A sneaky peek of the fully personalised Christmas cards we provided for Annabel of the incredibly inspirational Love My Dress wedding blog (www.lovemydress.net) – honestly, if you are a Bride/Groom to be, or a fellow supplier to the wedding industry and you haven’t checked out Love My Dress before, head over there now for some serious swooning! Annabel is one of the most influential people in the wedding world and so as you can imagine, we were delighted to provide her Christmas cards this year. When someone who showcases the best in terms of design to a nation of Brides on a daily basis, sends out In the Treehouse cards to their own friends & family at Christmas, it’s definitely a good feeling!

We’re getting into the Christmas spirit here, and want to share this festive little addition to our Free Printables Library – how many of us have family traditions of playing scrabble, charades, pictionary & other such games on Christmas day? Use our free printable rosette centres to make your own little prizes to give to winners – there’s hopefully something for everyone with ‘Mum in a Million’, ‘Champion Dad’ & ‘Christmas Wrap Star) in there too. (In my house, I’ll be going for the title of Scrabble Star (Watch out sis!), and no doubt my little one will be competing with her new cousin Tiago in the ‘Messiest Eater’ stakes!

For more info on how to join our Free Printables Library visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/In-The-Treehouse/147194918669981#!/photo.php?fbid=271083882947750&set=a.264525436936928.65424.147194918669981&type=1&theater - We’d love to see you photos of how you use them too – email them to us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk - Happy Christmas! x

Hi all, hope you’re feeling full of festive, Tuesday cheer today! We’re winding things down for Christmas week, but still have a few more exciting blog features to bring you this week including another Christmassy Free Printables launch – so watch this space.

A quick note today to let you know we’ve been featured on the lovely & inspiring ‘Alice in Weddingland’ blog. Head on over to see lots of stationery and some quotes from me. http://www.aliceinweddingland.co.uk/unique-wedding-stationery-by-in-the-treehouse-colourful-retro-and-full-of-fun

Mmmmmm. Peppermint Creams – I have such fond memories of making these with my lovely mum & sister as a child. I think I’ll make some next week with my little one & neices…

(Recipe & pic is courtesy of ‘Christmas Cooking with Kids’ by Anne Rigg)

Ingredients:   (Makes 20-30)

1 ¾ cup icing sugar

4-6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

green food coloring paste (optional)

mini star-shaped cutter

Instructions:

1. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Gradually add the condensed milk and peppermint extract, mixing with a wooden spoon. The mixture should come together like dough, and you may need to use your hands towards the end of the mixing.

2. To knead the dough, sprinkle a little icing sugar on a clean work surface. Shape the dough into a ball and push on it and press it onto the work surface, turning it around often. Do this for just a minute or so until smooth.

3. If you like, you can divide the dough in half and tint one half green using a little of the food coloring. Knead the dough again until it is evenly green.

4. On the work surface, roll the dough out to a thickness of ¼-inch using a rolling pin. Stamp out stars with your cookie cutter and arrange them on a sheet of baking parchment.

5. Leave to dry out overnight before packing into pretty boxes

Hi all – firstly apologies that the blog’s been a bit barren of new posts over the weekend – life is just GO GO GO at the moment with lots of last minute orders in the run up to Christmas, all the exciting adventures that we’re embarking on in 2012 (and preparing for now) - not to mention family life at this time of year!… My little one & I did a spot of Christmas shopping this week - we bought her dad a present (he’s notoriously hard to buy for, and I usually get it a bit wrong to be honest!). Anyway we got home, wrapped it up straight away so he wouldn’t peek, and then as soon as he walked through the door after work, she said ‘Daddy, I wrapped up your special slippers!’ Eeeek! The true gent that he is, he pretended not to hear! (if you’re thinking that slippers isn’t the most exciting present anyway, well let me tell you, these are VERY manly sheepskin-on-the-inside, suade-on-the-outside jobbies, and at the very least they should stop him sneakily wearing my pink ones!

So anyway, I’ll get to the point – we’re offering some cute FREE printable Christmas gift tags fo all our clients, facebook likers & twitter followers:

You could either print these yourself at home, or take the file into your local print shop & ask them to use some thick cream card (275gsm+) – they may also have recycled card stock as standard, in which case – even better! We’d love to see your pics of how you choose to use the tags, be it to wrap your presents, decorate the tree or in any other resourceful ways you choose! Please send photos in to info@inthetreehouse.co.uk & we’ll feature them on our blog & facebook page.

Our new Free Printables Library will be open to all our facebook clients (from past and present) as well as all facebook ‘likers’ and twitter followers. The fact that so many people follow our ventures really means a lot to us, and this is one of the ways we plan to say thank you. The library will be added to on a regular basis to include free printable stationery for weddings, celebrations & family life too. If you’d like to be invited to ‘join’ the library (and you’re a client/liker/follower), please email info@inthetreehouse.co.uk or use the contact form to the right with the subject ‘Free Printables Library’

Happy Christmas!

