I created a new design page on a whim which has now run away with its self! :)

I have been meaning to get on here for ages and write a post (do all my posts start like this?!) but thanks to the amazing start I have had with http://www.facebook.com/DesignatNo.11 I haven't had a second to do anything else. AT ALL!

My last post at the beginning of March was to announce the winners of my launch competition and since then the weeks have flown by in a blur of logo/banner/business card design and a fabulous amount of support from so many of my lovely likers! Thank you everyone so much!

The problem is I am now 25 weeks pregnant and while I am absolutely loving the design side of my work I can't stay up late enough any more to fit in the crafting side, which I really love, as well as being a mummy to Jack and working full time and (attempting to) keep the house tidy so something has to give a little bit.

So I've decided that from now on I will have 3 slots for design jobs a week (sometimes 4 depending on the size of each job) and will book people in for a slot as and when they get in touch. I hope that's not going to put anyone off and hopefully no one will have to wait more then a week or so for me to get started on their designs but we will just have to see how it goes. If anyone else has had to adopt a waiting list system like this and has any tips they would be very much appreciated!?

But I just wanted to say a big thank you again to all of my lovely customers for trusting me with their business in the first place and recommending me to others as well, I never thought it would all take off as well as it had!

Claire x

And the winners are...

Thank you to everyone who entered my little launch competition! And now to announce the winners, I drew names with the help of my glamourous assistant







And the names of the three lucky winners that he drew out of his fireman's hat were...






And




Well done ladies and so sorry to everyone who didn't win! My lovely logos are still quite reasonable though if anyone is interested in contacting me about one. All prices and packages are on the info part of my Facebook page.

To my lovely winners, please email me at spareminuteproductions@hotmail.co.uk with your ideas/requests. Anything you can give me to help with getting an idea of what you want would be lovely!

Thank you! Claire xx


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i did what i said i was going to do... eventually!

Some time last week I was having a browse around some lovely blogs I know and came across this brilliant idea for a "To Do" list for the kitchen from Little Birdie Secrets.

I am the least organised person in the world and between working full time, being a mummy, running a house and 2 businesses I do tend to forget things every so often. I am also slowly succumbing to the curse of pregnancy forgetfulness to the point where my husband will say something to me and half an hour later I will swear blind that he has never said such a thing to me in his whole entire life (can come in quite useful though!!).

This weekend I finally got around to making my kitchen to do list when I a spare half an hour on Sunday night. I've had a bit of a creative block the last few days but I still wanted to actually make something and this fit the bill.

What do you think?

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Tom has been working away this week so we got a rare family weekend and decided to make the most out of the sunshine at the seaside. One of the things I love most about living on the coast is being able to shoot down the beach in the rare few hours of winter sunshine we get and be home in time to be nice and snug when the inevitable rain arrives in the afternoon!



Jack has his first sleep over last night!! Only next door at his best friend Tyler's house, but I think that is enough for the two of us, we spent the evening listening to them all running around and screaming and wondering if we would get a knock at the door at 2 o'clock in the morning from our little baby wanting to come home... But he's getting so big, "4inapril" as he keeps reminding us, and was absolutely fine, and up bright and early with the others (screaming and thundering down the hall) at half six!

So off we went this morning with a grumpy little man who hadn't had enough sleep for a lovely seaside walk. We went down the see the cannon fired across the harbour at midday and then walked along the beach to the local fish market and bought some gorgeously fresh fish for lunch.


Jack loves going because all the the crabs and lobsters are in a massive tank for him to see and he likes to stare at the bug fish eyes staring right back at him. The boys had a big bag of mussels and I had to make do with some (still very nice) Cod loin and just a dunk of the mariniere juice cause of being knocked up! Just one of the many inconveniences of pregnancy, good job it's worth it in the end!









Now were all snuggled up on the sofa to watch England beat the French in the rugby! Have a lovely weekend everyone x


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who wants a brand spanking shiney new logo for their business!? All for FREE!

To celebrate the launch of my exciting new Design service I am running a competition for 3 of my lovely likers to win a logo design for their online business.

So how do you win such a brilliant prize?! All you have to do is comment below on my blog and next Wednesday the 2nd of March at 7.00pm I will select the winners from all the comments and will post them on Design @ No.11's Fabebook page.

Good Luck and thanks for entering!

Claire xx

I launched Design @ No.11

Today sees the exciting launch of my new design service Design @ No.11...

