Top Drawer 2014.

And so January 2014 will always be memorable, I did Top Drawer for the first time.

After years and I mean years of dreaming of doing such a trade fair I just went and did it, well not quite that straightforward but hey! 

so here goes, my journey in words.

It takes a bit of thinking getting everything ready for a trade show

sleepless nights spent wondering if I have covered everything.

 Order forms, catalogues, insurance, marketing etc but once you have done one the process starts to get a bit easier. 

I think the best way to approach doing a trade show is to have fun.

Its the one time where you can meet lots and lots of people who share the same interest, a nerd fest for card lovers and designers. Where you can get a first hand view on what people really think about your work and other peoples and make contacts.

Our journey began in Brighton on the Saturday morning at the studio, after loading the car, which involved lugging my boards and other stuff down 3 flights of stairs we set off up to London.

London yeah it gets quite busy up there, we finally arrive at Earls Court at 2 and swiftly unload the car, check into the (not too shabby) hotel 2 minutes away then back to my home for the next 3 days to set up.

4 hours later and I am already frazzled but the hard bit is done, see below :)

Heres me looking said frazzled after setting up.

So I was in aisle C, on my left was Jill from Rocket 68 and to my right Jessica Hogarth, I had read press about Jess and Rocket 68 and knew they were hot property so it was great to be inbetween them. 

Opposite Lou Mills, been exhibiting at Top Drawer for 4 years now and a bit further down the talented Petra Boase, who has exhibited roughly 16 years. She told me she remembers being one of the only card stands at the early shows and now there is a whole section dedicated to greeting cards & stationery. 

Further down the very end of the aisle was a bit of a personal fave the V cool Rosie Wonders and awesome Stop the clock.

Around the corner Tamsin Seed with Studio Seed with the most beautiful boutique stationery and opposite Alison Hardcastle with her sunny simple style.

What a fabulous collection of talented ladies all in such a small area!

Where are the boys...??? well 2 of them were a couple of aisles across where 2 fellow Brightonians were sharing a stand, David of Custard with his collaged cheeky designs and Ashley of LinoKing with his gorgeous hand embossed cards.

Go Brighton!!

Opening day, Sunday, as I walked to the entrance of the show at the back of Earls Court I said goodbye to the sunshine (its not raining which is good) and went into the hall along with TONS of other exhibitors, a stomach full of nerves and excitment, a big deep breath and I am in it, no going back.

The first person I met was Jessica Howgarth, shes great and immediately it was all going to be cool.

We all took a bit of time to chat and settle in and then the show began, I was surprised at how busy it became so quickly and as we all stood there anxiously i the conversations began and order forms came out.

I am not going to go into the details of every day but every day began the same and ended well for everyone around and that is all we could have wished for.

Sauntering past I saw badges revealing buyers from London Zoo, Fenwicks, Paperchase, Saatchi Gallery, MTV, what a crew, and that is not to mention a countless number of artistic business men and women from retailers and the creative industry AND the ones who kept their badges under wraps!!

Me and Jess. 

Jess's laid back line work with simple colour palettes and coastal subjects matter was super fresh on the eye.

Skip to Tuesday, the last day and it feels sad now, the Monday had been exhausting I had just about managed dinner at the funky Troubadour Pub ( some cool bands played there and I am sure will again) and then an early night and so Tuesday was the last day, I decided I was going to try and wizz around the show when it got quiet.

First thing I had a better look around the card section, I loved this stand.

The flowers had all been made by Imogen Owen and were stunning, Imogen I wish I had known of you when I got married, I would have commissioned you you are very talented!!

Across from Imogen was Big Jon with some of my favourite cards from the show.

I love his new floral range below and his Dusty Carr range had me laughing out loud!

© big jon designs.

Finally I made it into MADE section of the show, here there was stunning home ware and I was pleased when I came across the Anorak stand, I remember chatting with Laurie back in 2008 one time when I visited the show, its quite something to see how much her brand AND stand have grown, inspirational stuff.

And so that brings me to the end of my post for now, its been quite a pip and now 16 weeks until the next one I Drew This will be at PG Live again and this time with a bigger stand so lots of new designs to come, better get cracking!!

IGLOO and WATERSTONES!

 What a summer it has been for I Drew This, when I think back to when I first went freelance back at the beginning of 2009 I had no idea what to expect from being freelance and to be honest have found it scary a lot of the time but now I am 5 years down the line I find it incredible the amount I have learnt about what you can do within the industries and how much more there is to learn and I am LOVING it, I wanted to go on a personal journey and here I am I Drew This is going from strength to strength and doing PG Live opened up a lot of doors to new and exciting projects.

It was my birthday on Saturday and we took a day trip up to London to deliver some cards to Igloo, a gorgeous childrens shop on the King's Road and then we popped into the Waterstone's flagship store in Piccadilly who also have I Drew This cards on the shelves.

It is a lovely area and they have a wonderful selection of beautiful and inspiring paper products, worth a trip!

 The fantastic Igloo store below.

I feel so lucky to have been involved with the fairy tale fair, now been going for a year I have been at 4.

This summer I was the first stand in the door and it was lovely to meet and greet regular visitors along with new.

I got some supportive feedback and even got to do half of my wedding place names at the same time, this wedding is creeping up very quickly now!! 2 and a half weeks to go!!!!!!!!!