Afternoon all – hope everyone’s well today! A quick blog post to show you some invitations which left our studio last week – seeing the first order for our new Cicus Style invitation and RSVP in print was really exciting and I managed to take a few quick pics before they were posted:

Sarah & Lyndon are lucky enough to be tying the knot at the beautiful Villa Catignano in Sienna, which is why we added the cute little plane motif on the reverse. The invitation is in a Coral & Navy colour scheme which I think gives it a lovely vintage feel.

Sarah & Lyndon also had their RSVPs in the shape and style of our Save the Date from the same range – the corners are all individually cut to give it that authentic ticket look – the cutting is definitely a labour of love – but worth it in the end.

Designing this was sooo much fun – I love playing around with typography and funky wording, and I know if I was one of Sarah & Lyndon’s guests, I’d feel pretty excited to receive this in the post!

On the day their stationery arrived, Sarah sent me a lovely email saying:

“Hi Jenny, Just wanted to drop you a note to say we got the invites today and they are absolutely fab! I felt like it was xmas day! They were wrapped so beautifully and we can’t thank you enough for all the effort you put into making them just what we want. Thanks again and we will be back in touch soon, Take care and Happy Christmas! Sarah & Lyndon xx”

I’m so lucky! The Brides & Grooms I get to work with are just lovely…

You may have noticed that we’re bringing you loads of DIY projects at the moment – hope you’re enjoying them. Today, it’s a heart shaped fabric wreath – perfect for weddings, or just to brighten up your home. This one is going to live in my little one’s room:

I made this for £2.99 as I used completely recycled fabrics (namely old clothes, left over scraps and an old, redundant (and clean!) pillowcase…

For the frame of the wreath I used a wire place card holder which was £2.99 from The Range (find your nearest store at http://tinyurl.com/cevsgvc) -Although similar things seem pretty widely available on the highstreet now.

Shown above is a step by step guide to show you how simple it is! (slightly mind-numbing mind you – It takes around 2 hours so I put a rom-com on and made an evening of it!)…

As always, if you give this a go we’d love to hear from you & post a pic on our blog and facebook page! Good luck and happy crafting! x

We’re loving all the retro inspired gifts on the high street at the moment and with Christmas coming up, they make great gifts… We’ve selected a few of our favourites here – hopefully something for everyone.

(Clockwise from top left):
Nostalgia Monopoly – £29.99 at Waterstones: http://tinyurl.com/6rq4hq6

Retro Motoring Tin – £9.99 on Ebay: http://tinyurl.com/7c7kt4y       

Lunch Boxes – £7 from Notonthehighstreet.com: http://tinyurl.com/33n3kyy

Teas of the World Gift Set – £22 at Whittard: http://tinyurl.com/6n9le6y

Vintage Label Postcards -£6.98 from Waterstones: http://tinyurl.com/7dllb7w

Hope everyone’s had a great weekend… It’s all about Scrabble for today’s blog post, with a little inspiration board to give you some ideas of how you could incorporate the playful, nostalgic and rather romantic theme into your big day.

 For more details on these products you can click the following links.

‘Love in Letters’ wedding invitation & ‘save the date’ by In the Treehouse http://tiny.cc/ybf0d

Scrabble letter cufflinks from Notonthehighstreet.com http://tiny.cc/gd3yn

Scrabble wrapping paper from Notonthehightstreet.com http://tiny.cc/k2hmb

Scrabble cupcakes as seen at http://tiny.cc/m0k3g

Just letting you know about a new regular feature for our facebook page – ‘Shout it from the Treehouse’ where you can hopefully bounce off one another to get ideas (on weddings/celebrations/anything you like) from other like minded folk. Today’s question (and the first of many I hope) comes from Julia who’s marrying Tom in August 2012

 please put forward any suggestions you have by commenting on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=258859687503503&set=a.258859617503510.64711.147194918669981&type=1&theater I’m sure they’d be gratefully received. If you have a question and you’d like to ‘shout it from the Treehouse’, just email it to info@inthetreehouse.co.uk – many thanks, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this. x

Just a quick hello this evening to show you a brand new design which we created for Vicki & Adrian, who are tying the knot in Parisien Chic style next year. Vicki got in touch with a lovely brief - basically of anything vintage, postcardy, Parisien, (they got engaged at the Eiffel Tower!), hydrangeas, bird cages & soft shades of pink, lilac & tiffany blue – and this is what we came up with! Vicki emailed me 10 minutes after I sent the initial design proof to say she loved it so much she’d cried at her desk! (She’s a girl after my own heart!)

