Introducing...our new Initial Range

Our customers love leather and they love personalised products too. So when we came up withour new 'Initial Range' we knew we were on to a winner! We have seen lots of places that sell leather books with blind embossing and silver or gold foil blocking, but we wanted to come up with something a bit funkier and more unique.

Initial Leather Coaster

Sarah came up with the idea of combining our popular pale ivory Italian vachetta leather with a single lower case initial stamped in a contemporary font in black matt foil.

To start with we chose to add a completely new product to our range: personalised coasters. Each coaster is covered in soft smooth ivory leather and then foil blocked with the initial of your choice. Choose one for each member of the family, or spell out a fun or romantic word with them. Either way they make a really cool drinking accessory around the home.

Initial Leather Coaster

Our other choice was a new version of our popular chunky plain page leather journal, again covered in the ivory vachetta leather and blocked with the single intial. 

Initial Leather Journal

These journals are just delicious; filled with a thick chunk of plain ivory acid-free, recycled pages and finished with a black ribbon marker, we send them in a sturdy black box for safe-keeping. Use them as a diary or journal, for poems, lyrics or even sketching.

Each item is personally made to order by a skilled leathersmith and so please allow 5-7 days for your order to despatch - but it will be well worth the wait! See them on our website here.

Wedding Themes - Shabby Chic

This month's wedding theme is shabby chic, a style that originated with Rachel Ashwell back in the 90s, but one that is showing no signs of losing its popularity! Apart from the gorgeous design features, what makes this such an on trend look today?

CC image by Bellafaye

Well, for one thing, lots of brides are on a pretty tight budget right now, and are turning away from the country hotel or highland castle in favour of the more homely village hall, marquee in the garden or decorated barn. Shabby chic, with its emphasis on vintage and distressed styling, is the perfect match for these rustic settings and lends itself superbly well to folksy, homemade accessories to create a truly individual style.

One of the beauties of the shabby chic style is being able to wave goodbye to the hassle of sourcing perfectly coordinated accessories! Rummage in the attic, hit the charity shops or rifle through the family heirlooms for an eclectic mix of colours, styles and fabrics.

Key elements of this theme are rustic styling, and an antique or distressed finish. Colours tend to be subtle - pale greens, greys, ivory and pinks are typical of the palette.

Antique Pearl Wedding Diary

A good place to start to get an idea of the original Rachel Ashwell themes is with this address book, packed full of her images of gorgeous interiors: chandeliers, faded fabrics, and distressed furniture teamed with flowers - a real source of inspiration and a great way to keep track of your invitations, replies and thank yous for your guests, all in one dedicated book.

Shabby Chic Address Book

When planning your decor, think sparkling garlands draped over vintage candlesticks...

Sparkly Crystal Garland

tables strewn with antique style paper confetti...

Romantic Notes Confetti

rustic, distressed furnishings...

CC image by frenchfinds.co.uk

and assorted vintage crockery.

CC image by nessguide

Add one of our Teaspoon Trivia favours in the saucers; each table talk teaspoon has a printed icebreaker and you have instant conversation as well as beautiful place settings.

Teaspoon Trivia

When it comes to styling the buffet, cupcakes are a perfect choice for the vintage themed wedding table; they really complement the theme and there are some fabulous cake designers out there. Here on the Isle of Wight we have a brilliant cakemaker, Paula, at The Vintage Cake Company who produces the most gorgeous creations to suit any wedding colourway.

Great for a floral theme

Perfect for a spring wedding

Pretty pinks

Love the little buttons!

Our paper doilies add a touch of class too, especially if you can find a vintage cakestand!

Pretty pink doilies

We have some lovely table decorations that really fit well with a shabby chic wedding too. How about these little pegs as an unusual placecard holder?

Floral Wooden Pegs

They team well with our English Rose party poppers, especially if a floral theme is running through
and the retro chalk boards make a chic alternative to the traditional placecards - just chalk on the names of your guests and maybe a little message or even a sketch!

English Rose Party Poppers

Chalk Board Place Cards

 Another rustic style of placecard holder is our Zuri design with a distressed, antique feel to the glass...

