The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd

New Diamante Embellishments for Wedding Invitations

2012-01-04T10:37:00.000Z

A new range of diamante and pearl embellishments are now available for wedding invitations and other wedding crafts. A silver pearl and gold pearl embellishment surrounded by a diamate rim will suit all wedding inivitation styles including pocketfolds.

A mini starfish diamante embellishment is also available to complement the larger starfish embellishment that is already available - these are suitable for use in beach or seaside themed weddings.

There are a number of other embellishments available - the New Year brings sparkly new embellishments and gems !

Diamante Snowflake Napkin Ring - Let it Snow !

2011-12-14T14:22:00.001Z

Our festive diamante snowflake embellishments are used to their full effect in an article in "Making Magazine" (Issue 15 - Winter 2011).

All you need to make the snowflake napkin ring are the diamante snowflake embellishments, memory wire and coloured beads. They will look lovely as Christmas table decorations or can be used for Winter weddings. We also have some small diamante snowflakes which can be used to decorated Christmas crackers !

Wedding Stationery Facebook Page

2011-07-12T11:33:00.002+01:00

Our Facebook page is now up and running for all things wedding stationery, wedding craft, table plans, handmade greeting cards and DIY wedding stationery ! Please pop along and "like" us !

Diamante Snowflake Embellishments for Winter Wedding Stationery

2011-07-11T16:53:00.000+01:00

We now have diamante snowflake embellishments available for making your own Winter wedding stationery. Measuring 4.5cm in diamater (approx) the diamante snowflake incorporates a central 7mm diamante stone from which five diamante dendrites interlock. These contain 2mm diamantes with 4mm diamantes at the snowflake tips. We love Winter weddings and these snowflake diamante embellishments can be used to add that Winter sparkle to invitations, save the dates, wedding favours, etc

Crystal AB Diamante Brooches, Buckles and Embellishments

2011-01-27T11:50:00.000Z

A new range of crystal AB diamante brooches, buckles and embellishments are now available from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd. The crystal "AB" (short for Aurora Borealis) effect is a very light rainbow effect that produces pale yellow tones and shimmers in pink and blue. The beautiful diamante embellishment, brooches and rhinestone buckles with the AB effect are great to use for that extra sparkle on wedding stationery, invitations and other wedding decorations.

Cameo Wedding Stationery Embellishments

2010-12-29T23:56:00.003Z

Cameo embellishments are set to be the trend setter for vintage style wedding stationery statement accessories in 2011 and we are pleased to launch two new embellishments. The vintage cameos are 2.3cm across and 2.9cm tall and have a sparkling rhinestone diamante band and a vintage filigree style setting and are available in Cordelia (a soft duck egg blue) and Jasper (black):

Cordelia Cameo Wedding Embellishment

Jasper Cameo Wedding Embellishment

Steeped in history, vintage cameos are ideal for adorning wedding invitations, wedding stationery, favour boxes, napkin decorations, chair decorations, wedding shoes, etc.

Cameos were initially introduced by the Emperor of France in 1803 and their popularity was revived by Queen Victoria.

Cameos look great on wedding stationery, invitations, menus, save the date cards, etc.

Wedding Stationery - Wedding Ideas Magazine Awards 2011

2010-12-29T09:05:00.000Z

Best Wedding Stationery Nominee
The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd

We are pleased to announce that The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd has been named as a nominee in the "Best Wedding Stationery" category for this year's Wedding Ideas Awards which attracted a record number of entries !

We would like to thank everyone who has voted for us and we are looking forward to the awards ceremony which will be taking place on 14th January at The Brewery in London.

The nominees for the awards, which are organised by Wedding Ideas Magazine, are featured in the February Issue 91 which is out on 29th December 2010.

Wedding Ideas Awards 2011 - Best Wedding Stationery

Royal Wedding Save The Date

2010-11-23T13:56:00.002Z

Save the Date for the Royal Wedding - 29th April 2011

It has been announced today that Prince William and Kate Middleton will marry on Friday 29th April 2011 - so we finally have a Royal Wedding Save the Date ! The announcement by Clarence House also confirmed that the wedding will take place at Westminster Abbey, which was also the wedding venue for the Queen and Queen Mother and was the venue for Princess Diana's funeral in 1997.