Shown above is the front and reverse – hope you like it! x

We’re feeling festive over here at In the Treehouse and recently came up with this little feature for the lovely Annabel at Love My Dress blog. If you head on over there, you can view the step by step instructions, loads more photos, free printable downloads and the full write up…

http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2011/11/how-to-make-your-own-advent-calendar.html

Big thanks to Catherine Westwood, Editor at Wedding Magazine, for featuring our Vintage Delicates Save the Date design in her Editor’s Choice this month. Being featured in the press is so exciting, and such a great help to a small business like this one – for one thing, it has enabled us to get this far over the last 7 months since opening without paying for a single piece of advertising – which in turn, allows us to keep our prices down so that you pay less. Happy days!

Happy Friday everyone – and it really is a happy one here today. We’re feeling festive as we lauch our Christmas card range for 2011, and to celebrate, we’re giving away a pack of 20, fully personalised ones to a facebook liker. Every now and then, we like to let all our followers know just how much we appreciate your support – and running competitions seems to be a great way of doing just that…

To enter the competition visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/In-The-Treehouse/147194918669981 - it’s open until Sunday 27th November at 7pm, and the winner’s name will be drawn out of a hat and announced shortly after.

Here are the Christmas card designs in more detail:

(Above): ‘JOYFUL JOYFUL’ £1.50 each

This design can be fully personalised with 10 of your own favourite Christmas things, which makes it totally unique to you. As with all our Christmas cards, it’s printed on extra thick cream card – A6 when folded – and includes a striped manila envelope.

(Above): Airmail Christmas card, (£1.50 each) with your own choice of wording throughout.

(Above): London Town (£1.50 each)

All designs are £1.50 each (including envelopes) and there’s a minimum order of 20 – please allow for 5 working days delivery.

To request an order form or enquire about any of the above, simply email us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk or use the contact form to the right. xxx

If you’re behind me in the post office queue today, I’m truly sorry! (Our local isn’t exactly a metropolitan, technology fuelled, state of the art post office – there’s usually one counter open, with lady serving who’s on the maturer side of retirement age! She is lovely though and always gives my daughter a lollipop…)

We’re looking to take someone on (local to the Plymouth area) for around 5 hours a week to take care of all our wrapping and postage. If you/someone you know is interested, please email us at info@inthetreehouse.co.uk, or by using the contact form to the right. xxx

Feeling very honoured to bring you some beautiful photos today, of a very special Bride & Groom – Elaine & Mark. Special in many ways, but for me in particular, the first ever couple to order wedding stationery from In the Treehouse after seeing us on the fabulous Love My Dress blog (www.lovemydress.net) back in April 2011. Elaine & Mark were a dream to work with in the run up to their September wedding at Gate Street Barn (http://www.gatestreetbarn.com/) in Surrey.

All photography is copyright Benjamin Toms Photography (http://www.benjamintomsphotography.co.uk/) – Ben’s work is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and so I’ll let the photos do the talking and just say that his website and galleries are definitely worth a visit!  Ben is happy to travel across the UK and further afield to shoot weddings.

Elaine & Mark had scrolls for their Orders of the Day, printed on extra thick, cream linen effect paper - which looked lovely tied in natural raffia and placed on chairs ready for the guests arrival. I just love this venue - Gate Street Barn (http://www.gatestreetbarn.com/) in Surrey. it’s so rustic, full of drama & ambience, & incredibly romantic.

(ABOVE): Elaine & Mark used our Vintage Style Luggage Tags as place cards, with a piece of fragrant rosemary to decorate.

All the ‘on the day’ stationery was designed to compliment the vintage theme, and tones of soft blues, greens, and yellows which formed the colour scheme.

Elaine & Mark named their tables after their favourite UK places, which is a lovely personal touch. I designed each card with the specific places in mind, while keeping to the general themes running throughout the stationery.

 

(Above): Elaine & Mark’s simple & informal, yet elegant & unique table plan, which we created in the vintage style to compliment their wedding colours.

(Above): Elaine & Mark’s yummy (and beautiful) sweet table – with our Sweet Love bunting to set the scene!

(ABOVE): The wedding cake – made of cheese! And  matching cheese menu to match…

To Elaine & Mark – I can’t thank you enough for sharing these wonderful photos with us all. No doubt many Brides will take inspiration from the beautiful details you so thoughtfully planned for your big day, and for me, it gives me a massive feeling of pride to see our stationery at your wedding. Wishing you both every happiness together.

 Thanks also to Ben Toms, the photographer who captured these moments in this way. I can’t recommend Ben enough, and aside from his photography, he’s a blooming nice bloke to boot! (http://www.benjamintomsphotography.co.uk/)

Finally, thanks to Annabel at Love My Dress (www.lovemydress.net), the best UK wedding blog (in my mind) and an invaluable resource in wedding planning & inspiration. If you hadn’t featured my work in those first weeks of our launch, Elaine & Mark may never have found us! x

These amazing little Reindeer treats were made by Bakerella (www.bakerella.com), who are maestros in cake pops – Cake Pops have been storming the internet steadily over the last few years, as they can be decorated in so many ways and are (supposedly) easy to make. I decided to take on the challenge with my lovely 2 year old, and make some reindeers of our own for her nursery Children In Need party.

