Posts belonging to Category New gifts just created

Hello and Happy Handmade Monday to you.  You probably know the drill by now  – but there’s more info here if you need it.

I’ve been playing catch up with orders this week, which always means there isn’t much design time.  However, with requests for several new ideas including spiders and The Stig, I’ve had to get my design side into gear (I’ve just realised there’s a pun there if you look hard enough but maybe you’d need to be a Jeremy Clarkson fan to get it).

painting the stig on a door hanger

This is what I’ve come up with . . .

the Stig door hanger

Introducing The Stig (of Top Gear fame, of course ) . . .

the Stig

And a hairy, red-eyed spider (possibly related to some of the thuggish spiders I find in my studio from time to time) . . .

spider door hanger

on a black background, as per the customer request, which was a bit challenging, although making the spider dark grey with lighter highlights seems to have worked.  The customer requested red eyes – and I think that was a good choice – it makes him look a little spooky and slightly menacing.  Could be a good idea for a Hallowe’en gift!

spooky red-eyed hairy spider

The web and the writing are in silver, which works well against the black.

I’ve started to update the door hangers page on my website – it hadn’t been updated in ages and everything looked so dated.  There’s always a huge sigh of relief here when there’s a web page update done and ticked off the list!

How’s your handmade week been?  Leave your link below so we can pop over to your blog too.

Quite a few people have been asking about a beer o’clock clock, and here it is at last:

beer o' clock clock

It follows in the footsteps of the wine o’clock clock

wine o clock

and the gin o’ clock clock.

gin o' clock

It seems there’s a little bit of a theme going on here!  All these clocks are available here.

If you have any other requests, do let me know!

beer o clock

As always, you can make a request for a bespoke design without being under obligation to buy.  This is how it works:  I make up your design (or a sketch of your design) and email you a photo of it.  If you like it, I send you an invoice for payment.  If you don’t like it, well . . . you don’t need to buy it.  Once you have paid, I add any personalisation that’s unique to you (names, dates, etc) and post it to you.

Unfortunately, because it gets so busy, I won’t be able to take any bespoke requests between mid-October and Christmas.  I can still make minor changes to designs for you though (like colour, size, placement of the image, etc).  Just let me know!

Following on from the VW camper, the VW Beetle clock is now available to buy.

personalised vw beetle clock

Because these clocks are handpainted to order, you can choose your colours as well as choose your own personalised number plate.  The reg plate can be a real vehicle’s plate or it could be a name, numbers or initials.

They’re available in two sizes and are surprisingly affordable for a custom-made vehicle (OK, you won’t be driving anywhere in them, but they make a fab gift!).

You can find out more, or buy one, here.

Do you have roses growing around your front door?  No, me neither, but I won’t let that stop me hanging one of these home sweet home plaques in my hallway.

With the roses growing around the door of the white cottage on this plaque, I can have the perfect image in my head without the prickle of thorns when I have to prune them!

home sweet home

Like everything here at 1st Unique Gifts, these plaques are completely hand painted here in my little garden studio.

I make them in small batches, although no two will ever be exactly the same.

painting a batch of home sweet home plaques

So, whether you do have roses around your doorway or not, if you’d like one of these home sweet home wall plaques, you can order one here.  If you’d like to have one personalised, I can do that too – just let me know!

While the home sweet caravan plaques have been popular this summer

home sweet caravan plaque

there have been a lot of customers opting for personalised versions

Jan and Tim's caravan

I love the fact people can request whatever they like on these

Grandad George's Place

such as names

Howard and ann's caravan

but this one is my favourite, I think:

our caravan rocks

The caravan plaques are available here if you’d like a late summer gift for someone.  Or maybe even something to hang in your own little home from home.

This photo frame makes an ideal gift for a little one starting school for the first time and they are flying out of the studio at the moment!

personalised first day at school photo frame

They can be made with any name

1st day at school photo frame

and in any colour, with a choice of images in the top corner

1st day at school photo frame with butterflies

and in landscape or portrait format.

personalised 1st day at school photo frame for twins

They take a standard 6″ x 4″ photograph and you’ll find more information here.

If you want yours in time for the start of term, do please order as soon as possible as they are all painted to order.  At the moment it’s around 5 working days from order being received to posting out, but that does change quite quickly sometimes!