...my lovely new design service where I will be offering everything from Business Branding and Design to Invitations for Weddings, Birthday Parties, Hen dos, as well as Birth Announcement Cards,Change of Address Cards and anything else my lovely customer would like from me.

As everyone who is a fan of my Spare Minute Productions page knows I love to be creative in any way I can. I have a degree in Illustration and my day job is working fro a local children's charity here in Portsmouth called The Elizabeth Foundation as a graphic designer. I use Adobe CS5 alld ay everyday and so Photoshop and Illustrator are my main tools but I love to hand draw things and then mess around with them on the computer. Such a varied work environment means my style can be adapted to suit any business.

As an online buisness owner myself I know that the thought of having a logo and business stationary designed for you can be a really scary and often expensive option. I am lucky enough to be able to do my own but I wanted to offer that option to others at a reasonable price so have put together a few pricing options:

One off buisness logo design £20.- This includes an initail email cosulation to let me know what you would like and what your business is about/how you would like to be presented. I will then design a logo from the information you give me and will email it to you to be used as you would like.

Logo Design Service £35 - This is the same as the one off design process but I will send you 3 different logo designs to chose from. We can also tweak these a little if there is part of one you like and would like it added to another design for example. I will then email you your chosen logo design once it is complete.

Additional Items £10 -  This includes postcards, business cards, folksy/etsy/online shop banners, letterheads, compliments slips, letter heads, or anything else you would like to order. Feel free to email me images of your products if you would like these to be included in your design aswell. I am happy to use an exisitng logo if you already have one but will charge a £10 design fee for this.

Anything else you would like to commision me to do, please do get in contact, I am always up for a challenge!

Claire x

We have got a picture frame at home that we have had since we moved into our first flat five years ago and found out we were going to have Jack. We were out one day and Tom picked up a black box frame in Cargo, we had all kinds of plans for it, we were going to put Jack's scan piccture in it, his hospital bracelet etc and make a little memory frame of his first few weeks.... turns out being a first time Mum and finishing your degree at the same time is quite alot of work and I never got round to it, so it has sat empty in our spare room all that time, waiting for the perfect project which I have FINALLY found!

I was having a friday afternoon blog reading session when I came across this brilliant idea from Little Birdie Secrets. I'm no way near organised enough to use the menu planner BUT I do love a good To Do List! It makes me calm, I know its sad, but it does!

So this weekend, along with cleaning the house which is all of a sudden filthy, and doing my Spare Minute Productions  orders, I am going to have a go at making this bad boy, will post pictures once it is finished!

Will leave you with some pictures from our night time trip to the beach on Wednesday night. It wasn't exactly what I had been dreaming of all day long (no sun at all, just the moon) but any trip to our special part of the beach is lovely with my boys! The lack of sun didnt seem to bother Jack because he still pulled off his shoes and socks and went for a paddle (and had to be carried back to the car and stripped off from the waist down because the waves got the better of him!)



i window shopped!

In anticiaption of pay day tomorrow I had spare five minutes to have a look around Folksy and Etsy for some supplies to inspire me. Its a beautiful day here in Portsmouth (we havent had many recently!) and so, even though I am stuck at work, I'm feeling inspired to make some lovely, bright, happy bits to go with the weather.

I've wanted to do a wreath that could be personalised for a bedroom door for a while and these gorgeous lillipop spotty buttons from Big Fish on Etsy are just the inspiration I need (along with about a million other things in the shop!!)

So these will be in the shopping basket tomorrow as a little treat, and keep an eye out for a bright and colourful bedroom door wreath, coming soon!

In the mean time I will sit at my desk and dream about spending the day down at the seafront with my boys in what Jack calls "Mummy and Daddy and Jack's special place"!

Spare Minute Productions Design Service was born!

I've been thinking about launching a design service for other online businesses for a little while and, after spending some time on my own bits, I have decided to go ahead and do it! *little nervous wobble*

Im sure lots of you out there are very creative and are able to do your own bits but for those who aren't quite as  handy with a computer I am now offering a design service that can be tailored to your needs and, I think, is fairly well priced. I know alot of people are put off by the thought of spending hundreds of pounds to pay someone else to do their design for them and end up with something that they arent quite happy with.

My service is completely personalised to you. If you have loads of ideas but just arent quite sure how to bring them into reality, or you completely draw a blank when you try to think of how you want your business to look I can help. I can include pictures of your work, or just take a look at what you do and create an idea from the feel of your shop... the sky is the limit!

