choo choo! Our London Underground pencils have been awarded a royalty license registration number by the Transport of London. Hence, the pencils are a licensed product by Transport of London.

In terms of design, we are allowed to include the iconic Underground Roundel logo, and use the specific New Johnston font that is used specifically for London Underground onto our pencils and packaging.

Moving forward, all the new packaging of the London Underground pencils will contain the registration number. Our awarded number is Transport for London Registered User No. 15/5062.

Thank you to the Commercial Licensing team of the Transport of London for guiding us through the royalties process. Yay!

Carsten Höller : Decision

There's always plenty to do in London, but often requires some planning ahead, especially when a large number of activities require advanced booking.

Decisions! Decisions! Carsten Höller's exhibition titled "Decision" is definitely the best decision to plan ahead as an activity to do this summer. (We tried on a June Saturday to see if we can get last minute tickets - no luck). There's a silver lining : soaking up the open air market atmosphere, along with a Pimm's and a stroll along the banks! 

Photo courtesy of Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre for "Carsten Höller : Decision"

The exhibition is never short of FUN and WIT. Ever so engaging that my 12 year old self decided to repossess me again, chuckling with curiosity, wanting to touch everything. As soon as we are allowed to touch something - green lights would definitely flash in my head and hands, gushing "wow" every step I took and of course: pure exhilaration. 

This is truly an immersive exhibition, you can fully engage with the exhibits (or did we transform ourselves as part of the exhibits too)? 

Rarely do we fear of missing out "FOMO", if anything, this will be one of them. So, book your tickets now and don't miss out on the exhibition. It's on from now till 6th September, 2015 at Hayward Gallery, Southbank centre.  

Check out the gift store, that's part of the exhibition is full of very colorful and fun goodies perfectly curated for the exhibition. (There's even chocolate too! Yay!)

We are ever so grateful to Southbank Centre once again. It has been a wonderful collaboration to work together to produce a set of customised pencils sets for such an amazing exhibition! These pencils, namely "Choice Words" are only available at Southbank Centre for limited quantities. Rainbow shades, and meaningful words when making a decision in matte silver foiling. 

If you are unable to make it to the exhibition (which will be a huge shame), you will also be able to pick up these pencils online at the Southbank Centre shop via this link.

Tickety Boo!

P.S. We love every single detail in the exhibition. Don't forget to check out the "Hayward Gallery" building sign on the exterior of the building. Even that has something "changed" to suit the occasion! Delightfully apt.

The Secret Life of The Pencil

Photo courtesy of PaulSmith.co.uk for "The Secret Life of The Pencil" by Alex Hammond . Mike Tinney

This is an open secret that must be shared. From May 20th to June 3rd, the Paul Smith store at 9 Albermarle Street, Mayfair, London, will be hosting an exhibition called "The Secret Life of the Pencil".

"The Secret Life of The Pencil" is a photography exhibition putting a spotlight on the continued use of the humble pencil in an increasingly digital world. 

Stunning (exceedingly detailed photographs) shot by photographer Mike Tinney and creative director Alex Hammond on pencils owned by leading writers, artists, designers such as Sir Paul Smith, Tom Dixon, Stephen Fry will be on display.

Here are snapshots of some of our favourites (photo courtesy of "The Secret Life of the Pencil" http://secretpencils.co.uk). 

Posy Simmonds' Faber Castell Pencil

Sir Paul Smith's mechanical pencil was a gift from Apple Design Chief Sir Jonathan Ive

Tom Dixon's Rexel Blackedge Pencil

During the running of the exhibition, there will be an online auction of some of the photographic prints and some of the pencils in aid of the charity "Children in Crisis".

We absolutely can't wait for the exhibition to open and to see the pictures of different types of pencils in detail, as well as to learn more about the background of the owners of the pencils. 

Details of the exhibition to be penciled in your calendar are as follows :

• "The Secret Life of The Pencil" 
• Date: 20 May - 3 June
• Address: Paul Smith, No. 9 Albermarle Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 4HH

P.S. A selection of our pencils will be stocked at the exhibition in Paul Smith. Yay! 

World Stationery Day

It's World Stationery Day! Hurrah! To mark this date we have taken a witty approach.  

Along with our Venus Flytrap pencil from our English Gardener's Pencil collection, we have styled a photo with a Vintage stapler and staples.

The title of this photograph takes the pun "Venus Flytrap Favorite Food : STAPLES" 😂

Hope you are finding as much fun as we do with stationery! Happy #worldstationeryday!

From the photo above:

1. Vintage Stapler from Youse

2. Venus Flytrap Pencil from English Gardener's Pencil Set

National Stationery Week

This week is National Stationery Week, and World Stationery Day is on the 29th April 2015. So mark your calendars.

The tag line for this year's National Stationery Week is to #getBritainwriting. Sharpen your pencils and get writing - don't forget to add fun in your stationery collection too.

For our own stationery collection, we like a mix and match of Vintage found stationery and modern ones too.  YOUSE, a stationery store which we found online has a good quirky and fun mix of found vintage stationery.

From the photo above:

1. Vintage Lip Pencil sharpener from Youse

2. OMG Pencil from Morse Code Pencils Set