Oh, and lots of people are ordering the art hangers too – they also make lovely little gifts for children starting school or nursery – and it gives you somewhere special to proudly hang those mini masterpieces!  They come with two wooden pegs on the back for clipping their artwork to.

personalised art hangers

You can even have the children pictured in their school uniforms!

child in school uniform art hanger

You can find the art hangers here.

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get round to blogging about this one!

One of my customers wanted a leaving gift for the nursery her son had been attending.  One of the rooms in the nursery is called the sunshine room and another is called the rainbow room.  I thought they were lovely names for the rooms . . .

and a plaque I already produce

you are my sunshine, my only sunshine

was perfect for hanging in the sunshine room but the customer wanted one for the rainbow room too . . .

so I created this rainbow one at her request.

I can sing a rainbow

The customer very confidently sang the song to me over the phone but I did Google it to double check the wording.  She was spot on!

It does make a lovely plaque so I will add it to the website at some point.  If you’d like me to make one for you too, please just ask!

Because these will be hung in a room where children are playing, I’ve substituted jute string for the wire.  It works just as well and is safer around children.  If you need me to do the same for you, please just ask.

Welcome to another Handmade Monday (More info about Handmade Monday here if you need it).

It’s been a whirlwind of a week for me and during busy times, it’s always hard to find time to actually design new things.  But I’ve made time this week to work on a Beetle design as I had a few requests for these at the recent VW show.

I’d taken a few photos to work from.

drawing Beetle on graph paper

The hardest part in a design like this is getting it symmetrical – so I draw the designs out on graph paper for easy measuring up.  It’s all a bit mathematical at this stage!

making headlights symmetrical

These circle templates help in getting two matching headlights!

drawing circles for headlights

eventually there’s something I can work with . . .

beetle

and before long it gets transferred onto a clock – here it is, almost ready:

Beetle clock

The next step is checking that the customer likes it – I never take payment upfront for a design the customer hasn’t seen.  Only after the customer has given it the thumbs up will it get personalised, paid for and then posted out.  This system has always worked well for me – and (maybe more importantly) for my customers too.

So – what’s your handmade week been like?  I’m looking forward to a bit of blog hopping, so please do leave your link!

Violet, indigo, blue and green,

yellow, orange and red . . .

campervan rainbow

I realised I had painted every colour of the rainbow on my campervan plaques, so I thought they deserved a rainbow-style photograph

If colours of the rainbow are not your thing, they’re available in plain ol’ black and white too.

black and white campervans

And pink.  Of course.

make mine pink

They are available here with any wording you choose and a personalised number plate of your choice.  Let me know if your colour choice isn’t listed.  Chances are I’ve made one anyway – and if not, I can make one just for you.

Or come and see me at Tatton Park this Sunday, 7th August, where I might just have a few special offers for you!

Hello and welcome – if you’re here for Handmade Monday, please leave your blog link below.

I draw the campervans onto each plaque first

My studio is a bit of a campervan factory just now because I’ve booked to have a stall at the VW Show at Tatton Park on August 7th – a week today!  I’ve been painting up to 40 (yes 40!!) campervans a day!  Phew!  I think I may now have campervan burnout!

then I paint them all different colours

The VW show is bit of a departure from the usual for me, and while I’ll still have my usual range of plaques on display, I want to make a feature of the campervan designs and have lots for campervan enthusiasts to pick from.  I’ve also put together a campervan gifts page on my website which I’m hoping might posssibly attract attention after the show too.

I decided to add some new colours to the range

I hope I’ll also have time to look round while I’m there!  Although, if I don’t have time to look round that means I’m busy – and that’s good too .  I’d love to see some of the vans though and maybe get some more inspiration (and photos!).

Of course, I will be offering to add a personalised numberplate to any campervan purchased on the day.  I offer the same online too – if you can’t come to the show but you’d like a campervan with a personalised number plate, then you might like a virtual stroll round my online shop.

To join in with Handmade Monday, leave your blog link via the linky tool – and please remember to link back in your post

PS: I’ve been round to read all the blogs up to now but Blogger won’t let me comment at the moment.  I’ll try and get back to you if I haven’t left a comment yet!

PPS: All sorted, hopefully!