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  • Hello! I'm Elizabeth, owner and designer of Elzybells Art Stamps. I’m very lucky as I have made a business from something I love which started out as a card making hobby! I hope you like our stamps and enjoy browsing my blog and find some inspiring ideas.

    Happy Stamping!!



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    Elzybells Art Stamps Ltd

29 May 2009

It's party time...

... and YOU'RE invited!!
 
Now, who wouldn't want to go to a birthday party hosted by these cute teddies...?!!
 

 
Well, I am *VERY* excited to announce that June brings the elzybells blog's 1st birthday and I'd like to invite you all to help me blow out the candle!!
Will you come??
 

 
 
.... I have lots of fun celebrations planned throughout the entire month including competitions, special challenges and lots of chances to win some stamping goodies....  I do hope you can stop by - details to follow on Monday!!
 
Until then, have a great weekend!
 

13 May 2009

Shop news!!

I have been talking about colouring / blending with Koh-noors this week. Having bought my set directly from the US, I have found that they are very difficult - if not, practically impossible to find in the UK.
 
Well, guess what?!
 
The full set of 24 Koh-i-noor woodless colour pencils is available to purchase in our online store right now! We also have a gold and a silver koh-i-noor pencil available!! How cool is that?!!
 
not only that....
 
We have packs of extremely high quality paper stumps (which I absolutely love to use!) and two sizes of low odour mineral spirit (OMS) for blending.
You'll notice that we offer a pack of assorted sized stumps as well as packs of each different size stump. I figured that some sizes might suit you better than others so I want to give you the option to purchase whichever size you prefer rather than spending money on those that you may not use so much.
I absolutely *love* these blending stumps, I really can't recommend them enough. They have just the perfect softness to them to move the colour around effectively and they don't squeak, lol. 
It took me a while to source blending stumps which I am 110% happy using myself and having tried several brands, I know you will love them too! :)
 
and that's not all....
 
We will also be offering packs of exceptionally smooth white card which is the perfect surface for blending with OMS. This is the card that I use for all my blending and found it sooo good that I want to offer it to you too!
I have compared the card to other companies and I can honestly say, I prefer this one. The card is 240gsm / 140lbs so it's quite thick, a nice weight for layering (but it's not really suitable for use as base card as it's not quite thick enough for that).
 
So you can get everything you need to colour and blend to your heart's content!
 
and to top it all off....
 
As I'm SO excited to offer these gorgeous products, I am offering the set of 24 pencils and the individual gold and silver pencils at a discounted
 
** special introductory price ** 
for the next two weeks only!!

and the cherry on top....
 
BLOG CANDY!!!!!!
 
How do you fancy a chance at winning the following:
 
1 pack of 24 Koh-i-noor coloured pencils
1 gold Koh-i-noor pencil
1 silver Koh-i-noor pencil
1 75ml bottle Sansodor
1 pack of assorted sized blending stumps
1 pack of 25 sheets smooth white card
 
To be entered for this fabulous blog candy, just leave a comment on this post and I will randomly pick a winner this Saturday - it could be you!!
(only one comment per person please)
 
To see these new products, click on the 'Colouring Supplies' link in the store (under Supplies & Accressories).
 
 
 

27 March 2009

A few changes...

I wanted to give you a little advance warning of a few changes coming in April.
 
Pricing
April brings in the new financial year and I've been scrutinising our costs given the change in the exchange rate and in turn, the sharp increase in our manufacturing and import costs. Unfortunately, I do need to increase prices just slightly.
As you know our prices are *extremely* reasonable - in fact our stamps are an utter bargain! The pricing will be bought a little closer in-line with other UK stamp companies but they will still be less expensive on the whole :)
I wanted to give you a little bit of warning about this as none of us like price increases, so if you've been hankering after any stamps, now is the time to get them - especially with our free shipping this weekend.
 
