Eat Drink Chic

Hope you enjoy this set of holiday gift tags I've whipped up for you. I had fun experimenting with some fancy hand-lettering! Continue to download your freebies.

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I haven't really taken pencil to paper in awhile, preferring to rely on digital means to create most of my designs. This illustration, however, began with a session of doodling and evolved into a concept for a thank-you card.

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I love the creative ways in which vintage handkerchiefs have been incorporated into weddings recently! Whether for Save the Dates, Invitations or simply for decoration- a collection of these hankies in various floral patterns creates such a beautiful, old-fashioned aesthetic.

Inspired by this concept, I designed some letter-writing paper sheets in the style of vintage hankies. Guests can pick them off a line to write little notes to the newlyweds and then hang them back up for display!

In the same vein as this previous DIY where I also explored the concept of 'Love Notes', these "Hanky" Love Letters are a unique guestbook alternative for your wedding.

Continue to download your free designs!

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Psst.. I've got a new DIY up on Once Wed!

It's a 'Message in a Bottle' favour with a twist. Includes some free printables. Check it out!

{ Photos by Amy Moss }

On this side of the world we are entering the depths of winter. Cold and Grey. Dark and Rainy. Don't get me wrong it's not all bad. 'Tis the season of hot chocolate, toasty warm fireplaces and blanket snuggles. But I still prefer the summertime. I miss the sunshine.

Inspired by the enviable weather in the opposite hemisphere and some vintage floral fabric designs, I've created these summer-themed gift tags which I'm sharing with you all.  Bright and cheerful, I've personally found these designs uplifting during this dreary season.

Regardless of whether you're actually heading into summer or you're simply dreaming about it you might find these little tags come in handy for decorating homemade drinks, gift packages, wedding favours, bunches of flowers... whatever you can imagine.

Continue to grab your free downloads.

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I'm really thrilled today! I've contributed a little DIY project over at the lovely Once Wed where I play with vintage buttons, beautiful paper and toy with my latest obsession- hand-carving rubber stamps!  Go check it out....

Now, I'm no seamstress. Far from it, in fact. I do, however, have a thing for fabrics. I'm amassing a collection that will soon take over the world.

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Imagine each of your bridesmaids receiving a handmade thank-you card with a beautiful silhouette of their dress, cut from watercolour wash paper. Such an adorable idea! Designed by Leslie Lewis Sigler of Lilly & Louise.

via Simple + Pretty.

Ice-Cream Sandwiches are among my favourites in the "Ice-Cream" family.

After an exquisite meal at an elegant french restaurant, I have been known to politely refuse a chef prepared crème brûlée, under the pretext of 'fullness', in order to leave early and take an ungraceful dive into the nearest 7-eleven to acquire a, somewhat less fancy but, in my opinion, equally delicious, mass-produced dessert known as The Monaco Bar Ice-Cream Sandwich.

I am not ashamed by this fact. I stand by my love for these delectable creatures.

So, you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this recipe for ice-cream sandwich goodness on Tartelette!

Firstly, Helen has used my Ice-Cream Parlour cup designs in her beautiful photos! 5 points right there already.

Secondly, she provides a gluten free recipe for the cookies! "Hooray!" shouts my supposed wheat allergy.

Perhaps now, instead of indulging in convenience store, pre-prepared packages of sin I can instead learn to make these delightful goodies for myself and also avoid the minor wheat-related tummy ailments. Now all that's left to do is actually get me in the kitchen.

{ photography by Helene Dujardin }

So you've probably heard that Mark and I cheekily surprised all our guests with a civil wedding ceremony during our 'engagement' party. Well, the following article contains the whole story along with all the sweet little details of the event, styled by yours truly with the help of some very talented folk.

Just in case you're looking to create a similar style of event in Melbourne, I've also provided a detailed account of where to source all the bits and pieces and have compiled a list of some of the creatives in the industry you should know.

