Monday, January 27, 2014

The New Sophisticated Look

Yay! My rubber stamp order came in from Custom Stamp & Engraving Ltd.

These stamps are mainly for the packaging of the Northern Faerie Line. I wanted to keep this box clean, simple but sophisticated. I am not sure if I will re-order the Kraft Pinstripe style of boxes or whether I will go with a colour and I haven't really done much research yet but will definitely need to decide soon.

The smaller Generation 1 faeries have a cubed box that is 4x4x4 inches in diameter. I have always put my company name and the larger icon stamp around the outside. On the top of the lid, there are 4 jewelled flat back gems and then it is tied off with two strands of raffia (purple and gold {the gold was one of my original colours for the company until I changed it to green as gold was too hard to find in tissue paper and other packaging items}). I loved the fun look to this style of packaging.

The original packaging for the Northern Faerie Line was quite similar to the smaller Generation 1 style. The box of course is larger being 4x4x6 inches in size. I did not include tying it off with raffia though.

The Northern Faerie Line has a more grown-up look and feel to it. As these faeries are being promoted as collectables - collect the whole line idea - I wanted boxes that looked the part. I'm very happy with the outcome.

Now, I have had to blur out some of the wording as those faeries have not yet been released. The winner of the Northern Faerie for being my 1000th visitor to 'like' my Facebook page did choose a faerie that will not be released until the end of the year and this is her packaging.

So, what do you think??

GENERATION 1 PACKAGING



ORIGINAL NORTHERN FAERIE LINE PACKAGING



NEW NORTHERN FAERIE LINE PACKAGING



The new stamps with everyone's names :)




Creative Conundrums

I will admit that this latest Northern Faerie has caused me more self-doubting than any other faerie to date!

As I have had plans to complete a full calendars worth of Northern Faeries by the end of June, I am a bit behind after not feeling well for the first 3 weeks of the New Year.

Getting back on track though has proven more difficult than it should have been....grrrrrrrr!

There are currently 7 Northern Faeries (one will not be released until December 31, 2014 though) including... Aurora, Midnight Sun, Boreal, Agua, Snowflake and Raven. I do know the names of the next 4 faeries and I have most everything that I need in order to make them. This leaves me only 1 more to go, which I do have all the product for but she at this stage is still unnamed.

Back to the faerie that I have been working on now for the past couple of weeks. I have pulled out I don't know how many colours of flower petals and nothing seemed to be working for me. I have set her out numerous times (at least 6) in the evening time so I could look at her in the morning with fresh eyes and possibly new ideas. In the end...I actually didn't change any of her flower petals in either shape, size or colour! I did though find out what was throwing me off which was a good thing before I put her back on the shelf to tackle down the road. As each faerie gets a wee flower bead that goes right on her hairline on her forehead, of all things, it was this little bead that had thrown me for a loop. I know that this fine little detail could be the cause of all of my angst but it was! After you see the photos below, you will definitely question why the new colour works but trust me it does :)

Once I figured out that this is what was causing my problems it ended up to be such a quick fix. Everything from that point on just worked out exactly as I wanted to.

All that is left to do is for Hubby to curl her hands and toes. She will then be epoxied to her wooden plate stand and she will be released and made available for purchase.

As noted above, there are a few more things that I need to buy before I can proceed with some of the faeries that are on the list to be made. I am hoping that most items will be picked up on our trip out this week.

One stop will be made to the fabric store? Yes, one of the Northern Line will be made with fabric and not flower petals! How on earth could this be you ask? Well, I have researched our northern cultural and folk lore of Canada and am including all three territories...the Yukon, Nunuvat and the Northwest Territories (where the nursery is located) and not all ideas can be captured using just flower petals. No worries, I won't keep you in the dark too much longer on her....well, unless of course I can't find the type of fabric that I want!

Without giving away the latest Northern Faerie to be released I have attached a few photos for you to enjoy :)

Bowl of Inspiration!!

Original Hair Bead -- a very light pink/peach

Hair Bead used on new Northern Faerie 



Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Great Separation Project!!

Well, after about 2 months of separating they are all done!

Once the decision was made to start the new line of Northern Faeries I started ordering flowers specifically for them. I think my first order went in the final week of November and I stopped ordering December 31, 2013. The last batch of flowers arrived on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 and they have now been taken apart as well.

A massive thank you goes out to Hubby, Ryan and Amanda (Noon) for all of their help.

In the end, there was 1545 flower heads in total that needed to be taken apart. Now being that I like things really taken apart, each flower is broken down by size and colour and placed into individual baggies. Yes...that is a LOT of baggies.

So keep in mind that all of these flowers are dedicated to the Northern Faerie Line. There are currently 6 that are available for sale and another 6 that are either completed or are in the process of designing.

I took pictures from all around the table and then from above!

That's a whole lot of flower petals!!











Monday, January 20, 2014

Adverts for 2014

I will post my 2014 advertisements here so as I get my magazine copies in I will just edit this posting.

I love The Magical Times magazine and was so happy to be a part of their 6th Anniversary double issue special. A massive congratulations to Matthew and his team for their hard work.


