Flutter boutique logo design

I wanted to share one of my latest projects; the logo design for a new clothing boutique in Pennington, NJ, called Flutter.

Working with the owner of this new shop, Linda Martin, was so much fun! After a successful marketing career in the clothing business working for companies like Macy's and The Children's Place, it had been a lifelong dream of hers to open her own boutique for women. Her understanding of modern fashion, combined with her expertise as a style advisor, make her the perfect boutique owner. She and her staff are always available to help her customers find the perfect outfit for any occasion, no matter what their size or age.

The name of the store, Flutter, comes from her love of butterflies, and what they represent. One of her favorite quotes, which is printed on a wall in the store, is "Just when the caterpillar thought its life was over, it turned into a butterfly." Linda wanted me to somehow incorporate a stylized butterfly into the logo, without making it too literal, and keeping it fresh and modern.

I loved helping bring her vision to life in this logo. The sign is a deep purple with white writing, and the clothing hang tags are printed in a deep purple with stamped silver foil, which makes them quite special and out of the ordinary.

If you get the chance to stop in, be sure to say hi to Linda and tell her I sent you.

You may recognize my jewelry on sale there too!

A Fairy Happy Birthday To You (part 1)

My daughter turned 3 last week, and what an amazing 3 years it has been with her! Every day has been full of new experiences and lots of learning, both for her and for me.

For her birthday, she decided she wanted a fairy birthday party. (Perhaps more accurately I decided that was the party I wanted to throw for her, and I got her to agree to it. But she was happy, so that's all that matters, right?) When I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going for more of a woodland/flower fairy rather than fairy princess theme, she sent me some info about fairy doors. What a wonderful little world to enter into! So perfect for the imagination of little minds. They remind me of the Thorne miniature rooms in the Chicago Museum of Art. If you are ever in Chicago and you like tiny things, I highly recommend a visit.

So, inspired by the idea of fairy doors, I wanted to create invitations that would capture the idea of entering into a little tiny fairy world.

At a library book sale recently I found a copy of The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker in great shape. It's a wonderful book of flower fairy poems and illustrations from the early 1900's, and it was exactly the inspiration I needed. I scanned one of the images that reminded me of my daughter, and wrote a little poem of my own for the invitation.

I used brown and metallic stamp ink to mark up the edges, and decoupaged each one to give them a worn and vintage feel. Although they were tiny, about 4" square, I wanted them to be sturdy too so I stained some balsa wood and glued them onto the back side. Then I lined wood grained paper with cork, and cut them to make arched doors. I scored the sides to make a hinge so it would be a double door that opened in the center, and inserted rhinestone brads for the door handles and wire leaves to close them. I placed each invitation into a moss green organza bag and filled it with dried lavender, eucalyptus leaves, and rose petals, which made each invitation a keepsake sachet.

I was really happy with the finished invitations, and I received a lot of great feedback about them (along with many people telling me just how crazy they think I am). I would love to hear your thoughts about them too!

Spring is here!

Spring is here (although at 80 degrees today it feels more like summer), and I have moved once again. This time, to Connecticut. It is beautiful here, very picturesque New England. We are still getting settled, and there are still a few boxes yet to be unpacked, but we thought it would be nice to host my husband's family for a casual Easter lunch.

For the occasion I wanted to make some kind of festive spring Easterish decoration that my 2-year-old daughter could help me with. We have tons of forsythia in bloom around our yard, and the branches are so beautiful and springy with their bright little yellow flowers that I thought it would be nice to cut a few and hang something on them, like eggs.

Since I wanted to make it in advance of Easter, I couldn't have hard-boiled eggs sitting out for days, but after a few failed attempts trying to blow out the yoke and ending up with broken eggs, I decided against that. I thought about what else I could use instead of actual eggs, and after a few unsuccessful scouting trips to local craft stores for brown paper kraft eggs, I decided on decorative paper. (Apparently if you want the good Easter decorations you need to shop for them months in advance -- two weeks before is considered late. Who are these people? I thought I was way ahead of schedule because it wasn't the night before.) I chose yellow, to go with the forsythia flowers, and a light but vibrant turquoise blue, because I had a little platter I wanted to use in that color for something else that was going on the table -- speckled egg cake pops. More on those another time.




I also cut out some eggs on plain white paper which my daughter decorated with yellow and turquoise colored pencils. Using my
Scotch ATG 700 tape gun (my most useful craft tool -- I highly recommend getting one if you frequently do projects that use double sided tape) I taped a few of the sheets together so the eggs would be double sided, then created a simple egg template and traced it onto a few of the sheets, and cut them out with a scissors. I used a small hole punch to make holes in the tops of the eggs, and tied a piece of yarn to the eggs and then to the branches.