Now that the royal wedding date and wedding venue has been set, there will be a lot for the couple to organise. The prince's private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkington, stated that Prince William and Kate Middleton were "calling the shots" on their wedding plans but confirmed that they had a "rather large supporting cast" to help them.

There will certainly be a lot to organise including:

Royal Wedding Guest Lists
Royal Wedding Stationery
Royal Wedding Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses
Royal Wedding Reception
Royal Wedding Photographs
Royal Wedding Table Plan and Seating Plan
Royal Wedding Honeymoon

Prime Minister David Cameron said it would be "a happy and momentous occasion" and would be marked by a public holiday.

Wedding Ideas Magazine Awards 2011

2010-11-02T16:49:00.001Z

Voting is now live for the Wedding Ideas Awards 2011, your chance to vote for your favourite wedding companies.

If you are a wedding stationery or wedding craft customer please feel free to vote for us on the 'Wedding Stationery' and 'Special Finishing Touches' categories.

Ten lucky voters will win a meal for two in the stylish 1901 restaurant at Andaz Liverpool Street, worth £100! The Wedding Ideas Awards are organised by Wedding Ideas Magazine and this will be the sixth annual awards with the next few weeks of voting culminating in an awards ceremony at The Brewery in London where the winners will be announced.

Click on the Wedding Ideas Awards logo or text above to cast your vote !

We would like to thank everyone who has voted for us so far including our DIY wedding stationery and wedding craft clients, wholesale customers and our own wedding stationery and table plan customers. We really appreciate it !

DIY Table Plans

2010-09-08T15:35:00.001+01:00

A wedding seating plan may be the first thing that your guests see as they arrive at your reception so it's the perfect opportunity to set the tone for the day. A wedding table plan can coordinate with your wedding theme or colours.

DIY table plans from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd were featured in the July / August issue of "Perfect Day" magaizine.

With the right materials you can create your own table plan that's every bit as impressive as the professional options.

So what will you need:

Materials

Champagne Silver Framed DIY Table Plan with Ivory Mount
Card for printing table lists and title names
Roller Adhesive
Ruler
Masking tape
Framing tape
Flat head screwdriver
Ribbon
Diamante Buckles

To Create a DIY Table Plan with Diamante Buckles and Ribbon

1. Measure out the space available in each of the apertures in the mount and put together your seating lists in a word processing or image editing application. Make sure that you leave enough space between the table numbers/names and the guest names for the ribbon.
2. Print your table and guest names onto good quality card - we've used matt silver card but you can choose card to match your colour scheme. It's a good idea to do a test print first on plain paper to check you've got your sizes right.
3. Thread each buckle onto a length of ribbon and secure onto the lists with a small amount of adhesive by wrapping the ribbon around the card and securing on the reverse of the list.
4. Once all the lists are prepared, remove the mount from the frame by levering back the clips - to save your fingers, use a flat head screwdriver !
5. On the reverse of the mount, run the roller adhesive around the aperture you wish to work on.
6. With the mount face up, position the list into the aperture. When in the correct position, gently press down so that the roller adhesive holds the list in place. Check the list is properly centred with a ruler.
7. On the reverse side, secure the list all the way around the edge with masking tape.
8. Repat until all the apertures are filled.
9. Check the positioning of all the lists - when everything is complete, place the mount back in the frame.
10. Seal the frame with framing tape.

Top Tip

You may need to use a "custom size" or banner setting on your printer to print out the longer apertures for the names of the couple or the top table.

Where to buy

All the materials used in this design can be purchased from www.thehandcraftedcardcompany.co.uk or 01782639733. The framed table plan and mount bases cost from around £75.

Confetti thrown into administration

2010-08-17T12:33:00.001+01:00

It has been confirmed today that Confetti, the UK's leading online wedding and celebrations supplies business and with a turnover of c£5.7m has fallen into administration.