Cake Pops are made by crumbling up a baked cake, mixing in melted butter, sugar and cream cheese, rolling them into little balls and baking them. The crumbling job is fab for little ones, (although can be messy!). As we had limited time, instead of baking the initial cake to crumble up, I bought ready made plain fairy cakes from the supermarket.

My regular blog readers will know from my attempt at Creepy Cobweb Cupcakes a few weeks back – it seems I’m not destined to be one of those mums who can make a recipe actually look how it’s supposed to! In fact, it turns out I’m the sort of mum who remembers at 8:30am that my child has a ‘Pirate Party’ at 9am that same morning, scurries around looking for stuff to make a costume out of, gets her to the party in an outfit made of an old haloween outfit and some bin bags (so sorry love) and then is told the party is indeed next week. hmmm.

Our reindeer cake pops turned out like this:

So  first of all, obviously they didn’t reach actual cake pop status (ie: they’re not on sticks) – truth be told, the stubbon little reindeer outright refused, and promptly fell to bits when I threatened them with sticks. Still, I think ours are rather full of character, they tasted good and my little girl and I had a great time doing it together. Unfortunately, seeing as there were meant to be 12 (one for each child at nursery), and only 5 made it this far, we had to buy shop bought cakes and eat these ourselves. All in all, not the most succesful baking venture I’ve embarked on! If you fancy having a go at cake pops, (I’m sure you’ll do better than we did!) have a look at this video tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXCm7XTKXRc - I couldn’t find inctructions for Bakerellas Reindeer Cake Pops, and although it’s seemingly not a good idea to take inspiration from mine, I used Curly Wurlys for the antlers, white chocolate chips for the eyes, mini smarties for the noses and some tube piping icing for the smiles. If you have a go, we’d love to see some photos of how you get on, and share them with readers & facebook followers – email photos to info@inthetreehouse.co.uk xxx

I recently had an email from a lovely Bride-to-be, Keira, who is busy planning a beautiful garden party wedding with a hint of Marie Antoinette and a whole lot of loveliness. She asked us to design something especially, to compliment her other ideas and incorporate her colour scheme of midnight blue, silver and pale pink. Of course, I was delighted to oblige and set about designing something to do her ideas justice. Then reality dawned – I realised I couldn’t really elude to the beauty of the Marie Antoinette theme, without including some figures in the style – and there’s one tricky thing about this: I am just no good at illustrating people and figures. It’s as simple as that – I have and probably always will find it really difficult. Still – it’s so essential to challenge yourself as a designer and resist the temptation to stay neatly in your comfort zone. So what’s the verdict? I’m happy to say, although it took some attempts, I’m so thrilled with the design, and love the little silhouette couple with their cheeky, flirty courtship stance. More importantly, the Bride and Groom loved it too – so much so they didn’t request a single amendment be made following the inital proof.

I’ve pieced together this little inspiration board below, to showcase a bit of this lovely, timeless wedding theme, with hues of soft blues, pinks, silver grey and ivory.

Referenes:

Marie Antoinette style Save the Date by In the Treehouse (yes, that’s me!)

Wedding Styling by Camille Styles Events (http://camillestyles.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/a-veuve-kind-of-mood/)

Marie Antoinette Style Cake as seen at http://www.weddingbycolor.com/brtiffanys2005/milestones/92066

Courtesan Shoes by Irregular Choice (www.irregularchoice.com)

Wedding fan favours by (www.caesarsweddingfavours.co.uk)  

Ian Stuart Antoinette wedding dress, £2550 (www.ianstuart-bride.com)  

Happy Friday all! Today, we return to our new feature ‘The Moments We Design For’ where we share photos that Brides and Grooms send in of our stationery having its big moment… We’re lucky and grateful that clients so often take the time to do this, and feel totally privileged to share the photos with you.

So, today we’re featuring a very funky couple, Aimee & Rob who tied the knot in London Town, with our stationery from that very range:

Rob & Aimee became man and wife on 26th September 2011 – I just love everyone’s big happy smiles in the top photo…

Unfortunately, not all of Aimee’s friends & family could make it over from Texas for their wedding, so they set aside some time during their reception to Skype those love ones across the Atlantic – isn’t this such a lovely & thoughtful idea:

I always love the opportunity to work with Brides & Grooms who want to play around with quirky wording – this is Aimee & Rob’s invitation design below:

I loved every minute of designing this funky, bright and characterful reverse – typography is soo much fun!

Big thanks to Aimee & Rob for sharing their photos with us – we wish you all the best from married life in years to come…