Zuri Place Card Holders

Indoor or out, tealights are a lovely way to light the venue. Scatter them around the room for a romantic flickering effect, or line the path to the door...

Aqua Tealights

and they look even prettier displayed in these little jars, hanging from branches in the grounds to light the way.

Tealight hanging jar

New this month are some fab accessories to add to our shabby chic collection, featuring birds, butterflies and lacy edges. There are favour bags for the table...

Pretty Lovebirds Favour Bags

and retro style disposable cameras to capture all the wedding memories.

Retro style disposable camera

Sweet little laser cut bird shaped placecards to perch on the rim of a wineglass...

Vintage Lace Bird

or cute wooden birdie pegs to hold placecards or decorate napkins...

Pretty Wooden Bird Pegs

A matching guest book completes the range...

Vintage Birds Guest Book

The shabby chic style will really appeal to arty-crafty brides who like to create something totally unique. Lots of them go for our plain white linen guest books and photo albums to decorate themselves with rhinestones, beads, ribbons, flowers, feathers or embroidery...

Plain white DIY albums and guest books

Extra touches around the venue will add to the overall styling; big paper pompoms add homemade chic...

White Tissue Pompoms

 and retro style wedding signs set the scene ...

Vintage style wedding signs

whilst a string of bunting sets off the room with a countrified simplicity - make your own from assorted fabrics

CC image by Shimelle

or use our ready-made triangles of lace-edged cotton.

Vintage Lace Cotton Bunting

We just fell in love with these gorgeous birdcages; the wire one especially is just the essence of shabby chic with its distressed finish, isn't it? Choose for one for decoration alone, or for guests to slip in their wedding cards and well wishes.

Ivory Pretty Bird Cage

Vintage Lace Birdcage

Of course guest books are a traditional accessory, but how much more inventive is this hanging ribbon? Invite your guests to write their wishes on the butterfly shaped cards and then hang on the white satin ribbon provided; it looks gorgeous threaded among the branches in the venue grounds or the garden.

Wedding wishes

When it comes to finishing touches, our Wraps, Ribbons and Tags section contains pretty coloured ribbons, vintage style brown paper hanging tags, little wooden tie-on tags and porcelain tags too. We have sweet little favour boxes and bags in pretty delicate colours and fabrics to ensure your table is finished to perfection.

 Have you planned a wedding with a shabby chic theme? We would love to feature some real life weddings on the blog! If you have some to-die-for photos from your wedding that you'd like to share, just email me on hello@ohsocherished.co.uk.

Recycled journals and notebooks - be kind to the planet!

Did you know this week is Recycling Week?  Here at Oh So Cherished we love our beautiful paper products but do feel an occasional pang of guilt when someone mentions the rainforests! So to ease our consciences, we set out to source some gorgeous notebooks and journals that are not only a delight to write in but are also sustainable and eco-friendly.

We soon found a number of suppliers who import quality notebooks and journals from Fair Trade co-operatives, mainly on the Indian Sub-Continent. One enterprising couple, on an unplanned trip to Kathmandu in Nepal, came across a small shop where a family was producing beautiful, handmade treeless paper from the Lokta plant.

Lokta paper comes from the bark of the Daphne papyracea bush. The bark of this abundant plant is self-regenerating, making its paper a totally sustainable product and a valuable source of rural employment. Growing in the Himalayas at altitudes of over 6,500 feet, Lokta paper is made using traditional techniques handed down from generation to generation. Villagers trek to the lokta plants, harvest the bark and take it back to the villages where it is boiled, cleaned and beaten to produce a pulp. It is then mixed with water and poured into a bamboo frame and sun-dried. Local artisans then turn the paper into these fabulous products. 

The resulting papers are not only tree-friendly and fair trade but highly durable and, as you can see, very colourful and decorative. As well as filling journals, the paper is also available as beautiful environmentally friendly gift wrap.

Fair Trade Gift Wrap

These 'Trekker' journals feature a screen-printed leaf design and 100 pages of treeless lokta paper.

Trekker journal

The handsome fern design on this notebook is made by decorating the paper pulp with leaves whilst still wet; once dried in the sun, the leaves are stripped off, leaving these amazing patterns behind.