An announcement is now available on the website of RSM Tenon, the administrators. RSM Tenon have urged interested parties to contact the Recovery Team within the Edinburgh office of RSM Tenon on 01312218820.

The administrators have announced an urgent search for a buyer indicating an early closing date for offers set for 5pm on Monday 23rd August. RSM Tenon have confirmed that the five retails stores have been closed in order to focus on the established online business.

Joint administrator Kenny Craig who is a director with RSM Tenon in Glasgow said : "Confetti is a very high profile market leading online brand and enjoys a large customer base. the business has great potential for further development and the administration presents an outstanding opportunity for a retail business or entrepreneur to acquire an immediate presence in the wedding and celebrations market."

The statement highlights that 46 jobs of the 94 staff will be retained to support the online business and to provide key administrative services.

Our wedding blog over the weekend highlighted concerns of brides on the Confetti website forum as news was beginning to break and this has continued today with brides frustrated with long waiting times to get through on the Confetti helpline.

A large number of suppliers have also been effected, some have highlighted their plight on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites. Some have even stated that they will fulfil orders placed through Confetti even though they themselves have not been paid.

There has been no statement from The Hut Group who were reported as having purchased Confetti and I Want One of Those from Findel last week for £0.6M.

Confetti sold to The Hut Group

2010-08-15T17:37:00.022+01:00

Findel has sold leading wedding website "Confetti" and "I Want One of Those" in a deal worth £600,000 to Metro Holdings, a subsidiary of The Hut Group, which operates zavvi.com and washbag.com. The Hut Group also run white label sites for Debenhams and Woolworths. The retail businesses are operations of Findel’s subsidiary CWIO, which made a combined pre-tax loss of £13.8 million in the year to April 2010. The acquired companies have combined gross assets of £5.7 million and net liabilities of £19.3 million.

Confetti's online store is currently not operating and the retail shops in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow, Reading and Chester are closed. Many customers on the the Confetti forum (which is still functioning) are upset and concerned about their existing orders and the fate of staff at the retail stores:

"I have some outstanding orders, personalised chocolates (weren't due to be delivered until prob end November), table planner and holder and some favour boxes i paid for all these in Feb/March and recently in July (was waiting for the stock to be replaced) what i want to know is will these be honoured, delivered ?"
"Was to be expected thou, they have been holding sales continuously for the past year!"
"I have never bought anything from the shops or website because it is overpriced but I LOVE the forum!"
"Gutted..."

In response to a number of enquiries a Confetti representative on the forum tried to reassure customers stating that further news would be posted soon.

The announcement, at the height of the wedding season, is likely to effect brides with their last minute wedding purchases.

Confetti is a great brand (Comscore rated it as the UK's No.1 wedding website - Jan 2010) and the wedding forums are very popular as demonstrated by the support on the Facebook, Twitter and forum feeds. It is likely the Hut Group will retain Confetti's online shopping site and will integrate the ecommerce technology platform and fulfilment operations used by The Hut Group's other websites, but this may take some time to implement. 500 new products have been launched by Confetti in recent months covering bridal shoes, tiaras, jewellery, table decorations and wedding stationery taking its range to over 4000 products - these are likely to be cut significantly. The Confetti forum and wedding directory is likely to continue, since advertisers have paid in advance for directory listings and banner adverts. The fate of Confetti's retail shops, however, looks less certain.

The warning signs were evident with ongoing sales and discount codes continuing throughout the year. In fact, the latest "Summer of Love" discount code "ICECREAM" offered 20% off this weekend. Sadly, the ice cream has melted leaving a sticky mess of Confetti in administration, "brides to be" worried about their last minute orders and suppliers wondering if they will ever be paid.

Further announcements are expected from the company shortly.

Vintage Diamante Hearts for Wedding Stationery, Wedding Cake Jewellery and Wedding Chair Decorations

2010-07-02T22:10:00.005+01:00

Three new diamante heart brooch embellishments are now available from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd. The "Vintage Venice" diamante brooches are available in amethyst, crystal and turquoise stone colours set in a silver coloured metal setting .

