Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is almost here and it's time for us to sit back and enjoy a bit of relaxing time. The shop will still be open but any orders will be posted from the 3rd of january onwards.

Have a lovely christmas and enjoy being around your loved ones!

We will see you again in 2014... a year full of new plans!

Christmas spirit - 9 year old bakes and sells cookies for charity

December is all about Christmas spirit and to be kind to each other. Kasper, a dutch 9 year old boy really, really would like to give poor children books for Christmas this year!

 Kasper decided to bake christmas cookies and to sell them in his mum's Etsy shop. The cookies look amazing (and soon I will be able to try them... I just ordered a bunch) and how special is this boy that he works so hard to raise money to buy these books.

So everyone: just buy a bunch of cookies and help this special boy to deliver christmas presents to needy children! That's the real christmas spirit! Buy them right here

You can also donate through their crowdfunding site and read about Kasper's motivation (sorry, only in Dutch): http://www.voorjebuurt.nl/project/kaspers-kerstboek

Christmas cookies by Kleinedromen on Etsy

Christmas card countdown

Just like the past few years popular Dutch magazine 101woonideeen is doing a christmas card countdown. Today our cards are featured! You can find them in our Etsy shop right here.

Creasint 2013

When Imke announced she would be organizing Creasint for the second time I signed up straight away. It was such a huge succes last year that I had to be a part of it this year!

So, you're probably wondering ''What is Creasint?". Hmmm, here in the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December. Originally he was a bishop that shared  half of his possessions with poor people. Nowadays he spreads gifts around for (mainly) children. He comes on a steamboat from Spain, rides over the rooftops on his white horse and has helpers called 'Zwarte Piet' who deliver the presents through the chimney, letterbox or catflap.

Creasint is a spinoff from Sinterklaas and secret santa and is all about making something beautiful (with love and attention) for someone you don't know and send it through mail. Read all about it here

Weeks before, all of us heard who we were making a present for. Difficult yet so much fun to come up with something that person would really like. Everyone had to tell a bit about themselves to make it a bit easier.

So I made something for Lisa. She liked lots of stuff but the things that got stuck in my mind were a love of fifties adverts, non-bright colours, cooking, writing and vintage. I didn't have a clear idea when I started but it just formed along the way. And it turned out like this:

This is one of Lisa's pictures below. The presents were a handmade notebook and a porcelain brooch.

I received a present that was so completely me, it was spot on! Yvette made it for me and the hand-embroidered booklet with the little bird on is amazing. Other than that there was a string of bunting, origami birds from Birdtoldme and gorgeous chocolate all wrapped beautifully!

Lisa, thank you for your inspiring story and wishes
Yvette, for the wonderful creasint you made for me. It really is gorgeous!
and Imke for organizing it all. You've done brilliantly!

Hooray! It's our birthday!

Yay! It's already been 1 year since Heedopter started. Doesn't time fly!?!

And to celebrate we are giving away some of them gorgeous Heedopter goodies! An art print of your choice, a set of  hand screenprinted giftwrap and another surprise goodie. Just leave a comment below and who knows, you might find all these flying into your mailbox very soon. This give away runs till Sunday the 1st of december. Winner will be announced in the evening.

And, by the way, to get an extra chance of winning... hop over to our facebook page or Twitter to join again :-)

Edit: We have a winner! Congratulations Anne Copier! Thank you all for joining in, it's been a buzz. You can still use code SINTERKLAAS10 for a 10% discount on heedopter.etsy.com

Screenprinting

A few weeks ago I spent a weekend doing what I've been wanting to do for a long while... I learned how to screenprint! And oh, it was so much fun...

Day one was all about screenprinting with paper shapes... no exposure onto the screens yet but just cutting shapes out of paper and with several layers making very interesting screenprints. I thought it would be childish and boring doing it this way but I really was pleasantly surprised. And... it's so easy to do. You don't need any exposure equipment so as long as you have got a screen you can do it at home. The prints below were done in 2 layers using paper shapes making use of some paint splashing.