I covered the table in a white table cloth and made some burlap runners. My original thought was to go with twine to hang the eggs because I thought it would give the whole thing a more rustic feel. But I found a tinsely yarn in the blue color and my daughter liked that one better so we went with it. There are no wrong answers when it comes to projects like this, and it's great when the little ones can pitch in with their opinions (of which she has many).

I arranged the branches in a big glass vase, and voila! It was so simple and it came out really well, and we had a great time making it together. I think my favorite part was collecting the forsythia with her. Unsurprisingly, she was very specific about which branches we needed to cut.





Happy Spring! If you have any spring projects you would like to share please let me know -- I would love to see them!

ps: I just realized that my daughter's outfit matches the project. What? Don't you all match your children's outfits to your holiday projects too? ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year a lot of my friends asked me for advice on how to make valentines with their kids, so I wanted to post what I made with my daughter, who is 2-1/2, for her babysitter and grandparents. It can be tough to find a simple project that is age-appropriate so that you can easily get your kids involved, and you don't end up doing it all yourself or taking hours to prep it.

I thought it would be nice to make something the grandparents could display beyond just a card, so this year we made heart garlands. This is a project you can do with your child regardless of their age, and depending on their skill level they can do a lot or just a little of it. The prep work I did on this was to create a heart template, and then cut out the hearts in paper of a few different colors. Each garland had 9 hearts, so it was a lot of cutting, but I did it after she went to bed and I got to catch up on tivo'd episodes of The Bachelor, which I felt was somehow appropriate for a Valentine's Day project. (Oh, Ben. Will you ever find love?)

Together we punched holes in the top and bottom of each garland, and then I gave her the hearts so she could draw on each one. Next I took twine, which I had pre-cut to lengths of about 48" each, and while she was decorating the hearts I strung them onto the twine. I tied a loop at the top, and a knot at the bottom, and together we spread them out evenly. (I also ended up making the cards -- I asked her to decorate them but she didn't like that idea, so I just drew hearts on them.) We placed the garlands in small square glassine envelopes, and put those in larger red envelopes with the cards, and away they went.



This is a very simple project, and by using different papers, embellishments, ribbon, etc, you could do this many years in a row and never have it look the same. I would love to hear what projects you did with your kids this year. Happy Valentine's Day!

Paula Winicur Design Launches Jewelry

I have long been making jewelry as gifts for friends and family, but recently I was inspired to try to sell some pieces. I created a few different lines of hand-made necklaces using quality materials, including found and vintage accents, gemstones, and sterling silver or gold chain and findings. I am thrilled to announce that I sold my first piece -- to an actual store -- and an actual customer bought it!

The shop is called twine.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/twine/196407610426772?sk=info

It’s a wonderful store in the cute little town of Hopewell, NJ. If you live in the area and you haven't been, I highly recommend a day trip, especially because there are also lots of great antique stores in the area. As owner Melissa Cookman describes it, twine is 'an eclectic shop filled with vintage bits and bobs, cards, gifts, ephemera, accessories... handmade, repurposed and more.' It is tucked into an old barn-like building with beautiful windows and lots of great architectural details, and decorated with vintage touches. (If she would let me move in, I would totally do it!) It’s the type of store you could get lost in for an hour (or four). So, last week Melissa bought a necklace from my asymmetrical line, made from swarovski crystal pearls and a pale pink resin flower.




When she saw it she thought it might make a nice Sweet Sixteen gift for someone, and she was right, because her customer bought it as a Quinceanera gift. It makes me so happy to think that something I made is going to help a stranger express love to someone important to them.

I also have a few pieces out for consignment at another boutique in nearby Pennington, NJ, another cute town with shops and beautiful farms in the surrounding areas, which makes for a lovely drive if you have some time to kill some lazy afternoon.

http://www.shoprosana.com/

The shop is called Rosana, and it is owned by the talented commercial, music video, and television stylist Rosana Clawson. In her shop she carries clothes and jewelry from great lines including her own collection. Rosana and her colleague Linda have been wonderful to work with, and are carrying a few necklaces from my asymmetrical line as well as my beaded and illusion necklace line. Here are pictures of a few of those pieces.


asymmetrical green aventurine beaded necklace
with coral resin flower





cherry quartz, crystal glass, and fluorite necklace
with silver chain




3-strand illusion necklace on sterling silver flex wire with
mother of pearl, crystal, amazonite, and glass beads



Hopefully my jewelry will be in more boutiques soon, and available online. I also do custom pieces by request, so please don't hesitate to ask if you see something you would like to order. Thanks again for stopping by!