Vintage Venice Diamante Brooch Embellishment - Amethyst

Vintage Venice Diamante Brooch Embellishment - Crystal

Vintage Venice Diamante Brooch Embellishment - Turquoise

Diamante embellishments can be used on wedding stationery, save the date cards, favours, table plans, as well as wedding cake jewellery and wedding chair decorations.

Wedding Stationery - Be Creative !

2010-06-13T15:38:00.000+01:00

The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd are featured on the Orange website feature "Wedding Bells on a Budget: save £8000".

Orange quote that "Companies such as the The Handcrafted Card Company sell cards, envelopes and everything you need to make luxury hand-crafted cards, from heart-shaped stickers to bows and ribbon."

Orange refer to an article by AA Savings who highlight that making your own wedding stationery is the favourite way in which couples are cutting costs. The original survey carried out by weddingplan shows that half of couples plan to spend less on their wedding than they would like to due to the economic downturn. Orange quote that "Some 45% of couples had made, or planned to make, their own invitations, while 40% are giving the personal touch to thank you cards."

The Orange website identifies other ways of saving money on weddings including:

Wedding Dresses
Host the wedding venue yourself
Buffet style wedding breakfast
Rope in family and friends

The AA survey "Cash-strapped Brits cut back on wedding day luxuries" identified 10 top ways of cutting back, including:

Making own invitations (45%)
Making own thank you cards (40%)
Inviting fewer guests (36%)
Cutting down on all luxuries (32%)
Getting a friend to do the photography (31%)
Do own hair and make up (26%)
Ask a friend to DJ (23%)
No posh car (22%)
Buffet instead of a sit down meal (19%)
No balloons (18%)

Flower Wedding Stationery - Guild Range

2010-06-11T17:11:00.005+01:00

The guild range of flower wedding stationery from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd is featured in the Spring / Summer Pure Weddings magazine which is published by Lancashire Life, Cheshire Life and Yorkshire Life and features real life weddings from Aughton, Bolton. Bradford, Chester, Halifax and Tarporley.

The guild range of wedding invitations feature roses, gerbera, orchid, calla lily and stargazer flowers. The guild stargazer wedding stationery is featured on page 59 of the Pure Weddings magazine.

The Spring / Summer 2010 issue of Pure Wedding magazine has a number of great features including:

Wedding Jewellery in Chester
Turquoise trends in bridal bouquets
Celebrity style for your marquee reception
Rising glamour in the world of wedding cakes - At The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd we have seen our diamante buckles and diamante embellishments used as beautiful cake decorations
Make the most of your first dance as husband and wife
An award wining photographer offers brides-to-be his advice
A mini moon with a difference
Breathtaking wedding gowns suitable for your beach wedding
Be the best dressed wedding guest
Stylish wedding attire for the boys

Laser Cut Butterfly Wedding Invitation

2010-06-11T16:25:00.004+01:00

We really love butterfly wedding themes and this laser cut butterfly embellishment can be used on wedding invitations, place cards, favours and table plans. We have incorporated a laser cut velum butterfly evening invitation and enhanced the look with Swaorvski crystals and satin ribbon on a pearlescent board and foiled "Evening Invitation" text. For further details of butterfly theme wedding stationery please visit The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd website.

New Laser Cut Greeting Cards Added to "Hole in One" Range

2010-06-02T15:21:00.003+01:00

Three new laser cut greeting cards have now been added to the "Hole in One" range from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd ":

Happy Birthday - "Game Set and Match !" - with laser cut tennis player serving for the match !
Happy Birthday - "Crank up the Volume !" - with laser cut electric guitar (with amp turned up load !)
Happy Birthday - "A Vintage Year !" - with laser cut bottle of wine (and empty wine glass ready for a refill !)

Race Day Invitation

2010-05-26T17:38:00.004+01:00

We were recently commissioned to design a bespoke corporate race day invitation. A laser cut horse and rider approach the finishing line on a green coloured card ! We hope that everyone was a winner at the event and a good time was had by all !

