New Name, New Website, New Blog

There have been some changes here at HQ and I have a new company name which is now Red Berry Cards.

Thanks to all who have followed and read this blog and I am sorry that the posts have been so few and far between recently. I hope you will stay with me and follow on the new blog which is in my new website www.redberrycards.co.uk 

Take care and thank you once again.

Nicole

Spring Fair and New Designs

Finally recovered from last week's Spring Fair. A big thank you to my husband Richard for all his hard work getting the stand together.

On Sunday at the show I was lucky to be able to attend the announcement of the total raised from the Action Medical Research Charity Cards that I was a part of last year. They raised an amazing £18,148! Thank you to everyone who bought the cards

All in all it was a long week and a little quiet at times but hopefully some of the leads will be worth it in the end so thank you to everyone who came to see me.

At the show I launched a few new ranges the first being 'Just Saying'. A range of 20 occasions cards printed on a good quality brown kraft board using white ink with a splash of colour. They are 150mm square, come with a choice of brown kraft or white envelopes and wrapped in cello.

I also launched three sets of mini cards each with eight designs from the popular 'Metro', 'Mad About' and 'Marigold' ranges, 125mm square with a brown kraft envelope and wrapped in cello.

 You can view all the designs at www.redberryhill.co.uk. To order please email info@reberryhill.co.uk.

Spring Fair 2015

oooo its nearly that time again, Spring fair is almost here. Deadlines have been very tight this year but all the new designs are ready to go and the stand is planned, a few last minute things to do but basically I am ready!

The show starts at 9am on Sunday 1st Feb and runs through until Thursday 5th Jan. All the information including how you can register for a free ticket can be found here www.springfair.com so please pop by and say hello and check out all the new ranges!

Happy New Year

I hope you all had a great Christmas. I thought I would start the new year with a look back at 2014

It got off to a busy start when I exhibited for the first time at Spring Fair. It was a great fair to do and I am already planning for this year which starts on 1st Feb at the NEC in Birmingham.

Launched two new ranges Jubliations and Top Dog

Exhibited for a second year at PG Live, always a great show!

Was asked to design a Charity Christmas Card for Action Medical Research by Lynn Tait

Had my very own Pop -Up-Shop for a week on the North Norfolk Coast

Attended the Ladder Club Seminar an invaluable day for greeting card publishers

Finished the year off with the Ely Cathedral Christmas Gift and Food Fair

Thank you for all your support throughout the last year, lots of exciting plans for next year so here's to 2015!

Action Medical Research charity Christmas cards now on sale!

Back in February I was asked to design a Christmas Card to help raise money for Action Medical Research. Twelve Artists from the Ladder Club were chosen by Lynn Tait and the cards were launched at PG Live back in May. You can read all about the launch here.

Christmas Cards Launched at PG Live 2014
Image by www.eddiemacdonald.co.uk

I was asked to design a card with a cycling theme, so liked the idea of a bike piled high with presents off to make deliveries. 

'Deliveries' - © Red Berry Hill 2014

You can now order these cards in packs of 5 for £3.50 from the Action Medical Research website with every penny going to the charity.

Money raised will help fund medical research into conditions affecting babies and children. Medical research can save and change children’s lives. Yet surprisingly, medical research into conditions that devastate children’s lives is poorly funded. Action Medical Research is currently supporting work around stillbirth, epilepsy, meningitis, cerebral palsy and brain cancer, as well as some rare and distressing conditions that severely affect children. 

I feel privileged to have been asked to be involved in such a great project for a worthwhile cause and be in the company of some great designs. Please choose Action Medical Research for your Christmas cards this year and remember all of the £3.50 goes directly to the charity. www.action.org.uk/christmas-cards

Something new!

In the summer I ran a competition at my local fete to win a portrait of your dog as a digital illustration in the style of the 'Top Dog' Cards. 

I really enjoyed producing it, here is the finished product, the owner loved it.

Copyright Red Berry Hill 2014

I was then asked by another family to do one for them which they were thrilled with.

Copyright Red Berry Hill 2014

So I have decided to start offering this as a service which is something new for me. 

Produced from your own photograph this unique print is digitally illustrated and mounted in an oak frame. Print size - 150mm square. Frame size - 250mm square and printed in the UK.