On day 2 we were exposing screens. I brought an illustration that I've done some time ago and handdrew letters to go with it. I'll save you the technical story about exposing screens but the end result is amazing. The print below is done in 2 layers (each colour is 1 layer).

So once I learned how to screenprint I went back for a sunday afternoon to do a little project. My mum gave me a stack of old patternsheets and I transformed them into gorgeous screenprinted wrapping paper.

And here's how it translates into a finished product. For sale right here (be quick if you would like a set, there's only a few left!)

It was so much fun and will definitely continue to do more! I'll keep you posted...

Heedopter in the Winterwinkel

And another popup shop popped up! I'm so excited that our products are in several 'stone' shops at the moment. This friday the great Winterwinkel (wintershop) opens in Amsterdam. Organized by the lovely ladies from the Ka-Ching collective together with Etsy and they managed to find a prime location: the downstairs floor of the great shop 'Het Grote Avontuur' in the Haarlemmerstraat in Amsterdam.

You'll find handmade products from 20 designers that would normally only be available online. A great chance to do your holiday shopping here!

Heedopter will have handmade notebooks, (christmas) cards and DIY packs for sale. And if you put your shoe down for Sinterklaas on the 27th of november, you'll also get a little Heedopter goodie in your shoe.

De Winterwinkel
Haarlemmerstraat 25 in Amsterdam

Open from friday the 22nd of november till the 1st of december

Christmas cards!

And here's the long awaited for Heedopter christmas card collection 2013! They have been in my Etsy shop for a while and are now available for wholesale too!

Inspired by little bit of a vintage feel colour combination we wanted to make a feel good collection of not too shiny, sparkly christmas cards. The down to earth, sustainable feel of the cardstock gives these cards a natural feel , just how we like it. In combination with the bells, trees and baubles it's still a real festive collection. Perfect to send to your loved ones!

The black and white postcards do really well as a wall decoration in your house too.

 

 

We love presents!

We love presents and more importantly receiving them and unwrapping them! Just to give you that lovely experience of joy and excitement too, every order will be gift wrapped for you free of charge! Because that's what we like: a smile on your face when you receive Heedopter goodies. The one in the picture is flying to New York today and is wrapped in our own design, hand screen printed kraft paper. Just one of many possible ways... 

Concept store | Soort van Winkel

Tomorrow is the grand opening of this amazing temporary store: the Concept Store. Organized by the lovely ladies from Soort van Winkel. And our products will be for sale here!

The shop will be a platform for people with a passion for everything artsy. 16 artists with an Etsy shop or webshop will be selling their art en handmade products here live and believe me... it will be amazing! The shop will be an experience, you'll be amazed by all the gorgeous items for sale and you won't leave empty handed. And prices will range from under 10 to ... So it doesn't always have to be expensive.

The shop will open its doors on the 15th of November and will run through to till the 16th of December. A perfect time to buy all your holiday gifts! And on top of everything amazing that will be for sale, there's also a lot to do:

Every Friday is Vintage Friday! And you can still join one of the fun workshops: screenprinting, giftwrapping or make an art piece with nails and yarn. For more info and to register click here: http://www.soortvanwinkel.nl/inschrijvenworkshops

And don't forget that you can see, touch and buy great Heedopter goodies here live!

Conceptstore

Thorbeckegracht 19

Zwolle

15 November till 16 December 2013

Etsy Thursday - Krusty Stuff

On thursdays I like to show you some of my favourite Etsy items...

 

Screenprinted tall boy by KRUSTYstuff

Christmas sneakpeek

You  might think its early but the christmas spirit is on its way... Pinterest is getting more and more lively with lovely wintery christmas pics. It's building! I'm so looking forward to the dark but fairylight lit up months of the festive season!

My christmas cards are almost finished and very very soon they will be online in my Etsy shop.

