Hello! Magazine

In case last week you missed your copy of Hello! magazine it featured myself, Kelly Hoppen and the Prince's Trust. Here is the article.

I must credit the writer and photographers of the piece, Alexandra Wilby, Dominic O'Neill, Rex Features and Prince's Trust Campaign photographer, Rankin.
Thank you to Kelly Hoppen for her interview and to Hello! magazine for featuring my greeting cards.

QVC Guest Audition.

On Friday I headed to the QVC headquarters with the Prince's Trust for my guest audition, along with Rebecca Taylor who has been mentored by Liz Earle creating their amazing Rose and Lavender Cleanse & Polish Special Edition.

Here we are at QVC prepared and excited for the day ahead!

QVC, having outgrown it's original location, is now based in Chiswick Park, a huge site also homing companies such as Swarovski, The Walt Disney Company and Paramount Pictures.

QVC based in Unit 8.

The wonderful grounds at Chiswick Business Park.

On arrival we were met by the really friendly QVC staff, and to my excitement they had the finished samples of my products. If you have read Hello! magazine in the past week, you will have discovered that Kelly Hoppen and I have designed and created a matching throw and cushion for sale exclusively at QVC.

This is Rebecca and I being welcomed to the audition set by Tina Halvorsen and Craig Rowe. We received some great initial advice and they made us feel at ease.

We were both filmed and interviewed for approximately ten minutes, and despite initial nerves, I did find myself getting into it, and it was really easy to talk about the products because the results are amazing. The last time I saw the design it was all on paper, so to finally see the result in fabric and in a completely different format to my greeting card designs, felt a bit surreal but I was so pleased and proud of the results.

Craig was so friendly and he made the ten minutes fly by, asking how I got involved with the Prince's Trust and what it has been like working with Kelly and the reaction from my friends and family.

All that waits now is for November to come round and for Kelly and I to appear on the live show. The audition was so worth it, because now I know there is nothing to be worried about, and I am looking forward to being able to show you the finished products!

Hello! mag and QVC

If you follow on twitter you will have seen me tweet this week about very exciting happenings behind the scenes here at Fay's Studio.

Firstly Kelly Hoppen and I featured in Hello! magazine this week. I have known about the feature for a little while, so to keep it quiet has been quite difficult. I rushed out to get a copy, but here in Gloucestershire we couldn't get it until Tuesday.
I hope you have all bought your copies too. It's a lovely article where Kelly talks about youth unemployment, the importance of mentoring, and working with me designing products which are launching very soon exclusively through QVC.

Ad-campaign posters that have been doted around the UK

Kelly has just celebrated her 3rd year selling through QVC, and it's going to be fantastic to appear on the show to promote the products live on air in November. Slightly nervous though!

If you haven't been following the Prince's Trust 'Tomorrow' campaign, you can read all about it here on the dedicated website. The campaign is genius, bringing together industry professionals and specialists and Prince's Trust business success stories to create products to sell to raise vital funds for the charity.

Susan Burne, pictured here with Zandra Rhodes runs her own vintage clothing business. Her ASOS marketplace 'Memoir Vintage' is full of amazing clothes, take a look here!

Beauty salon owner Rebecca Taylor pictured here with beauty entrepreneur Liz Earle have already launched the Special Edition cleanser they have created together. You can buy online here whilst stocks last. Read more about the product here too.

There are other great projects going on too which you can read about online, including the collaboration between, Wayne Hemmingway, T.M. Lewin, and Prince's Trust success Anthony Aitman.

Here are all the updates from Kelly and I about the 'Tomoorow' campaign photoshoot, my first design meeting with Kelly, and our appearance on MSN talking about our products.

Hello! magazine have just revealed what we are designing together, so to find out, rush out and get a copy of the magazine today!!

Find us on the Comment page of Hello! dated 24th September 2012.

New stockist - The Honey Pot

I am delighted to announce that Fay's Studio greeting cards are making their way to a wonderful boutique style baby shop in Hawick. 'The Honey Pot'.

The owner Lesley Smith received a £250 Market Test Grant from the Prince's Trust in November 2010 then returned for further funding in February 2011 to open her high street shop.

'The Honey Pot' specialises in Babywear and accessories for the home. After opening the doors Lesley has been extremely busy much to her pleasant surprise. Lesley plans to launch her online shop soon which will hopefully attract many more customers to her beautiful store.

It's great to supply a shop which has also been supported by the Prince's Trust, as an example of how the organisation really can have a positive snowball effect. It's another success story of how the charity have helped creative people into business, with Lesley having a background in Textile Design.

Lesley has already won an award in the annual Moffat Travel and Tourism Awards for 'Excellent Customer Focus', and I wish Lesley every success for the future!

Interview at MSN

MSN have aired the exclusive interview of myself and Kelly talking about the Prince's Trust Tomorrow campaign from their headquarters in London.

You can watch the interview here... Learn more about how I got started in business and what Kelly and I have been designing together!