 
Reward Scheme
There will be a slight change with the reward scheme. At the moment, you collect stickers for every £5 spent on stamps only, other products do not qualify.
From April 1st the amount you have to spend to receive a sticker will increase to £10 but the good news is that you can collect them on *anything* you buy in the shop (excluding shipping).
The reason for the change is that I have plans for more exciting items to be available in the shop in the coming months and it would be great for you to collect rewards on everything we have available, not just stamps!
 
 
Wood mounted stamps
We have made the decision to discontinue the wood mounted option for all our rubber stamps. We have been deliberating about this for a long while but unfortunately, the small percentage of wood mounted sales does not make it practical for us to offer this option. I must admit, it also makes me feel a little better about the company's impact on the environment.
 
I hope this will not inconvenience those of you who prefer wood mounted stamps too much. The change will not be immediate - we will continue offering wood mounted stamps until the current stock of wood runs out. This may happen slowly or it may happen quickly, it all depends on orders.
Inevitably, some sizes will run out quicker than others, so you may find that the wood mounted option is no longer available for some stamps but still available for others.
As I said above, there will be some price increases next month, however, the price of wood mounted stamps will remain the same as they are at present. I don't think it would be fair to increase the prices considering we will be discontinuing this option.
 
 
As always, I'm happy to hear your feedback / suggestions. Price increases are never a great thing. I know many of us are tightening our belts so I will be doing my very best to keep the increases minimal.
 
 
  xx
 

26 March 2009

Spreading some Summer love

I really hope you've been enjoying the Spring cards so far this week. I've so enjoyed the fun colours that come at this time of year. The weather having perked up last week has now gotten much colder again but you know what - British Summer time official begins this Sunday!!
Ooh that makes me so happy, I'm loving the lighter evenings and the beautiful daffodils that have sprung. I'm being optimistic that it won't be too long before it warms up again and I thought I'd share some of the sunshine to come...
 

As a thank you for your constant support, encouragement and best wishes, I'd like to offer you a little something... I was thinking of having free shipping for a few days? I think this makes the most difference when ordering so you can make your pounds go further, especially in these more difficult times.
What do you think??
 
So the 3 day Summer Shipping Special will be from Sat 28th - Mon 30th March! It will be applicable on all orders, worldwide (excluding wholesale orders). There'll be no coupon code to use - the shop will automatically deduct the shipping, so it's easy-peasy!
 
Please spread the word and have a sunny day!!
 

 
 
 
Stamps used:
11-002 Daffodil chick
 

03 March 2009

Your feedback

 

Many of you kindly took the time to answer my questionnaire just before Christmas and I'm very pleased that by far, the majority of people are completely happy with our products and service :)
Several of you mentioned some changes you would like to see on the blog and in the shop so I thought I'd take the opportunity to address them here.
 
Search facility
It was suggested that I have a search option on the blog so that you can find things a little easier, in particular card samples made using specific stamps. So if you look towards the top left corner you will now see a google search tool. Hopefully this will work well. I have also added product codes to all the cards in the galleries so if you search for ideas using a particular stamp, they should show up in the results.
 
Currencies
Many people outside of the UK asked that prices also be shown in other currencies. This was the most popular request. At the moment the online shop does have the facility to show either the Euro or the USD (but not both at the same time). The reason I have not used this feature yet, is that I would be responsible for keeping the rate of exchange up to date - there's no way of it being kept up to date automatically. I fear that with fluctuations, if the price was not accurate, you might get an unpleasant surprise when you see your credit card bill and I would hate that to be the case or to mislead you in any way. However, I am interested in finding a solution and will look into this further...
 
Personalised stamps
A few of you mentioned how much you miss the personalised stamps we used to make. I miss designing and stamping with them too! Unfortunately it is something we simply can no longer manufacture. Previously, we had a huge machine which engraved the rubber straight from a design on the computer, without the need for plates and moulds. This machinery was extremely expensive to run and maintain so we made the decision to outsource our manufacturing instead. With the new method (vulcanising), plates and moulds are needed and it would simply make personalised stamps not only *extremely* expensive but also the turnaround time very long.
 
More clear stamp in a set for the price
I'm certainly bearing this in mind as I design new sets.
 
