Easter Weekend

I have a full schedule of Markets over the Easter Weekend.  Today was a great day in Queenstown NZ at the Arts and Crafts Market selling lots of goodies, including one of my Over the Rainbow Necklaces which is featured in my latest Giveaway.  Charm bracelets were the favourite of the day so a big thank you to all my wonderful customers and I hope you enjoy your new jewellery.

The sun was shining and there were lots of new stall holders selling all their handmade goodies.  I love it when I get a chance to browse new market stalls and meet other creative people. 

Handmade Crafts Stalls in Queenstown

Mouse Illustration Stall

New Wire Bracelets from Mouse Illustration

The Earnslaw Steam Boat on Lake Wakatipu

Well I am off to bed as I have another early rise for Market number 2.......

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Weekend and remember it's a great excuse to eat lots of Chocolate!!!! :-) x

Jewellery Style

A bit more fun with Handmade Style........

Keep reading for a special offer for Creative Nibble readers only!

Mouse Illustration Teams up with Etsy Fashion

Where to shop for the above items:

Charm Bracelet from Mouse Illustration $40 nzd

French Style Navy Dress from Fleet Collection on Etsy $48 usd *see below for special discount code*

Light Green Wide Leg Pants from Sophie Zhang on Etsy $54.99 usd

Flirty Pleasure Necklace from Mouse Illustration $35 nzd

Special Offer for Creative Nibble Readers only!!! Fleet collection are offering a 15% off discount to my readers on their website, www.FleetCollection.com with coupon code NIBBLE15. Offer expires on 03/31/2012, 11:59 PST.  Happy Shopping!!!

Remember to Enter the Creative Nibble GIVEAWAY competition to win a Handmade Rainbow Necklace from Mouse Illustration.

x

Giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of my new jewellery range and to say a big Thank You for all your support I have decided to host an Amazing Giveaway. Yey!

I you haven't had a peek at my New Range of Necklaces yet then you can do that Here......But now to the exciting part........... 

This GIVEAWAY is now Closed!

I will be giving away one of my Over the Rainbow Necklaces (valued at $45nz dollars) to one lucky reader! The Giveaway is open to all Countries so everyone can enter!

To Enter Simply do one or all of the following:

1st Entry: Leave a comment below on this post telling me what your favourite piece of jewellery from the Mouse Illustration Online Shop is :-)

2nd Entry: Visit my Facebook Page and Click the Like button :-)

3rd Entry: Follow me on Twitter and say Hello if you are feeling friendly :-)


Just remember to come back and leave a comment on this blog post for Each Entry to let me know you have done all or any of the above!

And for an extra special entry share this giveaway with your friends on Twitter and or Facebook.
To make it easy just copy and paste this link :

http://bit.ly/xmko6B

Or hit the Share and Tweet buttons below.

This Competition Winner will be announced on Friday 6th April! 

Good Luck Everyone! x

New Jewellery Range!

First off I would like to apologise for the lack of Posts on my Blog lately.  I am glad to say I have been busy working but thats no excuse so I will be posting more regularly from now on.

The good news is...........I have a whole new page of goodies to buy from my website Mouse Illustration dot com.  I am just so very excited to share my new Handmade creations with you.  I have to say that I am just a little bit in Love with them.......especially with three new special little friends!

I wont hold you in suspence any longer.  Meet my Matryoshka Dolls, Alyona, Natalya and Olesya:

Aren't they super cute? I hope you think so.

They are exclusive to my online shop so they can't be purchases anywhere else.

I also have another New exciting Range of Necklaces that are great for jazzing up your neckline for that special occasion.  I particularly love the Over the Rainbow Necklace.

All my New Products are online and Ready to buy so please have a peek and enjoy shopping!

P.s. Pop back soon for my Latest GIVEAWAY to celebrate my new Jewellery Designs!

www.mouseillustration.com

Vesta Design and Gift Store

I am very proud and pleased to announce that Mouse Illustration Jewellery can now be purchased from Vesta Design and Gift Store in Queenstown NZ.