£39.50 plus £4.99 p+p (1st class signed for UK mainland only)

Please allow 2-4 weeks delivery

Email info@redberryhill.co.uk if you would like more information.

A week in the life of a (pop-up) shopkeeper

Back in June this year I received a tweet from Dalegate Market. 'Have you seen our Pop-Up-Shops?' I thought this sounded interesting so decided to go and have a look. 

Dalegate Market is a small shopping complex situated on the on the North Norfolk coast road between Hunstanton and Wells-next -the-Sea. It features shops such as Fat Face, Gone Crabbing, Relish Boutique, The Hare and Hen Gallery & Craft Shop, One Stop Nature Shop, Norfolk Hideaways, Deepdale Bike Hire and Deepdale Cafe.

Also on the site is Deepdale Farm which offers self-catering accommodation, independent hostel, campsite, group hostel and glamping (tipis, yurts & shepherds huts). 

For the first time this year they had decided to erect four colourful Beach Huts on the site to rent out as pop up shops to small independent companies for a week at a time during the summer months. I know and love that part of the Norfolk coast very well so thought it would be great place to have a shop, plus the idea of having my own little place for a week sounded a bit different and very exciting.

Photo Dalegate Market

After a bit of research I decided to book a slot and the last week of August was free. 

I arrived on the Weds afternoon was shown to my little hut which was really spacious and pink!

Now those who know me would expect at this point to see a scale mock up version of the hut with everything in place to make my life easier. BUT on this occasion I decided to just see what happens when I got there, not a good plan as all in all it took 5hrs to set up after moving tables into every position I could think of, lesson learned there I think!

I opened the shop on Thursday morning full of anticipation. There were a lot of people about and sales went well. I also had a few enquires about trade orders too. The next couple days were much the same, although the Sun, Mon and Tues was less busy because of the end of the school holidays. 

Hand screen printed bags with notebooks

Seaside postcard prints

Seaside postcards

Pug print

Most of my customers were dog owners, (I was in my element with all the sweet dogs to fuss!) so it was a great marketing exercise for my Top Dog range of cards. Everyday I looked at how well they had sold and put the top selling onto Facebook and Twitter which showed some interesting results which were as follows: 

Thursday's Top Dog was the Pug 

Friday’s Top Dog was the Whippet 

Saturday’s Top Dog was the Border Terrier 

Sunday’s Top Dog was the Chihuahua and the Springer Spaniel 

Monday’s Top Dog was the Border Collie 

and finally Tuesdays Top Dog was the Golden Retriever 

It was interesting that no two days were the same. Also the coasters, badges and magnets with the ‘Top Dog’ designs on went down very well too.

All four of the huts were rented out so it was nice to have some neighbours all of who were very different so gave some variety to the shops.

Photo Dalegate Market

Crafting Alison and Gemma’s Jewellery Box shared a hut and offered some lovely hand crafted papercraft items and jewellery

Crafting Alison & Gemma's Jewellery Box

Crafting Alison

 Gemma's Jewellery

Daniel Sa Designs offering unique hand made plaques from reclaimed wood. Photos on wood; the image becomes part of the wood with a special technique that takes up to 48 hours soak in.

Daniel Sa Designs

Daniel Sa Designs

Polly's Feltz only joined us for three days over the weekend a cottage craft industry with felted handbags and accessories designed and handmade by Polly.

Polly's Feltz(Photo Dalegate Market)

Polly's Feltz
(Photo Dalegate Market)

The owners of site site were extremely helpful and nothing was too much trouble. All the huts had electricity and free wifi which was good as I had bought my card reader along for the larger payments. The huts are situated at the back of the site and the team at Dalegate did a great job of promoting us on Facebook and Twitter and made signs and leaflets for the cafe tables to tempt people to come and see us.

Also on the site was a great cafe Deepdale Cafe with yummy breakfasts, pastries, sandwiches, coffee and hot chocolate!

If you are interested in a pop up shop then contact the team at Dalegate Market. All the information can be found on their website www.deepdalefarm.co.uk  They also have a popular Christmas Market every year which is on the 6th and 7th Dec this year, a great day out to get all your Christmas gift shopping done.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience of being my own shopkeeper for a week and hats off to all shop owners out there. Everyone I met gave me lots of positive comments and I made some great contacts too.