Blast from the past.

Out and about yesterday doing some research for a new project and there in WH Smiths were some Kevin and Linda designs I did for CB back in the day, good to see them still going strong!!

Wedding update.

Since the show life has certainly been busy with work but now I have to turn my attention to our wedding or else it will be here before we know it, I cannot believe how quickly the year has gone so far so 2 months is going to fly!

Today I went to see the fantastic Barbara at Miss Moles flower emporium and was delighted to see my designs donning her fabulous card rack and we then went on to discuss SOME of the pretty bits of the day, what I thought would be straight forward (the bouquet) I soon learnt isn't let alone what do the boys wear?!?? So my dress, bridesmaids are now well under way, Matts suit is very dapper, now just have some final touches to get under way along with the honeymoon destination I cannot WAIT for that!!!

Tiny Treasures.

Olive and I went to a big Sainsbury's yesterday and was cool to find a range that I did last year called Tiny Treasures on the shelves :)

PG Live 2013 review.

 I am back to Brighton after what I can only say was one of the best experiences of my design life so far. I Drew This was met with so much amazing positivity, I met lots of lovely fellow exhibitors such a talented bunch, lots of people I have worked alongside from my Watermark Publishing and Carte Blanche days along with lots of new stockists and people to look forward to working with in the future too. 

Having never lived in London I loved being a part of the buzz for a few days, travelling to and from the design centre on the busy squashed tubes!!

The team at PG made me feel very welcome and supported and the lunches lived up to their reputation as well, they were indeed delicious.

Doing the show really helped boost my confidence in my artwork and I will definitely be doing another show soon although I may need to focus on our wedding first haha so in the meantime just create lots of new fresh designs :)

Print Pattern support.

How wonderful to see my cards mentioned on Print Pattern this week really getting excited about the show now, a big thank you to Marie for the support, click here to see the full write up.

2 weeks to go...

 PG Live is fast approaching and thank goodness I have had a bit of time on my side with my prep as every job finds its issues, just cant wait to get stuck in and get the first one over and done with, I can only compare the feeling with that of my first driving test (which I failed!!) but at least I had done it and then I knew what to expect next time!!

Press packs...

This week I have been mostly packing up press packs to send out to lovely new stockists, its been a mission, luckily I have an awesome helper!!

Little tweets.

My little tweets balloons, happy birthday x

A break away.

 We got back last night from a really nice break away visitng friends and all their little kiddies, great to get some time out and now very slowly getting back up to speed and reminding myself how much there is to be striking off the list in prep for the show, it was v nice to walk into the studio this morning and find I Drew This listed in the PG Show News.

 Just before we went away I did my first photo shoot with Kate Trevor, Kate is a photography student I met at the Christmas Fairy Tale Fair, it was a learning curve for us both but we got some good shots and we are looking forward to doing some more soon, here is one of my Happiness range which has been going down rather well so far round these parts :)

Oh yes and please do pop over to I Drew This facebook page for a look, Your support means lots x x x

Malarkey.

Just about to drop off a lovely order to Malarkey who have been a great supporter of I drew This since last year and a jolly good way to end the week, Happy weekends to everyone :)

This time last year...

I keep finding myself thinking back to this time last year, over Christmas I had made the decision to build a collection of my own cards and by now I think I had just finished off one range, I am amazed at what I have achieved and now have my initial collection put together wow!!

 so it now puts me in the nice position of being able to build my collection and think about the seasons in preparation for next year so today I gave myself a free day to do some valentines designs and look at designs in my happiness and little tweets collection too, this tied in nicely as had the best night last night with my Fiancee bopping away to Plan b, he is one cool dude...who knows where I will be this time next year...

TOOT!

At the moment my time is being carefully divided between textiles for my agent along with preparation for PG Live, so many exciting things on the boil along with trying to find some new and exciting retailers who might be interested in stocking my cards, is there a retailer near you that you find inspirational? I would love to hear about them...

I Drew This gets gold.

In preparation for Progressive greetings I decided to add my first finish to my real diamond range, up till now I have wanted to keep my cards simple and focus on the illustration but with these designs I do think it adds that something special and was great to finally see my logo in gold.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A very happy new year to all my followers, I am hoping that everyone had a fantastic break :)

After a pretty dreadful end to the year with agent Mysugarcube announcing the company was going into liquidation leaving myself and MANY others unpaid I am looking TOTALLY forward to the 2 VERY exciting events of 2013, PG LIVE and weddings, 4 in August 1 being mine, total joy and Happiness!!

Here is one of my latest Umami designs, he is my proud peacock.

Lets have a smashing week and a super year!!!

Winner!

So in front of our multi coloured sparkly Christmas tree and inbetween painting Olive picked Lizzie M out of my new fluffy duck egg hat!! Congratulations Lizzie please get in touch at ilonadrewthis@hotmail.com with your address details so I can pop your cards in the post :)

Friday Christmas giveaway!

hallo friends I have decided to do a Christmas giveaway 9 Christmas cards all lovingly designed by I Drew This, if you would like a chance to win these then please leave a comment on this blog or go over to my new facebook page and like it!! Olive will do the draw on Tuesday 11th December so I can pop them in the post on Wednesday :) good luck x

Merry Christmas parcels.

Here are some very merry parcels I did for Camden Graphics earlier in the year :)