Monday Morning - Shop Update!

Good Morning!

Just a quick update this morning to let you know that the Mr Yen Christmas cards are now available for purchase - perfect if you need to send your Christmas cards out early. Also, the existing Mr Yen hand cut cards are now available with a lovely red insert, just for the festive season!

I hope you have a great productive Monday! See you back here tomorrow for an Inspiration Tuesday post where I will be talking about visual thinking.

Monday Morning

Good Morning!

I hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday weekend in the UK! Today I will be having a day of planning a few things for Christmas and putting a few finishing touches to the August Mr Yen newsletter, which will be sent out on Wednesday. As it's a bank holiday, I thought you might like to have a read of last weeks posts if you didn't have time to read them earlier....

Inspiration Tuesday

I posted about my Flickr Favourites.

WIP Wednesday

A new papercut that I created in a Papel Picado style for an Exhibition piece.

Thursday Finds

Paper craft and music videos with Petra Storrs & Paloma Faith.

Feature Friday

Five From The Ground - great photographs, styling and wire sculptures.

(the image above is of the new Letterpress thank you cards included with every Mr Yen order!)

Monday Morning - New Beginnings

Hello!

It's a new month and a new week, which means a new to do list with lots of things coming up this month! The Mr Yen newsletter is going to be sent out later today, with a free desktop calendar and a little treat to do with the Mr Yen stationery. You can sign up here to find out what the treat is when the newsletter goes out later today!

A little peek of whats coming soon!

I also thought I should update you on my development so far on my #SixMonthPlan...

* I'm in the process of arranging two Christmas window displays for this year! (one in Edinburgh and another in London!)

* I have been contacted by some very interesting people to create a few paper goodies for a wedding photo shoot.

* I have a potential new stockist in Canada

* I'm finishing up my application form for the Arts market in November to send out this week.

Still on my list, to achieve before the end of the year...

* A papercut book cover design.

* A papercut illustration for a cosmetic company.

* A few papercut illustrations for some editorial work.

* To create a papercut installation.

* To have my work displayed in a local business as an installation or art piece.

* To work with a paper company to promote their business using my papercuts

I am still working towards these goals and would love to secure more of them by the end of this month, so if you have any information on how to go about creating/doing any of these things I would appreciate any help I can get...you can send me emails here - and if you would like me to create any of these things for you, you can see my portfolio website here and get in touch here.

Have a great Monday and I hope you're having a great start to the month!

{Monday Morning}

Good Morning!

I hope you're all having a nice day on your last day of the long weekend! Today I will be making a start on designing and planning all the Mr Yen Christmas products for this year. I have given myself a deadline of just a week to get everything designed and ready to be made up for photographs. This year I have a few ideas for some letterpress items, some prints of some detailed papercuts and lots of festive papercut products - with maybe even a 2012 calendar! (I'm thinking letterpress mixed with papercuts)

Oh, one last little thing....the Mr Yen Newsletter should be sent out today (I know, a day late), with a free desktop calendar (using an image of some of my experimental papercuts) and a gift tag tutorial! If you would like to sign up, you can do so here.

Anyway, I have a busy day ahead of me so I best get on with it - I hope you can have a more relaxed Monday than I will be having!

A Quick little update...

Hello! I hope you're all enjoying a day off work for the Royal wedding today if you are in the UK.

It seems a bit out of the blue, but I have been thinking recently about what my title and direction is with my artwork & designs...

Designer...Artist...Maker?

I am comfortable with all the above titles and roles but haven't really embraced any of them fully. I feel as though I have only focused on the maker side, with a few hints at the design side of my work, so now I would like to delve into the art side of my work.

What Direction?

I would love to create some larger scale papercut pieces that are very limited edition or one offs & I have wanted to make make more art type pieces for a while, but always felt as though art ensured less income than design, which I don't think is necessarily true as pricing is so different due to the nature of one off pieces of artwork.

Designer?

I still love design and would love to get more work with big clients (like I did here with Lynx) it is just a matter of creating more commercially viable work that could be used in things such as ad campaigns like this one that I love! (by Kate Forrester) and getting it seen by the right people.

Artist?

I feel I have potential to create larger art pieces as I would love to spend a long time focused on one giant, detailed papercut piece, plus I feel as though this would also generate more income, because lets be honest that is important too! I have to remind myself that this is a business sometimes as it feels great to be working daily on things that I love, which never feels like work!

Whats Next?

I will be starting the new project I mentioned here on Monday, I will be sending out the second Mr Yen newsletter on May 1st and I will be keeping my shops open and running (Big Cartel, Etsy, NOTHS) while starting work on some designs for a large on off papercut. I am also starting to design things for events later in the year, such as Christmas products for the shop - more on this later next week! (Yes Christmas already!)

{Monday Morning}

Well it certainly has been a while since I last posted something here! Hope you are all doing well and getting prepared for Christmas. Here (in the UK) there has been lots of snow - so deep that when Toby goes for a walk all you can see is his head and back! I have been so busy recently with freelance design work & making lots of orders, but as time is running out in the run up to Christmas, I thought I would post a little reminder of the last dates that things can be posted out to get to you all in time for Christmas.

The last dates for custom orders was:
Tuesday 30th of November (sorry if you missed out!)

