Good day to you all
If you are a Flexi Wow Box customer or have been a Flexi Wow Box customer before please read this blog. I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want to but there is some important information in here that I don’t want you to miss.
If you’re not a Flexi Wow Box customer and never have been, please skip the first part but read from the PINK STARS part… or you can read it all – it’s up to you, depends how much time you’ve got I suppose.
Ok here goes:
I have decided to take a little break from the Flexi Wow Boxes...eeek!
As I said, I am taking a break – however April might be my last ever box. I am so proud of myself for creating the subscription box, it was a goal of mine to create a stationery subscription box and I have LOVED creating every single one of them. If I could just make Flexi Wow Boxes every month and nothing else, I would, but unfortunately the subscription numbers never grew as much as I would have liked and April’s subscription is my smallest number of subscriptions so far.
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With this in mind I am going to open the doors for April’s box to non-subscribers for the first (and maybe last) time, for if anyone that would like to grab the last Flexi Wow Box as a one off purchase. I have a listing on the website which will be available until midnight 31 March. April’s box is Spring themed – flowers, bunnies, pastels and if you own lots of washi tape – then this is the box for you! (Just a note - there will be limited numbers available on the Super-Size Flexi Wow Box.)
I want to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you who has purchased a box. There are some of you who have received every single Flexi Wow Box – I can’t thank you enough.
I’ve loved drawing, illustrating, making – it’s been so much fun! There’s nothing I’ve loved more than getting cosy on the armchair with my Lofi music on drawing on my iPad – If you love all my kawaii drawings I have a Facebook and Instagram account @AnnabannaStudios.
I am hoping to grow this little account and maybe at some point, I may bring out more merch with my designs on… another one to watch this space.
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Hello! Anna here I have some up to date information on delivery times.
I was dispatching orders 3-4 working days from the moment it was ordered with the exception of any orders being held back for whatever reason. This resulted in a twice a week post run which would sometimes mean 2-4 days of post run prep.
I have been wanting to change things up a little to give myself more time to develop new products and grow the business as best as I can. Soooo I have moved my dispatch times to 7 working days. This will result in a once a week post run. I’m going to trial a Monday or Tuesday post run to start with and see how that goes. So your order could arrive quicker – depends when you order and how many orders I have in the queue.
I hope that is all ok with you all. I mean it’s all good because I can create more new lovely things. Like right now I’ve created a NEW Contacts Flexi Refill today – so it’s all good.
Watch this space for more lovely new things while I work my way through my long overdue To-Do list!!
Best wishes,
Anna xxx
Yes you heard that right! The Flexi Wow Box is now a subscription service!! Sign-up and receive a new box every month - nice and easy!
You have until 25th May to subscribe to get June's box. So if you subscribe on 26th May you will get July's box.
The Flexi Wow Box is now available in two different sizes to give you more choice.There is the NEW standard size and the SUPER SIZE (which is the same size as the previous April & May Flexi Wow Box's). Check out the comparison chart for more information.
The Flexi Wow Box will be available in limited numbers, for a limited time each month, so you have to be quick to get your hands on one! The contents of each Flexi Wow Box will be a surprise each month, so if you love colourful practical stationery items, then you will not be disappointed.
Each month the Flexi Wow Box will contain 8 items, that include...
★ Exclusive Flexi Refills: colourful practical lifestyle planner pages
★ Exclusive Flexi Notepaper: colourful cute lined/plain/bullet or graph pages
★ Exclusive Flexi Dashboard
★ Exclusive Flexi Sticker sheet or Flexi Vinyl stickers
★ Exclusive aabe goodies
★ An assortment of super cute Kawaii stationery and accessories
★ Plus some extra yummy stationery
Warning: This is not a toy. Not suitable for young children - contains small parts.
Note: This isn't a subscription box (at the moment) I will add the Flexi Wow Box to the website for one week each month after that time I will take it off the website until the next one is released. The Flexi Wow Box will then be made and sent in time for the following month. It will be sold on a first come first served basis.
Hope you’re all doing well and embracing that fresh lovely autumnal air.
If you saw my last BLOG POST you’ll know that I am slowly adjusting and changing the business slightly to help me run a streamlined happy rainbow service on my own.
My latest change will be to make some adjustments to my wire-bound planners. I have decided to keep the best sellers and say farewell to the others – as I do have a huuuuuge range. Fear not, all of my planners are available as Flexi Refills so they won’t completely disappear.
I am also having a refresh on the covers. I have designed some gorgeous themed covers for all of the wire-bound books I will be selling. I am so sooo excited by these cover designs. There will be four colour choices - pastel Blue, Purple, Yellow & Pink. The My Crimbo Planner will have two - Red or Blue. I hope you love the new designs. I really wanted a range that just screamed the aabe creative brand and I think these really do!! All of the current cover designs will remain as Flexi Dashboards and I will add the new designs to the Flexi Dashboards range too.