Clear stamps available as rubber too
Although I cannot offer every clear design as a rubber stamp, I may look into having a selected few available. If you have any particular favourite's leave a comment and let me know!
 
Limited edition designs
Someone mentioned they'd like to see limited edition designs. I'm afraid I don't have any plans to do this as I think our products should be easily available to everyone, all the time. This is why it will be rare that we discontinue designs too.
 
A Muse
A couple of people asked that we license more designs through A Muse so that they can distribute them in North America. I didn't want to ignore these requests so want to elaborate just briefly - The license agreement with A Muse was for a 2 year trial period which ends in Oct 09. Although I very much appreciate A Muse's hard work and efforts in disseminating our products throughout the North American territories, unfortunately our relationship has not worked out as I would have hoped and I have decided not to license any more designs.
We have no plans to offer the smaller sized stamps ourselves at any time in the future.
 
Daily blog posts
Arghh, there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to post every day, lol. However, I will be starting a monthly guest designer feature this month so there will be more varied samples, more regularly :)
 
I'd like to see creations shown on the blog by people other than the DT and Elizabeth.
We have fortnightly challenges set by the DT where anyone can play along. There's also a showcase every week which gives you an opportunity to show off your talent! To make it a little more interesting, I have started a monthly draw so anyone who plays along is automatically included for the chance to win an elzybells gift voucher. And as I say, we have some fabby guest designers lined up!
 
Customer accounts
A few people mentioned how useful it would be to have accounts which customers can log into to check order status / view order history / static wishlist. This is something I wanted when the online shop was set up but unfortunately our web designers do not offer the facility at this time. It would be very handy to convert the reward scheme to an online system too... but that won't be in the near future I'm afraid  Tantrum
 
Option to view more products on one page
A few people mentioned it would be nice to be able to select to view more items on a page. I will ask my web designer if this is possible.
 
A larger range of products in the shop; papers, inkpads etc
I am very keen to introduce more products to the online store in the coming months. We have moved to larger premises which makes it more practical, so watch this space ... :D
 
Make the paypal button easier to see
I plan to remedy this.
 
Unmounted stamps available with foam already attached
I'm afraid we have no plans to offer this option - it would mean more work and packaging for us and so price increases for you. For us, offering the naked rubber is the best option, so customers can use their preferred brand of cushion / mounting method and we can keep prices down.
 
Stamp packaging
Someone mentioned they'd like to see all our unmounted stamps individually packaged.
We do this for our wholesale customers to make it easier for the stores to present the products and for customers to see the stamp design clearly without having guess by looking at the rubber. However, we have no plans to apply this to the unmounted stamps sold online as the price would increase dramatically due to the extra time and costs involved.
We pride ourselves on our extremely reasonable prices and feel the majority of customers would rather spend their money on more stamps, not the packaging. We do however, now pack the majority of unmounted stamps into a resealable clear bag before putting them into a padded jiffy envelope so that you don't lose any small stamps when you open your package.
 
I think that just about covers it! I have put a long list of amendments together and I'll be chatting with my web designer about the possibilities, as well as working on a few overall design tweeks. So hopefully the changes will be put in place over the next month or two.
 
Thanks for reading. If you do have any comments or suggestions, just leave a comment or drop me an email.
 
 
 

01 January 2009

Happy New Year!

So what are your new year's resolutions??

I have two practical ones. The first is to get super organised both at work and at home. The other is to get down to the gym and into shape! I have a sweet tooth and I'm going cold turkey on all the naughties. You can imagine, I've had a lot of fun over Christmas and really enjoyed making the most of it until midnight last night! ;)
 
I'm also going to be more positive. I'm generally quite a happy and positive person anyway but you can't go wrong trying a little harder. You can get through many of life's trials a little easier with a change of attitude. I think with the economy the way it is, many of us will have to do our best to stay positive in the coming months / years.
 