This is a very unique and adorable little gallery space.  This historic cottage is located right on the lakefront of the beautiful Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.  Many of the original features are still present in the cottage, including the wall paper. This backdrop acts as a wonderful contrast to the wide range contemporary NZ design products that Vesta showcases.  They even have an adorable surrounding garden where you can relax with a coffee and take in the views.

I just love looking around this Gallery as they have such a unique range of artists showcasing their work.

If you live in Queenstown or are just visiting then please make sure you do not miss out on this little gem!  Pop on in for a coffee and cake and find yourself a unique gift all handmade by New Zealand artists.

I am very happy that Mouse Illustration is now a member of the Vesta Design community :-)

You can browse the Vesta Gift and Design Store website here.

Love from a Happy Mouse!

Christmas Gift Ideas

Orders have started coming in for Christmas so I just wanted to share with you what the favorites seem to be, and maybe give you some ideas along the way :-) 

It's hard work deciding what gifts to give, especially to those family members that you have just run out of ideas for!  Well for those book lovers how about a handmade bookmark?  With ten to chose from I'm sure you will find one that suits that certain someone perfectly!

My customers have also been loving my Licorice Delight Bracelet.  Seems to be a definite favorite at the moment, but how about treating someone to the Necklace and Bracelet set for Christmas.

Other Mouse Illustration products that are trending at the moment are my Charm Bracelets and Necklaces, along with my Cupcake Pendant Selection.

And of course the ever popular Love Bunny and my new Jewellery Range
And for those wine lovers in your life you can never go wrong with some wine charms!

Well I hope I have given you some fun ideas for Christmas.  Please remember that all my products are handmade with love and are available to purchase online from  www.mouseillustration.com

Jingle bells Jingle bells............... :-)

All I have to say is..........

Doughnuts!

I don't know if I told you but I decided to go Vegan about 6 weeks ago....

As I live in the South Island of New Zealand I have to say I am struggling to satisfy my sweet tooth due to lack of Vegan products!  I can't find dairy free cooking chocolate anywhere so can't indulge in some chocolate chip muffins!!! I miss them :-( 

Needless to say I have been making treats from clay this week instead of eating them!

Hope you like my latest delight.......my Doughnut Bracelet.  Was done for a bit of fun but I think it's pretty cute :-)

Market Day tomorrow so I'm having an early night tonight! Hoping for some sunshine please! :-)

Have a fun weekend everyone!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.........

Christmas!

Sorry to bombard you with Christmas but you know you need to start thinking about it very soon.  I had a fantastic week with the Wine Tasting Store I am selling my products at placing a re-order of my Wine Charms because they have sold out!

They also asked me to design a special Christmas range for them so I thought I would give you a peek at what I came up with.............

Since I live in Queenstown and the shop caters for a lot of tourists I decided to make a Kiwiana range to keep things cohesive with my products already in store.

I hope you like them and I will let you know how they are selling.  They are also now available from my website along with my other Christmas Decorations. 

Happy Christmas Shopping :-)

Packaging

It has been a busy week here at Mouse Illustration and I just wanted to share my packaging ideas with you today.  Since my product is handmade I like to make sure that the whole Mouse Illustration experience has that handmade feel.

I am still working on my packaging design and I have some new business cards on the way from www.moo.com which I will share with you when they arrive. (I heard about moo.com from my friend Mabel @ www.pinkpigillustration.com who recommended them)  Once my business cards arrive I will make some labels to match but in the mean time this is what I am sending out to my customers who order online.

I wrap the jewellery in tissue paper then put them in these cute little bags that I found on a trip to Brasil.  I like to make them look like a bag of sweets.

Lastly I always like to write a note by hand as I feel that I would appreciate this extra touch when buying handmade.  Each customer appreciates that you have handcrafted the jewellery and I like to respond to their purchase on a more personal note.

I am always looking for new ideas regarding packaging but I hope this gives you a little insight into how I like to interact with my customers.

Maybe you could share your thoughts on what you would expect when buying handmade?

