Christmas Best Sellers

Bestseller of 2010

In Second place is the humble Christmas Pud!!


And in 3rd place this year is this holly design card.


A quick update as to what's hot at the moment at Sabah Designs Studios. We've been rushed of our feet these past few weeks with packing and dispatching christmas orders and twice a day trips to the post office. Postal delays due to the severe snow last week had a serious impact on deliveries and we too got caught in the middle of it. If you placed an order that has been delayed due to the bad weather, we really appreciate your patience and hope that your order has been delivered to you by now.
Our new retail outlet on Not on the high steet has kept us extremely busy and the following three designs have been our buyers favourite it seems!
1. Silver Lining 'Heart'
2 Polka Dot 'Pudding'
3 Silver Lining ' Holly'
You can purchase these designs or any cards from our christmas ranges by following the link:
www.notonthehighstreet.com/sabahdesigns

Not on The High Street

After meeting me at Top Drawer Spring this January I was invited by upmarket online gift retailer Not On The High Street to become a partner, which of course I was delighted to. However, Top Drawer Spring bought some astounding orders and new sales agents our way, which meant one thing....lack of time to develop this exciting venture. So June this year, just before I got rushed off my feet again with the Harrogate home & gift show, I finally became a partner of NOT ON THE HIGH STREET. The Harrogate show again proved to be a busy one for us with year on year sales up by 28%. By the end of September signs of normality were gradually beginning to show in the office, this is when I finally got the chance to sit down and design my new products which I've been wanting to for such a long time. Although, at the moment I have only uploaded Christmas cards on to the website, my new products include embroidered bunting, chiffon scarfs, picture frames, keepsake boxes and photo albums. I'm hoping and waiting for some brighter days ahead so that I can capture the beauty of my products outdoors. In the meantime you can view and buy my products by following the link below. http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/sabahdesigns/ Happy Shopping!!

Quorn Christmas Fair

Here are a selection of this weekends photos from the Quorn Christmas Fair, held in the lovely village of Quorn just outside Loughborough. A huge thank you to everyone for visiting…I hope you found some fabulous gifts! Our new bunting went down a treat and I managed to make some beautiful lace and organza corsages the evening before. Due to the lack of time, I was unable to package or lable them, hence simply dispalyed them on a vintage plate (a recent second-hand bargain !!). I'm pleased to say that all 24 sold out including my prototype. I'd also like to say a huge thank you to the lovely Louise from www.candlelicious.co.uk and Sarah from www.benningtonsoap.co.uk my two neighbours for providing me with such gorgeous aroma's from their scented candles and perfumed soaps all afternoon. Thanks girls!!


Saturday evening.....me, my fabrics & lots of ideas running
through my creative head!


I have given the organza frill a pretty 'torn effect' edging.


Then it was out with the bead boxes in order to choose
the finishing touches.


Stiching the backing of my first corgase prototype.

Walima Cards

A quick sneeky peak at some of the Wedding and Walima cards that we have designed exclusively for Lebas London, one of our lovely stockists. Apologies for the 'yellowness' of these images as I took them rather late at night whilst packing their order, which should be on its way down to windy London this afternoon.
There has been a huge surge in the Asain wedding market in recent years. We as a greeting card business have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of Asain shops stocking our cards and stationary. The most popular cards being; wedding, walima and Mendhi. Currently, the Britain’s Asian wedding market is worth more than £300m annually and is expanding at a rate of 10% a year, compared with a 4.3% annual growth of the Western wedding market.
For more Asain wedding cards designs watch this space !!

Christmas Fairs

Pretty fuchsia personalised Keepsake Boxes.


Personalised photo albums in small,medium and large.


Christmas cards from the 'Precious Pearls' collection.


Embroidered tree hangings - simple yet effective.

A quick update to let you all know where I've been hiding this past week! Well, as some of you may know this time of year I get busy crafting/designing FUN items for the retail christmas fairs that I exhibit at in and around Leicestershire.
So, apart from the obviuos greeting cards and stationary, we also focus on gift items specially personalised as they do really well as Christmas presents. This year we shall be selling a mix of cards, stationary, photo albums, keepsake boxes, scarfs, textiles, bunting and christmas tree hangings.
As you can see we have expanded quite nicely this year into gifts and home furnishings which I'm very excited and proud of.
Still lots and lots to prepare for these events. This evening I'll be packaging our new bunting and tomorrow I'll be stitching buttons onto cushions!

Our fisrt retail fair will be on Sunday November 21st · 11:00am - 3:30pm.
Hope you all have a good relaxing weekend.

Progressive Greetings Feature

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that as a seriel cupcake cardie I was recenetly approached by the Progressive Greetings magazine to talk about the current vogue of the adorable yet humble cupcake and its huge impact on greeting card industry.
Well, arriving back in the office after a very constructive two weeks of designing new products, I was delighted to find that my article was featured on the front page of the trend spotlight in the October issue.
Also our very popular 'Pure Love' range of greeting cards has got a mention in the Innovation section of the magazine. I will be adding more designs to this range early next year, which was launched earlier on in the year with just wedding and anniverseries titles.

