Focus on .... Lizzie Chancellor

Lizzie Chancellor

Thursday Focus On...

As a new normal begins I thought it would be nice to introduce you to some of my wonderful indie suppliers who have helped keep Chirpy going over the last few months, whose cards & gifts we have been able to continue to bring to our Chirpy customers through our online shop and now back in store.

So every week I'll be introducing someone for you to find out a little bit more about them and the wonderful products of theirs you can buy from Chirpy.

Starting with Lizzie Chancellor whose cards we love in Chirpy ...

C: Tell me a little bit about yourself & your company

L: Hi, I’m Lizzie, owner and founder of Lizzie Chancellor, a stationery company specialising in original and simple hand drawn designs.

C: How did you get into doing what you are doing?

L: I loved to draw as a child and my mum always asked me to make birthday cards for her friends, whilst my brother and sister would ask me to do their art homework for them causing a lot of confusion for their teachers! I studied Art & Photography at A level and Textiles & Fashion at Leeds University. I then went on to work for a contemporary British artist in London. Seeing the way he worked every day and be creative really inspired me to set up my own business and a few years later when I got engaged, I decided to design my own wedding invitations. I really enjoyed the process and realised that my business could be greetings cards and prints, so I decided to go for it!

C: What does a ‘normal’ day look like?

L: I’ve just finished my maternity leave second time round so my working days are starting to feel more ‘normal’ again.  As soon as my husband leaves the house with the kids to take them to nursery, I make myself a cup of tea and check my emails.  I like to make a list of all the things I need to do that day so I can focus on where to start.  Usually I get the boring jobs out of the way first so I can spend a bit of time in the afternoon being creative.  Running the business by myself means I need to wear a lot of hats and split my time over lots of different areas which can be tricky at times, I find myself doing 5 different things at once so planning the day out always helps!  I break for lunch with my husband (he also works from home) and then I pack my orders for the day.  I spend a bit of time planning my social media content and then any time I have left after that is spent on drawing, designing and being creative – my favourite part of the day! 

C: What’s been your biggest achievement to date?

L:Hmm, that’s tough one! Biggest life achievement is definitely giving birth (twice). It’s a pretty empowering feeling and I’m grateful I had two very straight forward births. As for my business, I still feel so ‘young’ in terms of how far I’ve got to go but I did have my best month of sales EVER last month, which was pretty exciting. I just love the idea of my cards being sent around the world, keeping people connected and making people smile. I make personalised photo cards and this father’s day I sold so many I lost count, the thought of all those daddy’s opening them on the same morning was a lovely feeling.

C: What’s been the favourite thing you’ve designed?

L: Since having children my designs have been more led towards children, I love my children’s cut out age range, the colours are just so bright and paired with the bold shapes, they make such fun cards. I also love my happiness range, which are designed to be sent to your loved ones ‘just because’. I think sending a card to someone for no particular occasion is even more special and unexpected. That feeling of receiving a card or letter from a friend or loved one out of the blue is so heart warming.

C: What’s the best thing about running your own business?

L: Definitely being my own boss and having no one to answer to!!

C: What advice would you give to anyone looking to turn their hobby into a business?

L: I’d say it’s very easy to test the water and see if people would buy your designs with social media. Start with an Instagram account and post pictures of your designs, notice which are causing more of a reaction from your audience and go down that path. Expand that design to a few more similar designs to build your range. You can very easily set up an Etsy account and use that as your online shop to begin with. Just go for it! Learn on the way, listen to feedback and most importantly, be original.

C: Is there a craft you haven’t tried but would like to?

L: Ooh good question! I’d love to try glass blowing, it looks really hard but I’m really intrigued by it. I was lucky enough to go to Murano in Venice with my old boss, I got to watch the guys there blowing beautiful glass pieces, it was incredible.

C: Why do you feel people should shop local?

L: Because it’s a double win! By supporting a small business or shopping locally you are gifting twice, once to the small business and again to the recipient of the gift. It makes you feel good knowing you are supporting a small business and it’s lovely to be able to tell your friend who the gift is for, a bit about the company your bought it from.

C: Have you had to adapt your business during Covid & any positives you’ve managed to take from it all?