Sex & The City Wedding Receptions

2010-05-26T17:26:00.001+01:00

A diamante shoe embellishment place card from The Handcrafted Card Co Ltd is highlighted in this months Wedding Ideas Magazine feature "Sex & The City Receptions"

Wedding favour boxes, stationery, sweets, table plans, cakes table diamonds, table name cards, candles, cake toppers, jewellery are shown in four fabulous wedding looks. Wedding Ideas Magazine is out now at all good retailers !

Nautical Wedding Theme

2010-05-26T16:45:00.000+01:00

All things "nautical" appear in this months Wedding Ideas Magazine. Seashell combs, starfish earrings, tropical save the dates and seaside wedding invitations all feature in the "Find my Theme - Nautical !". Our nautical seating tag is detailed on page 219 of the June 2010 issue of the magazine, showing a small boat embellishment on an ivory seating tag card with matching lilac ribbon threaded through a gold coloured metal eyelet. Navy blue, lilac, white and red are the key colours to choose for a seaside wedding theme with seashells, waves, boats, starfish, regatta flags, beech huts, buckets and spades providing the inspiration.

Handmade Greeting Cards at Progressive Greetings Live

2010-05-26T15:40:00.001+01:00

Day 2 of Progressive Greetings Live at the Business Design Centre in London where The Handcrafted Card Company are featuring some of their new handmade greeting cards. The new Valentine's Day cards feature a black foiled scroll design on a rich red board with Swarovski crystal embellishments. There are 14 designs in the range including "Be my Valentine", "I Love You", "He Loves Me", "She Loves Me", "Be Mine", "Truly, Madly, Deeply", "I Love You to Infinity and Beyond", "You Set My Heart On Fire", "We're in Perfect Harmony", "You Make my Heart Skip a Beat", "Head over Heels", "Kiss Me", "Marry Me", and "Let's Write a Happy Ending".

Diamante Embellishments for Cake Decorations, Invites and Clothes

2010-05-26T14:35:00.003+01:00

Diamante buckles and embellishments are featured in Junes issue of Wedding Ideas (Issue 83). The Waterford Diamante brooch from The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd is featured on page 187 and gets the "Wow" vote from Wedding Ideas Magazine. Diamante buckles and embellishments can be used on cake decorations, clothing or wedding stationery.

Golden Ticket Awarded to The Handcrafted Card Co Ltd at PGLive

2010-05-25T14:15:00.006+01:00

We are proud to have been awarded the Golden Ticket award at PGLive 2010 ! Further details will be posted later but we just couldn't resist telling the world. You can find us, our new handmade greeting cards and the Golden Ticket on Stand 788 !

Update:
We have also been awarded a Silver Ticket award as well .... we like it here !

New Father's Day Cards with Laser Cut Embellishments

2010-05-24T22:20:00.003+01:00

A new range of Father's day cards with laser cut glitter card embellishments and Swarovski crystals will be launched by The Handcrafted Card Co Ltd tomorrow at PGLive, the London International Card Show event at the Business Design Centre. The "Showtime Father's Day" range includes "You Rock", "Have a Great Day", "Indulge, Relax, Enjoy", "To a Classic Dad", "To a Great Dad", "To a Seriously Cool Dad", "To the Best Taxi Driver in Town", "You Rock" and "You're a Star".

New Laser Cut Greeting Cards Launched at Progressive Greetings Live 2010

2010-05-24T21:59:00.001+01:00

The Handcrafted Card Company Ltd will be launching a new range of laser cut mens greeting cards at Progressive Greetings Live 2010 called "Hole in One". Every card has at least one laser cut image cut from beautiful coloured card stock. Horse racing, darts, motor racing, beer, snooker, golf, fishing, music, rugby, cricket, skateboarding and football provide the inspiration for the laser cut images. We will be on stand 788 at PGLive 2010, which is being held at the Business Design Centre, London on 25th and 26th May 2010.