Fern Traveller Journal

We do like to be a bit exclusive here, so when we found out we could design our own paper, we jumped at the chance and chose a lovely pale beige paper with a cream paisley pattern for a boxed guest book and matching photo album.

Paisley Photo Album and Guest Book with Treeless Paper

Anyone who saw the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' will be aware of the massive recycling industry that operates in the outskirts of India's industrial areas. Just about anything, from paper to plastic and cloth to cans, is recycled in an industry employing almost 200,000 people.

Colourful Indian saris - Image by brad.coy cc

One by-product of the garment recycling industry is Indian Khadda paper. Our supplier sources their paper from a family business in Rajasthan; this paper is completely treeless, being made from unbleached, hard-spun cotton rags rescued from the clothing industry.

Making khadda paper

Once the cotton pulp is placed in the mould, various natural products are added; marigold petals, bougainvillea, aster flowers, grass and silk thread are inserted to create beautifully individual, textured paper finishes.

Small Stitched Leather Journal

We chose some fine leather journals, filled with thick, soft chunks of Khadda paper; this small journal is covered with soft, brown Indian leather and enhanced with decorative stitching and a semi-precious stone.

Small Stitched And Stoned Leather Journal

These journals may be traditional in production technique but they're bang on trend when it comes to style. This attractive journal features a beautiful embossed design on a vibrant hot pink leather.

Small Hot Pink Leather Journal

This chunky journal contains a bundle of 200 soft khadda pages, embossed with a traditional design and finished with stitching on the spine - perfect for any keen writer.

Large Embossed Leather Journal

We have just added this lovely pale green suede journal to our range; it has a really luxurious feel to it  - a real object of desire, dying to be stroked!

Kavita Green Suede Journal

It's not just the paper that is made from recycled cloth. The beautiful jewel-like fabrics used for Indian saris are recycled too, into coverings for lovely Khadda filled journals. We have them in various sizes but our Sari journals all feature gorgeous, rich colours, gold thread embroidery and a sweet button closure, making them as pretty as they are sustainable.

Extra Large Sari Journal

I just love the detail on these gorgeous A6 size mini journals. These ones feature recycled traditional fabric from heavy saris, some up to 25 years old, as well as leather stitching on the spine and a leather tie. A Fair Trade product, they are even gift boxed so they make wonderful little gifts; the acid-free cotton paper has a smooth finish suitable for all pen types, drawing, painting and even pastels. We sell a lot of these as travel journals as they are just the right size to pop into a rucksack for notes and sketches.

Mini Travelling Sari Journal

India has one of the largest stocks of livestock in the world and has a long history of supplying fine quality leather. For cultural and religious reasons, goat and buffalo skins are particularly popular and of course are by-products of the food industry.

One example is this leather journal, available in several sizes, which encloses deckle-edged lokta paper in a thick, supple buffalo leather wrap. Buffalo leather is especially strong and features a pebbly texture that is very rustic in style. It contains fine quality paper that is really versatile - use it for writing, sketching or photos - you will find it takes fountain pen, biro, water colours, pastel and pencil equally well.

Extra large leather journal with treeless paper

Goat leather is highly durable, yet very soft and supple, with a textured finish. It also takes dye particularly well, as you can see by the gorgeous deep shade of tan in these goat leather journals. I especially like the strap detail on this one and of course, the paper is treeless too.

Pocket strap leather journal with treeless paper

In our search for recycled and eco-friendly products, we located some superb photo albums too. We love this beautiful, rustic leather photo album, handmade by a co-operative of 40 families using traditional methods; natural tree bark and vegetable extract are used to dye the leather, which is naturally tanned and filled with recycled cotton paper. The hand-torn edges give a really rustic feel but the paper is super strong and has been known to last hundreds of years without deterioration.

Rustic Leather Large Album

 The Sari covered photo albums are lovely too.

Sari Photo Album

To preserve your photos each album contains acid-free cotton paper interleaves and is presented in a recycled cotton gift box for added protection.

So it goes to show, we can take care of the environment and support employment opportunities in the developing world without sacrificing our taste for beautiful, fine quality paper products! Why not take a look at our full range of sustainable and eco-friendly notebooks here and do your bit to save the planet!