L: I’ve been extremely lucky and have actually had a lot more sales during Covid. I sell mostly online, direct to customer and I found that as people were unable to go to brick and mortar shops, they were coming online to buy their cards and prints. I wasn’t quick enough to design products especially for the lockdown period though as I had my two children at home and had to juggle the business with being a mum!

We hope you like Lizzie's designs as much as we do - we stock a wide range of her cards and I think one of my favourite range are the ones that remind me of spirographs from my childhood.

Lizzie also does personalised cards and can be found online at www.lizziechancellor.com

If you'd like to find out more about any of our other suppliers, or you're a supplier you'd like me to do a 'Focus on...' then just let me know

New Artist In Residence - Louise Barlow

Sealines by Louise Barlow

We’re delighted to introduce our new Artist In Residence Louise Barlow

Louise is a Surface Pattern & Print Designer based in Chapel Allerton. Originally from Norther Ireland she studied Printed textiles and Surface Pattern at university in England. She developed a love for crazy, out there designs that stand out from the crown and a love for colour.

Each design is illustrated at a large scale and filled with shapes and fun patterns before being meticulously filled with colour. She hopes her design portray a sense of fun and energy

5 of her colourful geometric prints are now available online at Chirpy

Each prints is available as a high gloss finish, unframed 35cm x 35cm

Price £35

Louise is currently also designing something very special for Chirpy - watch this space…

New Limited Edition Chapel Allerton Print Available

Designed by Richard Locket

We’re delighted to be able to offer you the new limited edition Print by local artist Richard Locket

Richard has designed the print in his infamous sale and there will be only be 92 available, one for every day of retail lockdown.

Prints are 11” x 11” and come unframed for £25, complete with a certificate of authenticity.

£5 of each sale will be donated to St Gemma’s Hospital

Prints available on the Chirpy online shop

Chirpy Re-opening Monday 15th June!

Chirpy will be RE-OPENING on Monday 15th June!!

Great news - in guide with government guidelines we’ll be re-opening on Monday 15th June

Watch this space for more info on new Opening times and how will will be keeping you safe

In the meantime you can shop ONLINE at www’chirpystore.co.uk

When we do Open we will continue to offer Click & Collect through our website and will post out. We’ll also be offering our gift wrap and card service where will will send presents on your behalf

We can’t wait to welcome you back to Chirpy but also hope that you can continue to support us online when you can’t get in store

Thanks and see you soon! Jo x

Our next ONLINE Workshop - Open Terrariums 2nd July

What’s happening with the Chirpy workshops?

Eve Finlay Miller and Chirpy have teamed up as usual to bring you an Open Terrarium workshop! Unusually they have moved the workshop to an online platform (online being our new usual!). 

The workshop will take place using the hosting platform Zoom

To book your place or add yourself to the waiting list as places are limiteds it’ll sell out quickly, the click here

We're making things even Chirpy-er!

What’s happening with the Chirpy workshops?

We’re having a bit of a face lift. Making the most of the current lockdown situation, I’m taking the opportunity to update Chirpy and give it a lick of paint (and much more besides depending on how long the lockdown continues!)

So pleased with the colour I’ve chosen, even matches the new website! The entrance to Chirpy will look clean, fresh and inviting. Lots of other ideas which i’m hoping to be able to do while in lockdown, all dependent on time and a very small budget. Open to any suggestions - if you’ve got any ideas then please let men know. Just pop me an email here There will be a prize for any that I like and implement!

Can’t wait to open the doors again to the new improved, more Chirpy, Chirpy!

Hopefully see you soon!

Collect from Chirpy! Trial starts Monday 27th April!

Collect from Chirpy!

Great news! From Monday 27th April we’ll be trailing Collection from Chirpy

This will be available from Monday - Friday 10am - 12:30pm adhering to all social distancing rules

Available for you to pick up orders & vouchers

So if you’ve ordered something ‘almost online’ via Social Media or email then we will be offering you the opportunity to collect from Chirpy.

This is an option which is being looked at very carefully with regards the exit from lockdown, and being used successfully by other shops in Chapel Allerton so we though it would be good to trail it.

We’ll either have the door open, with a table across it, or if the door is shut we’ll ask you to knock on the door then stand at the bottom of the stairs. We will them put your collection at the top of the stairs for you to pick up.

Of course we’ll still be offering FREE delivery in North Leeds and postage

Thank you for supporting Chirpy and helping us get our wonderful Chirpy products to you

Stay safe! x

Weekend INSTASALE!!! Pick up a Print

What’s happening with the Chirpy workshops?

