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Bespoke Floral Kitchen Splashbacks

April 27, 2010 By 3 Comments
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We have some more exciting news to share with you.

A previous blog post we talked about a new floral splashback we designed for the high quality kitchen fittings and accessories shop – My Kitchen Store.

We have been asked if we could provide a  bespoke, floral collection, for kitchen splashbacks.

We loved designing the oriental poppy and jumped at the chance to provide a special collection.

There are many ways that we can bring a touch of nature into our living spaces, such as house plants, vases filled with bouquets of flowers, floral greeting cards,  framed and canvas prints, as well as kitchen and bathroom splashbacks.

Working with My Kitchen Store, we are delighted to announce our brand new flower collection for kitchen splashbacks. I am sure that they could also be added in your bathroom if you wish.

Our collection has been designed baring in mind various styles and colour schemes, as well as providing a complementing floral framed and canvas prints to carry your chosen design into your sitting room or dining room.

We hope you like our collection -

Anemone De Caen Splashback © Bearded iris Splashback © Spring blossom kitchen Splashback © Orchid Kitchen Splashback ©

Germini Kitchen Splashback © Bluebell Kitchen Splashback © Orange and Yellow Tulip Splashback © Tulips in dappled sunlight Kitchen Splashback

Iris Media Luz Kitchen Splashback © Sunflower kitchen splashback © Hibiscus kitchen Splashback © Snowdrop Kitchen Splashback ©

Parisian style Tulips Kitchen Splashback © A glimpse of an anemone kitchen splashback © Red poppy Kitchen Splashback ©

For further information about this collection please visit my website – Bespoke Kitchen Splashbacks

They are made from 6 mm toughened glass and conforms to the BS 62606 and PREN 12000 standards.

If you would like any of the above designs on an eco friendly tote bag, please let us know.

Any enquires about kitchen splashbacks  and other fittings and accessories please contact My Kitchen Store

All images © Nita Joy Craft Design

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Tulips

April 25, 2010 By 6 Comments
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Today we are looking at the lovely tulip.

Words to describe tulips could be –

  • Cheerful
  • Elegant
  • Showy
  • Colourful

What words would you use to describe this flower?

In the language of flowers, the tulip means –

  • Beautiful eyes
  • Fame
  • Love

Interesting facts:

  • There are over 109 species, with approximately 3,000 different varieties in the tulip family the Liliaceae.
  • If you buy tulips as cut flowers, they will continue to grow in a vase.
  • The first tulips originated as a wildflower in Central Asia. It was in the 17th century that tulips was introduced to Europe. Tulips were so popular in Holland that some special varieties became very expensive to buy; it could quite easily cost the same as buying a house!
  • The Flower Design Institute have provided a useful video on how to care and arrange tulips. Please visit their website for further tips and hints for arranging beautiful displays of flowers.

There are 3 flowering times –

  • Early flowering – March – April
  • Mid season flowering – April -May
  • Late flowering – May
  • There are 12 viruses that can affect tulips, causing problems with the flowers and leaves, as well as problems with growth. The RHS provide a useful information page to help you notice symptoms and give advice on how you can help improve the health of your tulips – Tulips Viruses
  • This bulbous plant is lovely to see in spring, with its amazing range of colours and patterns at various heights from the tall and elegant, to the striking compact variety.
  • Tulips can often be seen in our local parks and roundabout displays as well as a garden favourite.

White and Green Tulips Greeting Card

I have been very fortunate to see the wonderful tulip farms and gardens  in Holland when I was a child. It is something I would like to return to and see again, as it left me speechless, admiring the fields of rich colour.

Daffodils and Tulips Holland Tulips Tulips in Holland

Above 3 images of Tulips and daffodils from Holland, are taken by my Dad from one of our trips.

I have been enjoying various gardens in Dorset and Hampshire admiring this beauty. There are so many different varieties it’s hard to choose a favourite, do you have a favourite?

Tulips can be grown successfully in containers and spring borders. They often provide a sense of structure to a garden border, and mixes well with other plants. I have particularly enjoyed gardens that have concentrated on a green and white colour scheme, with white tulips, daffodils and snowflakes dotted around green foliage. This provides a cool restful scene. An example of this can be seen at Apple Court Gardens in Hampshire, which we will be writing a blog post about our visit very soon.

If you would like to visit a garden to admire this lovely varied flower, the following is a small selection of gardens and farms recommended to see tulips.