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Business Card

I just wanted to share my new business card design with you.   Any thoughts or opinions are welcome :-)

Front

Back

And just a little reminder about my Giveaway! Entries will be drawn on the 16th October so Good Luck to all who enter x

Amazing Giveaway!

This Giveaway is now Closed.

To celebrate the re-design of my online Jewellery Shop I am going to giveaway a fantastic prize to one lucky winner!  (keep reading to find out more)

The New Mouse Illustration Jewellery Shop is now up and running! It is easier to navigate and has many more delicious products for you to check out. 

New Home Page

The New Jewellery Home Page

It is also more interactive and it is now easier to share you favourite Mouse Illustration products with your friends on Facebook and Twitter from each product page.

So now to the fun part!  I am giving away one of the above Licorice Delight Bracelets to one lucky winner PLUS the Bookmark of your choice!

Here's How to enter!

Simply have a browse around the Mouse Illustration Jewellery Shop and leave me a comment below telling me what your favourite product is!

And for THREE extra bonus entries you can also.....

Bonus Entry 1 - Share your selected favourite product on your own Facebook or Twitter page via my new TWEET and SHARE buttons and come back and tell me in a separate comment.

Bonus Entry 2 - Like the Mouse Illustration Facebook Page

Bonus Entry 3 - Spread the word on your own Facebook and (or) Twitter page about this Amazing Giveaway and let me know in a comment below.  Here is the link http://bit.ly/nTghXV

That's up to FOUR ways of entering the Giveaway so good luck to everyone who enters!

This competition is open to All Countries and will get drawn by random number generator on the 16th October!

Finished Product

Here is the Necklace I made from the Polymer Clay Cane Tutorial I posted a few days ago.

I hope you like the final result :-)

A Change of Opinion

I have a confession to make.  I used to walk past sellers at market stalls and think they were slightly crazy.  Standing outside all day freezing their butts off even getting rained on some days, I used to look at them when they were all fighting to get out their plastic covers to protect everything from the rain and think why don't you just go home?  I feel that I can say this now because now I am one of those crazy people standing out their freezing my butt off!  The difference is now I get it.  I now understand why they stand out there.  It's because they are proud of something that they made themselves and want to share it with people.  Sure there are those who just want to sell something to anyone who will give them a few dollars but most of the people I have met have a genuine love for what they are doing and want their product to go to a good home.

I have an example.  I was at my stall one Saturday when this gentleman came over and started asking me every possible question he could think of about my jewellery.  How long did it take, what it actually costs me to make it, how easy it was etc etc.  The problem was he had already made up his mind about the answers, he couldn't see the time and love that was spent making each charm.  I mean he wasn't being rude and was complimenting the way they looked but I could see that he just didn't 'get it'.  He was convinced I had a production line going that churned out 100 charms a day and thought that somehow they were all the same one sliced into different charms.  Its hard to explain it but I actually make each charm separately, and I really felt that he didn't understand the thought and time that goes into making in each one.  While this man was chatting, at me I will say, this lady came up with her friends and started admiring my work.  Without her knowing the conversation I had just had she picked up on of my bracelets and said how amazing it was that each charm on it was different and she couldn't believe how much work was involved in it!  The gentleman simply smiled and walked away. 

This is the reason I love going to the market every week because when you meet a customer that 'get's it' (and I must say that most of them do) then it is amazing to see their reaction.  Most people that walk up to my stall will have huge smile on their face and that's because of something I have made with my own hands.  So I will get up super early on Saturday morning and load up my car with tables and chairs and umbrella's and stands and I will go to the market in my thermals and freeze my butt off because I actually enjoy doing it.  For now I am one of the crazy people with my plastic wrap packed in case it rains but while I have a smile on my face and my customers have a smile on theirs, I am happy to be crazy for now.

I made some more goodies to replace some bracelets that were sold last week and I have to say I can't stop looking at them. To me they are delicious and I hope you like them to.

They are also available to purchase online at www.mouseillustration.com