 

 
 
How do you like the bluebirds?? I needed to change from the Christmassy theme but wanted to hold onto the singing birdie just a little longer, lol.
I love these papers. The greeny blue is a double sided paper, (Bohemia) Bliss "Love of my life " tiny dots /blue from My Mind's Eye and the beautiful brown floral paper is 'Floral Cocoa' by Cloud 9.
 
 
Also, just a quick update as a few people have enquired - ordering through the online shop will be back to normal on 5th January. Thanks so much for your patience, it's much appreciated!
 
I'm very excited about what we have coming in January... the DT and I will have sneak peeks of the new valentines designs starting from 9th January!! Can't wait!!
 
 
Here's to a happy and positive new year!

 

28 November 2008

Online shop now closed

Ordering in the online shop has now been disabled while we make a start on moving premises however, you can still view our products.

Our expected 'reopening' date will be 5th January. I know it's a long time to wait but it will be worth it, promise! :)
Things will be going on as normal here on the blog. As well as our advent calendar giveaway coming up, we will have sneak peeks of new designs in the run up to the new year!!!
 

07 November 2008

A couple of notices

We're moving!

Elzybells will be moving premises next month as the lease is up on the building we currently rent.

The online shop will be closed for orders all through December while we get the new place ready. I did consider keeping the shop open and then processing orders after the Christmas break but as we have lots of exciting launches in the new year, I don't want to be stuck sorting through a backlog of orders before getting on with the fun stuff that comes with launching new designs.

I will still be on the blog during this time and I have some fun things planned for December! :)



Christmas ordering dates

Bearing in mind that we will be closed throughout December, the last posting dates are earlier than usual. You will need place your order by

Friday 28th November

This is for all destinations, UK and international and all orders will be sent by Monday 1st December so will reach you in plenty of time for Christmas.


I've put a little notice link at the top of the blog so updates can be found easily :)


23 October 2008

*** Happy Birthday Elzybells Art Stamps!! ***

 

Elzybells is 5 today and we're celebrating through 'til Sunday!

We have free shipping on all orders placed today up until midnight on Sunday. Yes!! that's free worldwide shipping on every order!!


I also have blog candy to give away every day until Sunday - I have 5 goody bags of stamps with a retail value of over £20 each, including a cute Valentines stamp which will not be available in the shop until the new year!!

I will randomly pick a winner each day from all the customers who have placed orders since we launched our online shop. People placing orders over the next few days will also be included in that day's draw.

Then on Sunday I will have an extra draw for everyone who leaves a comment on this post. So you do not have to have ordered from us before to be in with a chance of winning!


Not only that, I have a couple of tutorials to share and we have a special DT challenge which will be revealed on Sunday so you're sure to be inspired!


Pop back later today for my tutorial and the announcement of the first winner! 

Now, where's that birthday cake .....  


 

 


* Free shipping offer excludes wholesale orders

 

21 October 2008

Deadline today

Thank you for all your entries into the Christmas card competition, they've been coming in thick and fast! If you haven't got yours in yet, the deadline for submissions is midnight today (UK time) and it will be up to myself and the design team to choose the winners - a task I'm sure you don't envy! The winners will be announced on 4th November!


Don't forget, it's going to be a busy weekend for elzybells' 5th birthday celebrations. I will have some fantastic blog candy giveaways all weekend starting on Thursday!

Plus some tutorials, a special design team challenge and don't miss our special offer in the shop Thurs 23rd - Sun 26th!

(I'll be skipping this week's showcase, so any cards received will be shown the following week.)


 



  • Time in the UK




  • GUEST DESIGNER
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    (monthly)
    The first week of every month we will feature the creations of a new guest designer.


  • DT CHALLENGE
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    Thursdays (fortnightly)
    A DT member sets a new stamping challenge every two weeks. You can play along and I pick my favourite card to win a £5 Elzybells voucher!


  • SHOWCASE SUNDAY
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    Sundays (weekly)
    Share your creations made using our stamps! Email photos anytime, with the subject "showcase" (be sure to include your full name & blog address if you have one).
    Everyone who participates in the showcase is added to a draw at the end of the month for a chance to win a £5 elzybells voucher!