Off to talk at the Ladder Club Tomorrow ....

Yesterday we met Janet from GF Smith for lunch to celebrate our Henries win, before taking a look at the New Manchester Gift Show......and came back to the office to these lovely flowers sent to congratulate our win, Thanks to Nigel and everyone at Hallidays and Marjorie and Jason.

The show was held at the Trafford Centre and we were keen to take a look as it is so close to where we live.  We were met by these two on arrival.

There were a few card companies there, the biggest card stand was taken by North West agent Neil Greenwood, where he took space to represent the companies he carries.  Including Laura Darrington, Velvet Olive, Brainbox Candy, Urban Graphic, and Pango amongst others.

Our honest opinion of the show was that as it is very regional it probably wouldn't be worth doing, having said that it is very cheap at only £125 per metre.



The dreaded time has come around for us to talk at the Ladder Club, so we won't be around for the next few days.  The Ladder Club is great, we just hate talking to so many people and get so nervous, we have spent all day writing what we are going to say but it will all go to pot when we stand up to talk, wish us luck!!

We won at The Henries .....

Hooray!!  We are both still in shock but we won a 'Henrie" at last weeks prestigious greeting card awards which were held at The Lancaster Hotel in London.

We were nominated in the Best Giftwrappings Collection with our designs which we licensed to Glick and they entered under the Paper Salad Brand.

We were up against stiff competition and really didn't expect to win!  Other finalists were Gorgeous and Girlie from Marks and Spencers and Orla Kiely Paper Collection.

The Henries greeting card awards were launched by Progressive Greetings Worldwide magazine in 1997 to recognise and award the excellence in the UK greeting card design and execution, with awards covering the whole spectrum.  The Henries are so called after Sir Henry Cole who was an eminent Victorian, whose 'claims to faim' include the UK's famous Great Exhibition of 1851, being the first director of the Victoria and Albert museum, a leading light in the establishment of the Penny Post - and most importantly he introduced the first ever commerical Christmas card! The awards are judged by 30 of the UK's top greeting card buyers including Paperchase, Waitrose, John Lewis and WH Smith.

We haven't as yet seen the official photos of us receiving the award but here are a few photos of the night ....

Before the award ceremony began

Laura Darrington and one of 'The Bearded Ladies' Aka Mark from Brainbox Candy.

Mark and Ben from Brainbox Candy, the night had a Circus theme, hence the fancy dress.

Karen with one of the girls from Stop The Clock Design.

Gavin and Anna from The Little Dog who were up for nomination in three categories with their fantastic cards.

The view from our room at The Lancaster Hotel over a lovely  Autumn day over London and Hyde Park.

Karen celebrating with Ian Hylands from Noel Tatt.

Award founders and editors of Progressive greetings Jakki Brown and Warren Lomax.  

More pics to follow....

The Ladder Club & London 2012 Design

Next month will be our third year talking at The Ladder Club, a crash course in greeting card publishing, run by Lynn Tait, of the Lynn Tait Gallery. Held once a year to help people trying to break into the greeting card market, it is full of essential information that would otherwise take years to find out! We attended when were thinking of making the leap from designer to publisher in 2004 and it helped us enormously. We were honoured when Lynn asked us to speak as we felt we had learnt so much over the years and had lots to give back to new publishers. The only problem is that we are not natural public speakers and standing up to talk in front of a room filled with over 100 people is nerve-racking, especially as some people struggle to understand our Northern accents!

The London 2012 design is going to be used as an example to show how different print finishes like flitter and foil can effect a design. More posts on The Ladder Club to follow!!