Florentine Everyday

New Year new photos! It's taken a little longer than I planned to share images of this beautiful everyday collection designed for Portfolio cards. I'm so glad it's finally here on the journal, I love working on Florentine.

Florentine features a rich colour palette with detailed debossed artwork and golden foil. The beautiful illustrations are inspired by traditional Italian papers, specialist letter press art prints and ornate wallpapers. The design style embraces a lux, fine detailed and illustrative approach. Each design is printed in the UK with plastic free foil on environmentally friendly board and is supplied with a kraft or white envelope. Available in shops across the UK.

FLORENTINE EVERYDAY | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above: a selection of designs from the florentine collection I designed for portfolio cards, available to stock direct from portfolio cards. #florentine #birthdays #greetings #portfoliocards #emilyhauck #emilyhauckcreative #emilyhauckcards #sendacarddeliverasmile #justacard #post

Top Drawer 2024

Hello 2024! A return to the Karika journal for me this week with a visit to Top Drawer. On Tuesday my day started with snow in Manchester and changed to sunny (but cold!) blue skies as I arrived in London for Top Drawer 2024. As with previous years I very much enjoyed the RetailFest talks with some familar names from the creative industries Andie Mcdowell of Dahlia Beach, Kirsty Raper of Rebuildagram and Sarah Ward from the Giftware Association.

The Trends section coordinated by the Better Trends Co. was top notch as usual showcasing three looks - Sunset Haze, Have Your Cake and then Summer Solstice. I must have hand bags on the mind as I picked out two companies KIND BAGS and The Somewhere Co as favourites. Another few personal picks were the Japanese sock company Nishiguchi Kutsushita, Donna Wilson's creature creations, then fabric design from Perren Studios. Paper wise I loved the paper decorations from A World of Craft.

Lots of fresh newness for 2024, a fabulous start to the year!

TOP DRAWER 2024 | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above clockwise from the top left: a selection from the 'have your cake and eat it' trend, fabrics from arcana in the 'summer solstice' collection, snowy view from my euston bound train, the 'summer solstice' edit, snap of the wall art from 'have your cake' trend, the 'sunset haze' collection with its mediterranean feel, the better trends co, a view of the olympia.

#TopDrawerLondon #January2024 #trend #emilyhauckcreative

Ditsy Bloom Christmas

Samples arrived and I couldn't wait to share these lovelies, the new Ditsy Bloom Christmas greetings collection created for The Great British Card Company. 

Following on from the everyday bold brights and touches of luxury in the gold foiling of Ditsy Bloom is a fantastic new range of festive captions & relations. It features a classic Christmas colour palette of evergreens, frosty blues and warm reds. The new range similar to the everyday has an illustration style that picks up on traditional ditsy fabrics with their fine details and contrasts this with florid bold text & icons. The collection enjoys our favourite festive trimmings with snowy Christmas foliage and winter berry patterns. The new Christmas designs include icons of snow covered post boxes, gin cocktails, beautifully wrapped presents and delightful ditsy baubles. Each card is packed with a red envelope. Festive Ditsy Bloom cards are now available in the shops and for trade orders from The Great British Card Company. 

DITSY BLOOM CHRISTMAS | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above: a selection of designs from the ditsy bloom christmas collection I drew up for the great british card company collections, available to stock direct from the great british card company. #ditsybloom #ditsy #christmas #greetings #thegreatbritishcardcompany #gbcc #emilyhauck #emilyhauckcreative #emilyhauckcards #sendacarddeliverasmile #justacard #post #cardmitment

Jim's Spectacular Christmas

Along with the Jolly Christmas Postman this festive season we have also been enjoying reading Jim's Spectacular Christmas by Dame Emma Thompson and illustrator of Gruffalo fame Axel Scheffler. A present to us last year, the book tells the story of how the very first Christmas card came to be through the eyes of Jim who is the real-life much loved dog of Sir Henry Cole, the creator of the original Christmas card. It's a treasure of a story to have for the V&A museum where they both lived and wonderful to see the tale brought to life in these pages. 