I can offer:

Shop Avatars
Shop Banners
Business Cards
Postcard
Compliments Slip
Invoice Slip
Letterhead
Logo
Shipping Label
Stickers

There will be a £10 design charge plus and additonal £5 per item from the list above.
The £10 design charge includes conversations about ideas via email so that I can get a clear picture of what you might think you want (or dont want) I will then do an intial design which I will send to you for approval or changes. Up to 4 changes per customer (unless these are very small changes like wording etc.) Once design have been approved you will receive a high res version of your items for printing, use on your website etc.

Please contact me on my Facebook page or email Spareminuteproductions@hotmail.co.uk if you are in need of some lovely designs!

My shop's Spare Minute Productions designs might inspire you a little bit. Alot of  my images are quite bright and colourful so I wanted to keep my backgrounds quite simple, but I can go as spotty, dotty bright as you would like!

Postcard - ideal for popping in with your orders to say thanks to your customers

Folksy Shop banner

have gona a bit dotty!

I picked up these lovely polka dotty new plates and bowls yesterday from Next and have gone a little but spot mad in the last few weeks so i thouught I would have a look round folksy and etsy and find the best of the spotty stuff to share with everybody!

First up, this gorgeous valentines banner from Sugar Owl Design which is absolutely gorgeous and I would probably keep it up all year round.

then this cute little treasure pot from  joyelizabethceramics, she has got some absoltely lovely little ceramic bits in her shop!

This little cutie from Manic Muffin Totes is much better then my littlwe owls, I will have to have a practice!

This sweet little purse from Grace and Firefly is perfect for keeping loose change, cards and keys in on a night out, and I love the pink and brown combo.

and i couldnt blog about dots without featuring the work of Andrea from Polka who makes the cutest brooches, keyrings, bags and bag charms. You wont find anything like these anywhere else!

Right, I'm off to get on with some work, I need to make a sock bag for the boy. He's got an awful habit of taking his socks off while he is watching TV in the evening and then leaving them lying around so they get lost, I am forever searching for two socks to make a pair in the mornings!  So I'm hoping this will solve the problem..... we will see! And then some spring stock to make myself feel a little bit warmer, at least the sun is shining today!

I built an empire!

Well maybe not, but I'm loving starting to see my little business grow! In the last week I have gained about 100 new likers which is absolutely brilliant and a big part of which is down to the lovely crafting community that I have found myself part of on facebook! Thank you everyone.

Our second little baby is due in July so my plan is to use the next few months, and the time I am on maternity leave to build up the business so that hopefully when it is time to go back to work I can go back part time and be home in time for Jack to come home from school (how is my baby starting big boy's school in September!?) If I am going to do that I really must get organised!

I received my first custom order last night which was very exciting, so off we went to Hobbycraft to buy some supplies (for once I got everything I wanted, for less then I expected and didnt have to put anything back or control myself!)  and bought some gorgeous new fabrics...

Which I love and are sooooooooo gorgeous! All I need to do now is find a project that is worthy of them.... I'm sure I will manage! Also on the to do list, more spring wreaths, and some cutie little valentines pressies too, stay tuned, they will be arriving this weekend!

In the mean time I can tick off blogging from today's to do list! yey! Any comments or ideas for the lovely fabrics very welcome!



oops!

So I haven’t been blogging, oops!

I thought I'd better have a bit of a catch up and start the 2011off properly!  Its not been too bad so far, New Years Eve was a lovely one. Midnight consisted of champagne in the street, fireworks and a sky full of Chinese lanterns which was very exciting and just a little bit magical! Im not making any resolutions, I can never be bothered to make them, let alone actually keep them so this year I have decided to make a to do list for 2011 instead, much more positive and proactive me thinks! Sooooo, here it is.....

In no particular order......

- make a pirate quilt for jack's room
- make a snuggly quilt for the living room
- make a baby quilt for our new little one due in July
-get the hall plastered (after we have also added a downstairs toilet!)
- repaint the playroom/workroom and add a bit of personality to it
- become a freelance children's book illustrator
- get my Folksy and Etsy shops off the ground properly and get some regular sales.
- be a better mummy
- be a better wife (im not tooooo bad at the last two but  there is always room for improvement!)

So its going to be a busy busy year but it is definitely going to be a good one!