Last dates for shipping in time for Christmas:
UK:
Monday 20th of December:
1st class

Wednesday 22nd December:
Special Delivery

Elsewhere:
Friday 10th December:
Western Europe, Eastern Europe, USA and Canada

Places that can no longer get things in time for Christmas (sorry!):
South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand

Oh also....I mentioned on twitter recently, that I would do a blog post about the decorative tape and the many ways you can use it (which I will hopefully get up on the blog tomorrow)

I also forgot to mention here the opening of my new big cartel shop, which can be found here!! - www.shop.mr-yen.com, it has been open since the 1st of December and has already made a sale, which is a good start! I will be slowly using my etsy shop, less & less in the new year and focusing on my own shop, but I didn't want to close my etsy shop as I have received some great customers from there. Anyway I have lots more work I should be doing so...

I Hope you all have a productive Monday!

{WIP Wednesday}

This week I have been finishing up the wholesale order I received last week and I now have a proud war wound on my index finger... It's only a small lump, but it aches and stings so much I am going to have to give papercutting a rest for today!

In other news the mrYen decorative Christmas tape has arrived and is now for sale in my etsy shop! & I will be creating a blog post next week showing the many ways that the tape can be used, other than wrapping packages!

{Monday Morning}

This morning I have been out and about gathering supplies to create some more Christmas designs. So today I will be creating packs of hand cut gift tags - in sets of 5, and packs of hand cut decorations - in sets of 4, with two deep berry red & two snow white. I can't wait to get started as I'm feeling very festive due to all these luxurious colours!

Hope you have a productive Monday!

{Merry Christmas}

I'm signing off today for the holidays, so its the end of the first year for mrYen!
I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone for reading, commenting, and supporting the mrYen blog and etsy shop during 2009!

Hope you all have a great festive time during the holidays and i will be back on January 4th!

{I'm officially on my holidays!!}

I have finally finished University for the holidays and I can't wait to have lazy days, sleeping in, getting the apartment ready for Christmas and making lots of food, buying and wrapping presents and having some free time! I'm starting to plan some exciting things for the shop to be listed after Christmas and I also have something planned that will be revealed sometime early next year when I know more details! but it won't be all play though this holiday as I have to do a large part of my dissertation ( I have done nearly 3,000 words so far and need to have at least 5,000 when I go back to University after the Christmas) but enough thinking about work! back to Christmas plans...I recently bought a tree and put some lights on it and now its time to decorate it...with paper obviously ! here are some photos of some paper cut snowflakes i have made for decorations....30 in total!

{quiet times to come}

At the moment I am REALLY busy with university work so I will be posting less here. I will still be packaging and sending orders from my Etsy shop, but blogging, tweeting and emails will be a limited thing! I will be back just before Christmas, as my University deadline is the 14th of December, so have a great run up to Christmas and don't forget to buy handmade!

**Christmas Delivery Order Times and Final Posting Days**

The last day for international orders from my shop to be received for Christmas will be 5th December as the last day available for me to post them is 7th of December. This is to ensure that your products get to you in time as sometimes it can take up to three weeks for international delivery. For orders from the UK, the last day for Christmas delivery will be 19th December as the last day available for me to post your purchase is 21st December. Happy Christmas Shopping!

(both images below are for sale in my shop as single postcards, click the images if you want to see the listings)

{shop update}

I have listed an affordable print of my "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" papercut and a squirrel Christmas card design that I loved making! I have made a few sets and if they sell well and people ask for more of them I will make more, but saying that, the last days for international orders to be received for Christmas will be 1st December. This is to ensure that your products get to you in time as sometimes it can take up to three weeks for international delivery. For orders from the UK, the last day for Christmas orders will be 15th December. The last days for international custom orders during the Christmas/Holiday period will be 1st December and 15th December for custom orders within the UK.

{weekend goodness}

Firstly! Last night poppytalk tweeted about my paper cuts and they are featured on the poppytalk blog here! I have read the blog for a while now and it always has great finds on it, i have always wanted to be featured on it! Thanks so much Jan!

Right..... this weekend i will be finding batteries and some film for my new camera that a friend bought me for an early xmas present. I cant wait to get it working! also i will be listing some print sets in my shop soon that will be called "Winter Whites". The prints will be in sets of three and will cost $15 for one set. They are photographs i have taken over the year and i thought they would make a nice little stocking filler, which i will gift wrap before packaging and posting. (the first image is of the winter whites set and the second image is of my very first succulent plant!)

{feeling ill.......looking forward to christmas}

As im am feeling so ill, achy and have a sore throat, i thought i would have an early Christmassy post, to make me feel better.

This time of year i am normally engrossed in university work, but i am already thinking about Christmas as i have to start creating and listing things in my shop for the Christmas holiday. I have some good ideas I need to get started on, i just need to buy the supplies. aaaaaaaaaand back to Christmas, I love wrapping all the presents, the food, all the smells i associate with Christmas, such as cinnamon, clove, vanilla, all kinds of other spices and wrapping up warm and having a nice big coffee while listening to some Billie Holiday. I'm excited for Christmas now!

Oh and I have also created a treasury, all based on maps and their reuse into something nice. You can find it here.

[Photo by Erin Gonzalez] found via Flickr.