These changes will be launched (if all goes to plan) on Sunday 2nd October. If you are planning on making a purchase and have your eye on one of our current planners or covers you have until then to get your hands on them.
Wire-bound planners that will be staying:
My Foody Diary - Diabetes
My Foody Diary - Diet Tracker
My Foody Diary - Slimming World
My Booky Journal
My Camping Diary
My Cleaning Diary
My Crimbo Diary
My Island Planner
My Teacher Planner
My Thoughtful Diary
My Summer Journal
So coming up with the name aabe creative took some time. In fact, hours and hours of time back in 2013!! There were many ideas in the making, but I wanted something original, something cleverish and if possible something that meant something to me.
The word Creative was an easy one for me, because I wanted to be able to use it for a variety of services. Back then I was making crafts and also graphic design, so 'Creative' covered all bases.
Well its simple really, I took the first initial from each of the names in my little family to spell...
Now some people like to say 'aabe' one letter at a time, but always remember...
BONUS ROUND! Another reason I also loved the name. As a kid I loved playing the game Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee on the Playstation. I LOVED this game so much, so when the business name was born I was doubley pleased!!
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I have finally used up all of the white branded back cover stock that are used on the wire-bound planners.
The last time I ordered a large quantity of these colourful back covers was early last year, at a time when the supply chain was more stable than it is today. Unfortunately, as supplier costs have increased a lot, I will not be able to replenish these.
I really do not want to increase the cost of the planners any further, so to avoid this I have changed to an unbranded thick recycled hard back cover instead (known as Greyboard), which is very similar in thickness to the previous white branded back covers. Many similar retail planner products use this type of back cover material, so I am confident it will do the job well and is the best option moving forward.
This just a small change to the planners and I hope you understand why I had to make this decision. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Anna x
]]>All Flexi Organiser customers will receive their order in a cute pink box - But don't throw it away! Keep the box, it is a perfect storage box for any of your spare Flexi Refills.
You don't have to fill up your Flexi Organiser with pages that you are not going to use for 2 years! Unless you want to :) It all depends on how you want to use yours. After all, you can have a little bit of this, or a little bit of that, to make the most of your flexible planner.
A nice little set up could be the following Flexi Refills: half a pack of Graph Notepaper in pink, half a pack of Lined Notepaper in blue, 18 weeks of Cleaning and 18 weeks Diary pages, along with a set of Flexi Dividers & a Flexi Dashboard.
Try it out and see what works for you :)
Anna x
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We started our journey in the kitchen/dining room and a small bedroom in our old house. We used the dining table and a spare table for a work bench and the kids had to eat their meals on a folding picnic table – poor kids!! We had one basic binder – which was labour intensive and really slow. Our small bedroom was used as a computer and printer room where we had only three printers. This was a logistical nightmare because if we needed to re-print a few sheets of paper, we had to trudge all the way back upstairs!! We was up and down like a yo-yo!
In May 2017 we finally moved the business out of our house and rented a small local workshop. It was fab, we got our house back and we had a dedicated work space. We became more productive which was perfect timing as aabe creative started to take off. Four months later we had the option to move into the largest room in our unit. We had our own entry, a huge space so we could have a little sofa and a make-shift kitchen – it was great. We even had a little TV so we could binge Instant Hotel and Gilmore Girls during our lunch breaks. With all this space we had grown from three to eight printers. We invested in new machinery to punch and bind our wire bound books. It was also in this workshop that we bought Gloria our huge guillotine.
Things all changed in the winter of 2019 when we decided to pack up our family and business and move 2 hours away from South East Wales to the wild West of Wales. This was a massive move, doing our house and business all in one – it was the most stressful thing we’ve ever done!! TOP TIP! Move your house and biz on separate days!! We rented a house as a stop gap while we searched for a house to buy and we set up a workshop in the dining room. We also had a little room downstairs to house all the printers and we put our desks upstairs in one of the bedrooms.
We lived there for 12 months and in the winter of 2020 we finally found a house to buy so we could finally settle down again and call it home. We converted the garage into a rainbow workshop which has been great for us with the kids.
Over the last year sales have been really slow – we know a lot of small businesses are struggling right now. Our primary focus has been getting aabe creative back on track and working around the clock to bring out new products like our My On The Wall Planner’s, Booky Cozy’s and of course the brand new Flexi Organiser’s.
This year has all been about making big decisions and the biggest one yet has been how we run aabe creative. As the business has changed over the last two years we can no longer justify both of us working full time on aabe creative. Anthony is currently looking for a career change and a full time job. We are so proud of what we have achieved together and are equally excited of what the future holds. Thank you to all of you lovely people for sticking around and joining me on this rainbow stationery ride.
]]>It’s not a random star design that I came up with, it has a story. It all started in 2013 when I used to make crafts and 3D box frames and would sell them on Facebook and local craft fairs.
When I made my 3D box frames, I would sign them all with a wooden button star. I came up with the name aabe creative and produced the first logo - without the star.