With the snowy Lapland trees, Jolly Christmas Postman letters and Jim's story of the first Christmas card I'll be well stocked with festive inspiration for next years collections! 🎄✉️🎅

JIM'S SPECTACULAR CHRISTMAS | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above: some pics i took of our edition, jim's spectacular christmas, i love axel's drawing of the first christmas card trimmed with holly- it's instantly recognisable and how cute is jim! for more info visit the v&a blog here

#jimsspectacularchristmas #christmas #v&a #cardmitment #justacard #sendacarddeliverasmile

Lapland

Well it was a very different kind of Festive Friday for us this year hence there will be a brief interlude during this years Christmas letters sending owing to us being away on a once in a lifetime trip to Lapland 😬😁 I'm not sure how many snowy trees I photographed for Christmas projects but we can safely say it was a lot! 😂😂  Husky dogs, reindeer, elves, ski doos, igloos, toboggans, Christmas trees and best of all Santa! We're super grateful for an amazing few days in wonderful Lapland.

LAPLAND | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above clockwise from top left: a view of the moon over Saariselka, snow laden branches, the huskies!, mr j tobogganning, inside the igloo with tables made of ice, our reindeer sleigh ride, snowy walk to breakfast, a rare selfie between all the snowy tree photos! 😂

#lapland #saariselka #snow #christmas #santa #emilyhauck

Florentine Christmas 2023

Lot's of extra postings this week as the 1st of December arrives and this Friday is Festive Friday! A day for all us greeting card fans to send our Christmas post to create a fantastic first wave of beautiful cards arriving in early December and getting us all in the mood for sending Christmas cards. 

Following on from last years gorgeous Christmas tree design this year I'm sending two gems from the latest additions to the Florentine collection, the Christmas fair and the our favourite festive feline. These two merry little cards will soon begin their journey around the world spreading some Festive cheer!

Florentine features a rich, jewel like colour palette with detailed debossed artwork and golden foil. The beautiful illustrations are inspired by traditional Italian papers, specialist letter press art prints and ornate wallpapers. The design style embraces a lux, fine detailed and illustrative approach. Each design is printed in the UK with plastic free foil on environmentally friendly board and is supplied with a kraft or white envelope. Released 2023 and now available in the shops this Christmas season.

Dates for your calendar for UK post, Royal Mail’s advertised last posting dates are 18th of December with second class stamps, and 20th of December for first class ✉️🎄😊

FLORENTINE CHRISTMAS 2023 | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above: a selection of designs from the florentine collection I designed for portfolio cards, available to stock direct from portfolio cards along with the tiger lily greetings. #florentine #christmas #greetings #portfoliocards #emilyhauck #emilyhauckcreative #emilyhauckcards #sendacarddeliverasmile #justacard #post #cardmitment #festivefriday

The Jolly Christmas Postman

I'm loving seeing all the Christmas trees going up this week. It's also the week of Festive Friday, the date when those working in greetings send their Christmas letters. So on this theme I thought I'd share an extra post of what we've been reading here at the moment - the Jolly Christmas Postman.

Janet and Allan Ahlberg have put so much work into the illustrations, it's easy to see how it took five years to create. Not only do you get a book but in the envelopes you receive a magazine, a Christmas card, a puzzle, a board game and the best piece of paper art I've seen - a concertina of images which allows you to look through the letterbox and spy the Jolly Postman with all his friends!

It's one of my favourite books, it expresses so well the joy of sending and receiving festive letters at Christmas time.

THE JOLLY CHRISTMAS POSTMAN | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA

above: some pics i took of our well loved copy of the jolly christmas postman by janet and allan ahlberg. i absolutely love the last image of him having finished his post round and relaxing by the fire at home with his treasured post displayed on the mantelpiece.

#christmas #thejollychristmaspostman #christmaspost #favouritebooks #cardmitment