  • Keukenhof in Holland has some 32 acres of Tulips!
  • Pashley Manor Gardens in Sussex have a tulips festival, running from the 23rd April –  3rd May. They have some 23,000 tulips to admire!

Spring colour at Kew Gardens

Where to buy Tulips

All garden centres sell tulips, but if you are looking for a specialist grower –

At Nita Joy Craft Design we have some special personalised tulip cards for a variety of occasions, or add your personal message.

We will also have some tulip designs available for kitchen splashbacks through My Kitchen Store, which we will be announcing soon!

Orange tulips and narcissus good luck cardWherever you live, there is sure to be a garden near you where you can enjoy the beautiful tulip.

Enjoy!

We would love to hear your recommended places to see Tulips so we can share them with our blog readers.

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New poppy design glass splashback

April 15, 2010 By 1 Comment
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We were asked by high quality kitchen accessories and fittings shop – My Kitchen Store, if we could provide them with a poppy from our flower image collection, suitable for a bespoke glass splashback.

Glass splashbacks provide a wonderful update to your kitchen, with minimal fuss and cost, and also brings the wow factor.

My Kitchen store has a wide range of floral glass splashbacks including -

And not forgetting the -

Creating a warm, inviting atmosphere in our home’s doesn’t need to be costly.

If you love flowers and are looking to update your kitchen, then choosing an amazing glass splashback could be the answer you are looking for.

The designs will help complete the look you are creating, and is sure to provide a wonderful backdrop to many conversations, as your friends and family admire your accessories when they next visit.

I often talk about bringing a touch of nature into your home, why stop at the living room or dining room … be inspired by the beauty of nature in the kitchen, as you create wonderful menus for your family and friends.

Please take a moment to see My Kitchen Store’s floral glass splashback collection.

Black glass splashback with red poppy design

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Personalised birthday cards

April 9, 2010 By 2 Comments
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We have been enjoying the wonderful spring flowers that have been appearing everywhere.

With the cold winter, several flowers have been quite late this year. Some have suffered a little from the varying temperatures and weather conditions, other plants and flowers have thrived.

This year, one of my particular delights, has been the beautiful violets.

I have added a new violet birthday card to the collection. violet birthday card

As I have been enjoying the changing seasons, I have also been working on our personalised birthday card collection.

With so many cards on the market, I wanted to provide a service where you can add your special message and name of the intended recipient on the front of the card and / or inside the card if you wish.

Some of our cards are designed around names, which we have greatly enjoyed creating. We have a basic design and then change according to names added, which means each card is slightly different.    Special name birthday card

The reviews from customers have been wonderful, which always makes it even more worthwhile, as we spend a lot of time creating special cards.

Many have said how much their friend or family member has enjoyed having a birthday card with their name included in the design.

If you have a several birthdays coming up, we provide packs of 5 cards where each card can have a different name or message added for the total cost of £7.50 with free p&p.

We hope that you will enjoy looking through our collection, and look forward to making a special card for you.

Send a card, brighten someone’s day

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floral gifts

March 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Gerbera Mother's Day cards

I have been mainly focusing on personalised cards using my flower photography for the past two years.

My floral gift collection includes personalised totebags and notebooks, as well as coasters and candle holders which will be available to buy through my website soon.

For those who enjoy gardening we have the lovely ranges – Pocket Garden and Bee Good candles from Canova

Within the last few months we have been working towards providing a larger complementing gift range using my flower images.

Many customers and friends have asked if my flower photography was available as framed or canvas prints, so I have been working to expand my range. The below image is an example of the prints available to buy. They would make a lovely Easter or Birthday gift, bringing a touch of nature to your living space.

As well as my special collection of floral art prints, I am pleased to be able to tell you that we are now able to provide a range of personalised mugs, t-shirts, aprons, baby outfits, shoes, tote bags and so on through our zazzle shop.

Nigella Love-in-a-mist slip on shoes kedsshoe

I am particulary excited to have my floral prints available on shoes.

I hope you will like my collection.

If you are interested in our gift range please visit my website for further details. – www.sendafloralgift.com Sunflower Apron apron

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Other places to see snowdrops

March 8, 2010 By 2 Comments
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Last week, I went on my annual trip with my dad, looking for snowdrops.

Snowdrops in the Dorset and Hampshire region have flowered quite late this year and after all the cold windy weather we have been having, some snowdrops which are open to all the elements, have had a rough time holding their delicate heads held high.

In the language of flowers the snowdrop means – A friend in adversity and hope.

If you know someone who is having a hard time, a trip to see the lovely snowdrop is sure to life their spirit.

