James Ellis

You're always hearing from us about our designs so I thought, for a change, I would write about the ones that don't quite make it.  We spent ages changing this bear image.  We changed the colour of his jumper, changed the pattern, messed around with his neck, changed his mouth to look more fierce, changed it back again, changed the background colour several times but in the end simply decided that whe wasn't quite right as a card and would have to go into our "Will use one day perhaps" department.  But I really like and thought it would be nice to share with you.

This range has been out for a few weeks now.  The initial art work came through was very much aimed at men and so it seemed obvious to make it into a Father's Day range.  The ideas for new designs came quickly however and we soon we decided that it would work as a birthday range.    The cards are printed on a lovely cream textured italian board.  The images are debossed and foiled to give a letterpress effect.  The envelopes are C6 size and made of white lined 100 gram paper.  We are working on new designs as I type!.

We put this video together which shows some of the designs.

We have been publishing advent calendars for a few years now and I thought it was about time to share some secrets.  If you want to make something a bit more special for someone and have the time to do it (don't forget you have to think about the 24 small pictures inside) here is  a quick explanation plus some templates to help you.

What you'll need

Here is what to do:

1.  Print, paint or create your picture on the A4 heavy weight paper that you want to appear on the front.  If you are printing it a white border of up to 1cm around the edge is OK.  Anything more might cause problems.

2.  Download this page.  Print on plain A4 paper.  Important -  ensure that it is printed at full size with no scaling.  Stick it to the font of the picture with blutack.   Use it as a cutting guide.  This is the hard bit, a child will need help and be careful with the blade.  The solid lines should be cut completely.  The dashed lines should be scored (these are the hinges of the windows).  You might want to leave a tiny amount uncut on the opposite side to the hinge as this will help the windows to stay closed.  When you have finished take off the template and recycle.

3.  Download this page.    Print on heavy weight paper on your printer at full size without any scaling.  This is the page where you'll add your inside pictures.  The template includes all the boxes where you'll put your inside images.  If you are sticking a photo inside try to fill up these boxes otherwise it won't look that great when they are opened.  These boxes are deliberately bigger than the windows so bear in mind that detail around the edge might not be seen.

4.  Now go back to the front page which now should have cut out closed windows and number them.  It is up to you how to do it.  We've done one larger double window at the bottom which we've reserved for 24 but you can change that.

5.  Now go back to the page with the windows and apply glue or stick double sided tape in the areas shaded grey.

6.  Stick together.

7.  Give to your friend, loved one or child!

8.  Wait until December the 1st and the praise you will receive!

Here is a free print to commemorate  one of the most important days in your child's life.  You can download from our site and print on your own printer.  Here is what you should do:

1.  Download the print here.

2.  Locate the file and open.  You might need to download Adobe Acrobat which you can download here.

3.  Print on your own printer.  The paper size should be set to A4.

4.  Hang up in your child's room or on your fridge.  It's up to you.

We also do this image as a card.

We have been a fan of Lucy Loveheart for many years now and were delighted to have the opportunity of working with her earlier this year on some Christmas designs. Lucy's illustrations look great on a large scale so we decided on two A4 advent calendars where she'd have room for lots of detail. We couldn't resist publishing two mini cards too!

Lucy works in watercolour and collage on hand made recycled paper, and adorns her paintings with glitter, flowers, stars and stickers. All this glitter and sparkle gives her work a magical fairytale feel, and Lucy's list of inspiration includes childhood memories, magic and the world of make believe. You can see all of Lucy's designs here.

Lucy's own website can be found here and her facebook page is here.

Posted by Alice

On September the 16th 2012 we'll be exhibiting at Top Drawer in London's Olympia.  The show is open to shops and businesses only.  We will be showing three new ranges at the show for the first time (more details to follow) and you can get sneak peeks on our entry on their website.  If you are visiting the show you can get 5% off any order placed at the show if you mention the secret word "ARCO" when you place you order.  We look forward to seeing you there.  Stand E115.

We have made a small change to our personalised christening invitations as we noticed that we were getting several requests for a non Shakies option.  So now you can have them with or without our glitter and heart confetti.  The photo upload invite continues to be our most popular design which takes the personalisation that one stage further.  Our design team will send  a proof on receipt of the order and we won't print until you 100% happy with it.  We also have a twins design.  The invitations are sold with luxurious 170 gsm which envelopes.

We are delighted to announce that we have teamed up with CLIC Sargent and are now offering packs of 5 personalised Christmas sold on behalf of the charity.  For every pack sold we donate £1 to CLIC Sargent.  You can see the whole range here.

CLIC Sargent first contacted us earlier this year to see if we would be interested in working together but we were initially hesitant.  Charity Christmas cards gets some bad press these days as the amount that ends up at the Charity can end up to be very low.  The press often look at the percentage of the retail price and, as a publisher, this is not something we can control as the final price is set by the retailer.  The solution was to offer the cards exclusively through our website and this additionally allowed us to offer a personalised card with the option to include a photo upload version.  CLIC Sargent were pleased with this as it gave an alternative to their own range.  For every pack sold £1 is donated to the charity.  Their logo is printed in the inside together with your personalised message.

CLIC Sargent specialise in helping and caring for children with cancer.  They offer grants, holidays and breaks for families affected by the disease, they campaign and raise awareness and they provide a vital source of information about the illness and we are pleased to have the opportunity to raise money on their behalf.

With Bradley Wiggins' success at the Tour de France will come a sudden upsurge in cycling.  This according to a reporter I heard on Radio 4 this morning.  I certainly know a lot of fellow 40 something year olds who clad themselves in Lycra every Sunday to cycle 40 or 50 miles and we designed this card just for them.  It is one of 10 designs depicting retro designs and will be printed on a textured uncoated cream board and the detail and text will be debossed.  They should be out in September.

Last year in late July we were thinking about getting into the personalised stationery market and I made a couple of personalised notebooks for my 6 year old son's teachers (Christchurch Primary School here is Bristol).  Here is a picture from one of the pupils of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

They were so grateful and helped us make up our minds to get the ball rolling.  So here is a section of our website just for those hardworking teachers to say a huge thank you.  We have  cards and a good selection of notebooks some of which are personalised starting at £6.99 (£9.00 for the personalised ones).  And this example taken inspired by Roald Dahl's Matilda which I am currently reading to my son.  Such a great book.