Silver Lining Christmas

For those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that lately we've been extremely busy with the mamoth task of trying to keep up with Christmas orders aswell as designing Valentines and Mothers Day 2011 ranges AND developing a new gift and accessories line (which we'll be launching early spring.)
You will be able to read more about the exciting gifts we're launching in the coming weeks on this blog, so watch this space!
Talking about 'space', that's one word that is constantly being used by our lovely retailers quite abundantly these days, as gift and card shops up and down the country are hard at work trying to make 'space' for their christmas stock and displays. With my digital camera in hand, I'll be checking out the latest shop displays in and around Leicestershire and will report back some of my favourite displays next month.
Last week I managed to do a photo shoot of our second Christmas Card range 'Silver Lining for Christmas' which is available to order now. The range consists of 8 festive designs created using organza fabrics, intricate silver hand stitch detailing, and sparkly diamantes & beads. What do you think of my christmas card display?

Christmas Cards

Today I will be featuring one of our two christmas card ranges 'Precious Pearls for Christmas' This range comprises of 9 sequined embroidered designs beautifully laid on to a stunning bright polka dot printed card. Each card is sized 150 mm square, complimented with an elegant ivory envelope and individually cello-wrapped.
If you would like to recieve a brochure for this range then you can do so by either ringing the office on 07734 156200 or view the complete range on our website http://www.sabahdesigns.co.uk/pages/christmas.html

Cupcakes Galore

I was recently approached by a magazine to write an article about the recent craze in cupcakes and the relation ship between cupcakes and the gift & card industry.
Well as you can imagine, being a serial cupcake lover I was delighted to give my input on this spongy morsel. (I will link to my article when its published).

In the last few years our company has been incoperating cupcake designs in most of our card ranges. We find that they are the first to be picked by customers who will say something along the lines of, ‘ Oh, we’ve GOT to have the cupcake! (as if they are real!)
I think the reason why a cupcake on a card sells so well is because its an indulging treat yet so personal and individual and not for sharing!

Hope you enjoy the images. Sabah xx


Cupcake from the Precious Pearls Collection





One of my personnal favourites from the Silver Lining Collection



Cupcakes on a stand from the CK range



A yummy scrummy cherry cake, one of Sabah Designs bestsetllers from the CK range

Eid Cards 2010

We are currently running very low on our stock of Eid Cards now, so if you are a shop and hav'nt placed an order with us yet, you will need to hurry! as the last date for wholesale orders is Friday 3rd of September.
This year we have added 6 new additions to the "Festive Glitz" eid card range due to its debut success last year. I will have to do a seperate blog on some of the fantastic feedback we have recieved in the press and by the independents on this scrumy velvety eid card range.
Happy September everyone!

Wedding Anniversary.

Well, well, well, this is a turn for the books, me blogging TWICE in less than 48 hours! Well as it was our 14th wedding anniversary yesterday, I reievced the most beautiful bouquet of white roses from my dear husband, which I simply had to share with you folks. So here are the shots I took of my favourite coloured roses.
For those of you who have been following me on twitter will know that I have recently undertaken some commision work by a wedding company to design and create a whole range of milestone wedding anniversary cards, hence right now my knowledge of wedding anniversary symbols is better than it was a month ago!! I can tell you that the tarditional symbol for a 14th wedding anniversary gift is Ivory. To find out more about the history of wedding anniversary gifts, click on the following link.http://marriage.about.com/od/anniversariescelebrations/a/annivhistory.htm

More New Members.

So whats been happening at the Sabah Designs HQ lately I hear you ask. Well, since our return from the Isle of Wight, we've taken on 2 new members of staff, who I've been busy training.
We're also very excited to have on board a new sales agent, this time for the south east of England. Martin Hawkes (who has many years of experience in the greeting card & gift industry) will be representing Sabah Designs in the south east territories. He's been busy emailing us with filled out order forms and we very much look forward to working with.



Sabah Designs parcels packed, ready and on thier way to different destinations up and down the country.

Isle of Wight

A spectacular view of The Needles Lighthouse against the white chalk cliffs,
simply stunning






Oooooh! I want one of these!!





A spectacular view of the sunset from the ferry on our way back to Portsmouth.




A really quick blog today with some lovely photos taken from our trip to the gorgeous Isle of Wight last week.
We have a growing number of stockists up there who keep telling me how fab and beautiful it is, so I have been meaning to go there for quite some time now. It was my first visit to the island and I really was taken aback by the stunning unspoilt scenery and wealth of attractions.
Hope you enjoy the pictures and have a great weekend, Sabah