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Thank you for dropping in to visit my Faerie Nursery

Not exactly sure how I could have missed this little drop down arrow that is located on my business page for Facebook under the 'See Likes' column!!

I have tried to acknowledge everyone that drops in and 'likes' my page personally but now all of a sudden I have missed so many wonderful businesses and I feel terrible.

I have now gone through the entire list and gone to each page and 'liked' them personally using this message....

Thank you so much for visiting my Faerie Nursery. I have 'liked' your page back and posted a link of this page on my latest blog posting 

http://faerienursery.blogspot.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/FaerieNursery

I came to the decision that instead of listing everyone off on Facebook that instead I will list them here with the link so if you feel so inclined, you can visit them as well..which would be really really nice of you..wink wink!!

Whimsical What Knots 

Mary Herrig Fiber Arts

Kiwi the Faerie

Butterfly Boutique

Grin, Grimace & Squeak

Gypsy.Bleu.Persuasian

Fairy Mom: Helping you create a Fairy Magical place for your kids

The Sewing Sprite

My Creative Soul

Kolors of Earth Jewelry

Ina Sahaja

Irish Fairy Craft

Himmlisch

Popagami

Crow's Crossing

Witch path forward

The Domestic Witch

Lia-San's Atelier

Thank you to each and everyone of you for visiting.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Welcome and Introductions ~~ Facebook

2014 - Facebook

So I have always tried my best to welcome everyone personally to the nursery, I know that between trying to keep track between doing updates on the iPhone, iPad and the Mac and now finding out that the Facebook 'like' counter includes not only 'individuals' but that there is a drop down box that shows 'pages' that like you too! Now this particular option is not available on my iPhone or if it is my screen is just too tiny for me to even want to see that small arrow for a drop down box. So this is me, Faerie Amma, welcoming everyone that I have missed to my Faerie Nursery.

I don't ever try to sell anything to anyone here, even though all of my e-commerce sites tell me that that I am supposed to be using my Facebook business page as a selling tool. I am here to interact with you, to show you sparkly things, to tell you silly stories, to let you know what mischief my faeries have been getting up to, what I have bought now! All those kind of good types of things...not being pushy and saying buy this, buy this...sure....I know in the end....that I am a business...but I guess that I am just not that good at that part of the business end....oops! But by all means..if you are interested...all of my products are available through my website .... there...did I satisfy what I'm supposed to do...will they get off my back now!! Back to the fun stuff :)

I have a wonderful helper...her name here if Pixie Sapphire or you can call her Brenda..but she's not supposed to answer to that name on here! Are you Brenda...oops I mean Pixie Sapphire. Umm..okay, so I started getting a bit overwhelmed...I know, you mean me! No, never me...so I gave up just a little bit of control. Okay...everybody. Stop. It's okay. Just breath. Relax....Now close your eyes for just a few seconds...Did you see pretty sequins?...Were they pink? Were they orange? Oh no!....If you said they were green, go back, close your eyes again.... Okay, open them.... What colour were they this time...Pink? Orange? There we go, we are all on the same page again...That was close!! Okay..so Pixie Sapphire has full Admin rights to the Facebook business page and she helps me with a few postings now and then. Did you see the photo album just a couple of days ago...the one where I went shopping AGAIN! She did that! Yuppers....she did. Now all of her work, she will sign Pixie Sapphire. I don't want anyone to think that I have left the country, that I am doing my hair, or that I have been superglued to the table and hubby dearest is trying to figure away to get me undone! Okay..think we are all clear on this topic...okay..I know a few of you still have your eyes closed...OPEN them now.....silly silly silly.....

I have two wonderful Faeries that help me in the field so to speak....Faeries Georgina and Malinda (okay....oops...that kinda gave their names away as that is their real names but ummm oh well). These Faeries are my life line here....they are my Sparkle Tattoo sparkly glittery experts....plus they never stop smiling! Thanks ladies :)

Then there is the hubby...well, okay, he is well, he is everything. There really wouldn't be a faerie nursery if there wasn't the hubby. 'Nough said 'bout that as he knows that he is my everything but he also doesn't like to be in the centre of attention (note.....that is why I put him nearer the end of the introductions and the centre..huh huh huh...great thinkin'   I know!! I know!!).

And me, well I am Faerie Amma...and when I don't have my make-up on, well then, I am Emmanuelle, the artist/owner of the Enchanted Pathways Faerie Nursery. And this is my little faerie nursery getaway. I am surrounded by twinkling lights, hanging vines and flowers, crocheted hummingbirds, pretty pictures of faeries, tiny trinkets that I have collected throughout my whole lifetime, children's books I bought just for me, little rocks I have picked and stored away in pockets since I was little and tons of supplies to keep me busy for a lifetime. I owe who I am to my family and friends...but most of all, I just want to be like Peter Pan and to never grow-up so I can play with my children, Matthew & Brandi and my grandchildren Rebecca, Dominic and Stephen Jr.

Won't you come and play with us too?