WEEKEND INSTASALE!

Weekends are all about Instasales at Chirpy!

On Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd May we’ll be running a Chirpy Print Sale

Grab yourself a Print and help us raise money for the NHS. We’ll be donating £2 for every Print sold

On Saturday morning I’ll be posting pictures of a great selection of Prints on my Instagram grid

If you would like the Print then just message SOLD and I’ll message you with payment details

We ask that you then pay within 24 hours to guarantee that the Print is yours.

We can either deliver to you in North Leeds, post for FREE or you can collect from Chirpy next week between 10am -12:30pm

Let’s make this weekend as successful as last 2 weekends

Stay safe

Jo x

'Pay as You Feel' & help raise money for the NHS

What’s happening with the Chirpy workshops?

.Pay as you Feel & help raise money for the NHS

This week we’ve been selling some bargain Chirpy Stockroom Finds for ‘Pay as You Feel’ and donating 50% to the NHS

All you need to do is drop me a message when you see somethign you like and let me know how much you’d like to pay. I’ll send you my Paypal details and once I’ve received payment I’ll donate 50% to the NHS

Ideally this is for items which can be delivered or collected from Chapel Allerton - if you would like them posting I will ask you to pay the postage

Check out our IG stories for what we’ve found! But be quick - think are flying off the shelves!

Let’s see how much money we can raise - almost £100 raised in the fist few days!

Chirpy Workshop Updates!

What’s happening with the Chirpy workshops?

What a week!

This time last week we were doing our best to keep things ticking over and hoping to be able to run our March workshops, but how things have changed and so quickly

Firstly, I hope that all our Chirpy workshop customers and providers are ok - sending you all virtual hugs!

So here's a little update on where we are with the current workshp programme...

MARCH & APRIL WORKSHOPs
All of these have been postponed or where this has not been possible for a specific reason we have cancelled them. If you were booked on one of these workshops you should have received an email from me via Eventbrite to inform you of this. If you haven't then please email me on hello@chirpystore.co.uk

You'll have been given a few options - I would be really grateful if you would let me know asap which option you would like to take as this helps with planning for the future workshop programme and lets me update the providers

TRANSFER TO THE NEW DATE - this is the easiest thing to do and would really help us. We'll either give you the date if we've decided it or we'll let you know as soon as we have a new date. Of course if nearer the time you are unable to make that date then we can look at another option for you

BANK YOUR TICKET PRICE - if you know that you cannot make the new date but would still love to come on a Chirpy workshop we can bank your ticket and you can use it towards a different workshop in the future.

REQUEST A REFUND - if you would prefer a refund then we are happy to do this. All I ask is that you do consider the other 2 options as it would be great if we could have some existing bookings for the future workshops so we can guarantee running them when it is safe to do so. 

LOYALTY SCHEME - we currently run a Chirpy Workshop Loyalty scheme where if you attend 8 workshops you get your 9th for free. As a little THANK YOU, if you decide to either transfer or bank your ticket we will give you an extra loyalty stamp to help your on your way to a free workshop.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULED FOR AFTER MAY
If you are booked on a workshop from May onwards I will be in touch a bit nearer the time to offer you the above options. 

Behind the senes I am working with the workshop providers to agree our autumn programme so that we have dates for postponed and new workshops. It's such a worrying time for everyone and especially for the workshop providers who are self employed and have seen all their workshops disappear for the time being. Though amazed at how many have been so creative in their thinking in what they can offer - watch this space for us looking to work with some of them in a different way to try and bring you some creative activities #chirpyworkshopsathome - like the idea?

We are still able to offer Workshop Voucher for any value to if you wish to buy one then please get in touch and I can send it to you or to the recipient if it is a present with a card of your choice. If you already have a Voucher to use, don't worry there's no expiry date on them. 

Please bear with us at this time - we have had such a busy start to the year with workshops and we have lots in the diary to reschedule. However, if you have any questions about any of the workshops you are booked onto please don't hesitate to get in touch via hello@chirpystore.co.uk or DM me via @chirpystore on Facebook or Instagram

Most importantly, stay safe & well and be creative and we look forward to welcoming you back to Chirpy as soon as we can

Jo xx

hello@chirpystore.co.uk