Here's a little sneakpeek for you

And if you're curious about the hohoho spirit on Pinterest. Go and check my Christmas boards.

Kitchen art print

I've just listed a lovely new art print in my Etsy shop. Personally I think it will look great in your kitchen! I've made this illustration ages ago, maybe even before I opened my shop. Nothing wrong with just never got round to finding a nice purpose for it.

You can buy it right here

Kitchen art print by Heedopter

Kitchen art print by Heedopter

Etsy Thursday - Xenotees

On thursdays I like to show you some of my favourite Etsy items...

 

Love birds pillowcases by Xenotees

New retailer! Goed in stijl

And yes, there's another wonderful shop were you can buy Heedopter products! The lovely Dutch Goed in Stijl from owner Sandra Tirrito. She has golden hands, her main focus is restyling old furniture and making them again. Upcycling, recycling, painting, fixing... she does it all. She has a webshop and a stone one. In her shops you can find new furniture, her restyled furniture and lots of accessories including stationery.  Brands like Oh so pretty party, House Doctor, Bloomingville and Eva&Anne are all to be found here. And now Heedopter is one of them!

Sandra | Goed in Stijl

The stone shop is located at Zuideinde 74, 1541 CE Koog aan de Zaan and is open on Friday from 10.00 till 17.00 h.

Etsy Thursday - Handz

On thursdays I like to show you some of my favourite Etsy items...

 

Typographic print by Handz

Ingela at Ferm Living

Ferm Living has another great collection this season, working with one of my favourite illustrators: Ingela P. Arrhenius. Lovely pastel colours and the typical happy style of Ingela.

Read all about their collaboration on the Ferm Living blog or shop the collection at the webshop.

Etsy Thursday - Ketchup on everything

On thursdays I like to show you some of my favourite Etsy items...

 

'Egg & Soldiers' placemat by Ketchup on Everything

Notebooks by Ferm Living

Ferm Living has got some beauties of notebooks this season: Lovely pastel colours combined with geometric patterns and bold use of typography.

The designs are from the hand of Ruth Vissing, a danish designer and also available as posters. The notebooks and posters are for sale at the Ferm Living webshop.

Paper sculptures by Sarah Bridgland

While browsing on Pinterest (isn't it addictive!?!) I came across some amazing paper art work. It's UK based designer Sarah Bridgland who made these beauties.  With a mix of paper sculptures and collage work it becomes real unique stuff. She uses second-hand paper and ephemera to create her pieces.

I was amazed when I saw her work for the first time. I love the graphics that she uses and there's so much to see in them. I just keep on looking and looking and looking.

While researching a bit more I found out that her work was also featured in the latest Uppercase Magazine (nr 18, july 2013) on the cover even!

Pictures by Sarah Bridgland

Uppercase magazine - issue 28

Etsy Thursday - Robin and Mould

On thursdays I like to show you some of my favourite Etsy items...

 

Hand screen printed cat cushion by Robin and Mould

Heedopter goes wholesale!

Whoohoo, I'm so proud to finally announce that Heedopter products are available for wholesale! I've been working really hard on launching the wholesale webshop. And finally... this morning... we're online! Definitely an apple pie moment!

So, do you run a (web)shop and would you like to sell our products in your shop? Go and head over to www.heedopterwholesale.com. Register on the site and browse through our products and simply buy as you would in any other webshop.

We do have a great offer to celebrate our opening! You can read all about it in the webshop.

Just one little downside... it's only available in Dutch. I will be working on an English version soon. If you don't get it at all, just contact me, orders via e-mail are still possible.

I'm sure there will be a few little bugs here and there... please bear with me... I'm working on them. Or even better: let me know!

Etsy Thursday: Olive and the volcano

On Thursdays I like to share some if my Etsy favourites with you...

The Oh My... large letterpress notebook by Olive and the volcano

Webshop tip: Mevrouwtje de Wilde

I would love to show you this great Dutch webshop: Mevrouwtje de Wilde. The very first webshop where you can buy Heedopter products. Yay!