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Hi All! I've been wanting to apologise profusely for the lack of updates in the last month or so. I've missed quite a few days here and there and I've also been particularly bad with answering emails... BIG apologies! Some recurring health issues have left me scrambling at the last minute to get the details finished for my upcoming Engagement Party. And, yes, I'm big on the details! There are quite a few DIY elements involved so, needless to say, I've been flat out. The party is this sunday and my fiance and I are incredibly excited!!

My lovely mother and I recently spent an afternoon playing around with table floral arrangement ideas in preparation for sunday. We picked up some vibrant, summery colours- red, orange and pink gerberas, yellow billy buttons and strawberry fields. We're also hoping to add some other flowers of similar colours to the mix on the day. I'm in love with big, bright sunflowers at the moment and would like to see them incorporated in some way. As you can see, we're going with very simple arrangements in a collection of assorted jars. These were just a practice run with some work-in-progress ideas. Stay tuned for pics of the event to see the final result!

I first introduced you to my origami heart engagement party invitations in this article here. Well, after a working weekend of printing, cutting, folding, sewing, stuffing, addressing and stamping... phew... my fiancé and I have finally mailed out the little cuties!

Hand-stitching the edges of the translucent pocket was the most time-consuming part of the project. To ensure accuracy and quicken the hand-stitching process, we first measured and marked out (with needle pricks) the intended placement of the stitches.  To save time, we only did 5 stitches on each side.

The actual origami folding, thankfully, went a lot quicker than expected! However, the duration of the the final phase of the project- addressing and stuffing envelopes-  was sorely under-estimated. Having said that, we are both very proud of the effort that we put into creating unique, hand-crafted invitations for what will hopefully be a memorable event!

Special thanks to my hard-working fiancé, who whole-heartedly supported this crazy little project of mine. I am thankful that he shares in my desire to make this event as special as possible! Thanks also to our beautiful mothers for their contribution!

You can read more about these origami heart invitations here. Download the template to create a love note to someone special.

Love the labelled jars for homemade jam, marmalade, chutney, pickles and home-grown herbs from Burgon & Ball.

Sigh... I had all these plans to create a plethora of DIY Valentine's Day projects for Eat Drink Chic. However, plans for my impending engagement party have taken up so much of my time that I've had to put these ideas on hold.

A few days ago I created these little origami heart invitations for our engagement. They open up to reveal the invitation message inside and have an attached string so that guests can also use them as a keepsake decoration. They also sit snugly in little translucent paper pockets with sewn edges.

However, in a last ditch effort to get at least SOMETHING up for Valentine's Day (as last-minute as it may be), I've removed the invitation text and provided them for you to download to write a little love note to your Valentine. In fact, you could even use this to surprise your significant other at any time of the year with an unexpected love message.

Continue to read more about the project and to download your freebies!

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Last minute holiday freebie- a printable reindeer gift tag in two sizes. Hope you enjoy! Continue for your free download!

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Mail-themed holiday gift tags designed by moi and perfect for little white packages tied up with red and white twine. Continue to download your free printable tag!

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Also appearing in my Borders window display is this jumbo-sized gift tag which utilises the same motif as my Holiday Treat Bag. Continue for your free download!

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As part of my window display at Borders I designed these paper goodie bags -  perfect for home-baked goods, candy or any kind of small-sized gifts. Continue for assembly instructions and to download your free printable bag design!

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Borders recently gave me the amazing opportunity to design one of their windows!! This morning, my fiancé and I went down to Borders, Jam Factory to set it all up. The window includes a handmade poster that I designed and some new holiday freebies and DIY projects that will be appearing on Eat Drink Chic over the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas.

The display will be up until Christmas so if you're in Melbourne, please come down to Borders at the Jam Factory in South Yarra and check it out!

This was my first time designing a window display and I had a lot of fun! Thank-you to Borders for the wonderful opportunity! And special thanks to my awesome fiancé for all his help throughout the whole project!

Thanks to all who entered the Speedball fabric screen-printing kit giveaway from Eckersley's!

Today I randomly selected a winner from the comments.

And the winner is...Kim who commented "so awesome. i want to make a bunch of grocery bags."

Congratulations Kim! I will be in touch soon. Thanks again to Eckersley's for the fun prize!