Now is the time to plant snowdrops ‘in the green.’ Planting them now will give you a fantatstic display next year.

On my day out we decided on visiting 2 areas that we knew would be excellent to see this lovely flower.

Damerham church has the wow factor of several thousand snowdrops planted together in the church grave yard. They often hold special snowdrops days to welcome visitors. It was lovely to see, and just how I remembered.

The snowdrops were beautiful, even though they were a little windswept. If you want to see snowdrops in their thousands, then this is a lovely place to visit next year.

We then moved on to Breamore church.

As we carefully moved around the wonderous display of snowdrops in the pretty church yard, I counted around 5 different varieties growing there. There was probably more, but this was the number I spotted. These snowdrops had a little more protection from the elements than the ones at Damerham, so there was plenty of opportunities to photograph them.

There was also a lovely area of winter aconites.

The yellow of the aconites and white and green of the snowdrops had a really fresh, spring feel.

I watched Countryfile the other week, and the presenter looking at snowdrops in Scotland said he thought snowdrops looked all the same. Well if you view them from a far, you may agree. It’s not really until you examine the detail of each of them, that you will see how different and special they can be. It’s epecially hard to see the differences, due to the fact that they are low to the ground, and the flower heads point downwards.

This particular snowdrop wanted the world to see her beauty, as this flower head was pointing outwards. I was so pleased to have spotted this one and capture the image. I have heard of some people using dental mirrors to see the insides of low growing flowers, and I can quite see how useful this would be.

If you like this snowdrop image, it is available to buy as a framed, mounted or canvas print

As I have said before you can see beautiful flowers all over the place. You don’t always need to go to a specific garden to see them, it’s often fun to look into alternative places, such as church yards, roundabouts etc…

Where are your favourite places to go?

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Tips on how to improve your photography

February 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Tips on taking great photos.

I have always enjoyed making cards from designing cards using various papers and images, using the technique decoupage and my photo greeting cards.

As we offer a bespoke service turning your photos into special greeting cards, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to talk about how to make your photos extra special and memorable, particularly if it’s for a special occasion, or you need to present a product at it’s best.

It used to be that you needed a very expensive camera to take high quality photos, but now you can even take a great photo on a mobile phone.

As readers of my blog will know, I love flowers and nature. Some ask me how I take my photos, interested in my ‘processes’. I have to say that it’s because I love flowers and the colours and detail.  It’s easy in the sense that if I love snowdrops for example, I will want to show them in the best possible light! I will want people who see my photos to see why I love snowdrops showing them the detail, which you may miss ordinarily.

I suggest that you take this thought and apply it to your situation. Instead of the usual stand still and smile at the camera approach, think from a different perspective. We all love photos of children who are laughing for example, fully engaged in a fun activity, focus on the moment, not on what we think makes a good photograph. Natural images are the best! I am not a huge fan of the forced ‘say cheese’ shots, as immediately this puts people in un-natural focus.

If you want to improve your photography technique, choose a subject you already enjoy, this will then help increase your enjoyment and make it easier. Do you have a hobby you could focus on?

Practice and practise. You can read every book and manual out there on what you should do to take a great photo, but in some senses this becomes a very intellectual approach. We all learn from experience, don’t be afraid of taking a bad photo; look at them, why don’t you like that particular photo and what would you do differently next time.

* Take photos in different lights and note down what you like and don’t like. (It’s best not to photograph flowers, objects, people etc… in direct sunlight; you want the image defined in rich colours and detail, not washed out or gaudy.)

* Try a different angle. It’s natural to look at something and think oh that’s nice must take a photo … ask yourself, is this the best place to take the photo?

* Try different heights! This can turn an ordinary photo into a really interesting one. (you can often find me lying / sitting on the floor with my camera)

* Try to frame your image in some way, by leading the eye in to your photo

* Backgrounds are crucial, you don’t want a background that is cluttered and takes away from the overall effect you are trying to achieve. A camera setting of about F5 – 6 will blur your background focusing on your main image.

* Lessen the noise in your picture. A digital camera set at ISO 100 will help.

* Try taking an image with the main focal point off – centre, applying the rule of thirds

* Play and have some fun

If you are taking photos of products rather than flowers or people, for example products for eBay, think through what the product are for. Sometimes when the detail of a product is important it needs to be seen as clearly as possible, a blank canvas and daylight lighting is best. You can buy table top photo cube light tents online from £10.00 (spotted on eBay) with various colour backgrounds; this would be a simple way of showing your products.

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