Mevrouwtje de Wilde is a colourful webshop featuring toys for cool boys and happening girls and lots of feelgoodies for yourself. Affordable and fun products with brands like Kitsch Kitchen, Miss Honeybird, Pakhuis Oost and... Heedopter! Stamps, cards, toys, DIY packs... go and have a look yourself!

Etsy Thursday: C is for cardboard

On Thursdays I like to share some if my Etsy favorites with you...

Cardboard camera by C is for cardboard

In the meantime...

It's been a little quiet here, hasn't it? You know why? I've been working really hard on setting up a wholesale webshop! Hooray!

For a while now I've been thinking about it, streamlining my business, finding my path and now I feel the time is right to expand! Yay! And wholesale is the way to go. How great would it be to come accross Heedopter products in other (web)shops? Exciting!

Well, the webshop is not quite ready yet. I'm struggling with a few things (it's got to be close to being perfect, according to miss perfectionist little me. Yes, that's quite annoying sometimes) but I hope to have it up and running within 2 weeks.

In the meantime I have been quietly taking wholesale orders via e-mail and guess what? The first webshop featuring Heedopter products is a fact! I'm happy to announce that you can buy Heedopter goodies now at Mevrouwtje de Wilde! More about this lovely shop later.

So my main focus has been on behind-the-scene stuff. Which means, with my limited amount of available hours (office job and all...), it has to give somewhere... and that has been here on my blog and even on Facebook and Twitter. Don't worry, once this shop is up and running I will be back in full swing!

Etsy Thursday: Legal Miss Sunshine

On Thursdays I like to share some of my Etsy favourites with you...

Vintage original paper shooting target by Legal Miss Sunshine

Etsy Thursday: Present & Correct

It's been a while with summerbreak and all but...

On Thursdays I like to show you some of my Etsy favourites

Geometry set jotters by Present & Correct

Lowlands Festival adventure

Lowlands festival has been and gone.... Weeks, no months of hard work have gone into it and then after 3 long days its gone, just like that. But boy, what a weekend it was!

It's been a rollercoaster ride. Ssshht, don't tell anyone, but I was actually really quite nervous. I worked hard to get lots of new products out and I had never done a market before in my life. And ofcourse I had no clue what would be succesful and what wouldn't. So there it was, a stall with all of my passion and heart right on it and just hoping that people would like it enough to buy it.

It didn't start so well. The Friday wasn't successful at all. Lots of people looking, not so much buying. On top of that loads of rain ( and yes, humidity and paper goods together are a disaster!) so to me it was a lost day. But sometime on Saturday it turned around. The sun came out and people started buying.

People's responses were amazing. It was my first experience with real life customers and someone said 'Everything on your stall makes me so happy!' ( yay!) Some other people said it reminded them of Sissy Boy and Paperchase ( Wow, I couldn't ask for more, I love them both) and many people's faces just lit up and smiled. It was great to see all these positive reactions and gave me the confirmation I really am going in the right direction.

There were some other highlights too: we had our own postman. Yes, Lowlands even had their own post office! Postman Pieter had a mobile postbox and he stopped by us a few times to pick up cards written by Lowlanders on our stall. It was a lovely service that we could offer our customers. Oh, and  up and coming music star Jake Bugg signed one of our notebooks. And a member of Dutch rap band 'De jeugd van tegenwoordig' wore one if our necklaces! So cool!

All of this hadn't been possible without my friend  A. She helped throughout the weekend and even though she could've gone out partying, she didn't. She stood by me and together we came up with things to improve our stall and sales. And for that I will always be grateful ( more than she will ever know) So A., you are the best!

Will I go again next year? Hmmm, on Friday I was convinced I wouldn't but now I'm not so sure... All in all it was a long weekend ( with very short nights) but  I came home in such a positive buzz. I'll let you know next year!