After a short while I tweaked the logo to include the star and I never looked back. Over time I tweaked and revamped the logo a few times and changed the branding to the point where we are today with my pastel rainbow logo and not forgetting my cute button star.
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Updated: 09.07.2022
Your flexible lifestyle planner - Build your own or grab a ready-made Flexi Organiser.
Specification
Also available...
Yes! There will be a spot on the front of the Flexi Organiser and the Flexi Dashboard to personalise if you wish.
PHASE 1 - EARLY PRE-ORDER SPECIAL OFFER: 3PM ('ish!) Sunday 29 May - 10 June 2022 ...or as soon as I finished updating the website!
This pre-order phase allows me to test out the website and make sure I have remembered everything! Also, it gives me extra time re-tool the workshop for this brand new product :)
EARLY PRE-ORDER SPECIAL OFFER 10% DISCOUNT - OFFER ENDS 10 JUNE!
Shipped to you week commencing: 20 June 2022 27 June 2022
Date updated: Sorry, this new process is taking longer than I first thought, this is a totally new process for me and the workshop, but I've nailed it now :) hang in there, your orders will start to go out soon...
Shipping Schedule
I'll do my best to get them out sooner if I can :) Thank you so much for your support, patience and understanding.
Don't forget you will receive an automatic email from the website when your order has been shipped.
PHASE 2 - FULL LAUNCH: Sunday 10 July 2022
Flexi Organiser, Flexi Refills and accessories will be fully available to order on the website from from this date. Including more and more Flexi Refills! Let me know if you have any ideas?
The wire-bound Planners will remain and still be available to order :)
If you need your order before Christmas, we recommend you order ASAP or by the following dates*
Don't worry, we are still posting out orders next week (week commencing 20th) as normal and throughout the Christmas holidays.
*Dates based on Royal Mail's recommendation only, we are unable to guarantee delivery times.
]]>Hey everyone!
If you’ve been following our social media posts and stories you’ll know that our only remaining vehicle broke down last week and in January our little car (tiny Toyota Aygo) crashed and was written off. Anthony ended up upside down in a field – but luckily walked away unharmed.
So that brings us to this week where we had no car, two kids, two schools and nothing in walking distance here! So we had to buy a new to us car. I’ve always ALWAYS wanted a Fiat 500 – I mean come on, it's sooooo me! I’ve had a picture of one on my dream board for a few years now.
So on our search for a car we was looking at the most cost effective car we could afford, we looked at a range of cars (which is tricky when you live where we do)… the last car we found which was just in our budget (we’re eating beans from now on!!) was a Fiat 500!!! It’s a lush aabe blue!! I’m over the moon, Anthony is too, now we can stop borrowing my parent’s car and finally be able to get about.
So with a car to pay for and a big savings pot to fill to fix our van, PLUS we are super excited about our new wheels, we have decided to roll out a 10% discount across our whole website this weekend! We rarely do a sale so if you want to get some Christmas prezzies under your belt, now’s the time to do it!
10% sale ends midnight on Sunday 3rd October – only available on our website.
Code: beepbeep
LAUNCHING 26/09/2021 8PM!!
Myself and Anthony are super excited to announce that we have created some new and exciting products coming very soon to aabe creative!!! My On The Wall Planner’s!! We have been working our little socks off to bring this amazing new range to our shop.
We have taken some of our most popular book planners and made them into re-useable, dry wipe metal wall charts. With 7 different wall planners to choose from, in 7 of our fabulous designs, there is something for everyone… and it doesn’t stop there – we have lots and lots of ideas to expand our range to keep us busy!!
So if you love the idea of having a My On The Wall Planner, stay tuned as we are launching them this Sunday (26th Sept) 8pm with a cheeky launch night discount. We will be releasing more photos and videos of them over the next few days on Instagram and Facebook – so make sure you turn on notifications so you don’t miss a post.
]]>INTRODUCING OUR NEW MY FUN SUMMER JOURNAL
A fab new book for your children's holidays
We thought it would be fun to make our two lovely children a summer journal this year. We really wanted them to document their summer holidays and also encourage them to write and draw while they were off school. Both our children helped us design and name this book, so we hope your children will love it too.
We have two new exclusive cover designs for these planners - Lolly Pop & Lolly Cool! Plus you can choose from our large range of other cover designs too.
We have decided to create this fab little journal in the style of our Lite range planners, to keep the costs down. We have printed this journal in black and white, removed the PVC cover & kept the pages to 100 - meaning it's under a tenner!!! Whoop!
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If a teapot can have a tea-cozy, then a planner should defo have one too!
Keep your planner or book fresh as a daisy with a My Booky Cozy, the perfect little pouch for your aabe creative Super Fun Planner - Also makes a great pencil case or make-up bag... not recommended for teapots.
The My Booky Cozy can feature any design from our planner range, so there's plenty of colours and options to choose from.
You can buy a My Booky Cozy on its own or buy one with a planner as an upgrade option - and if you choose to personalise your planner, we will personalise your My Booky Cozy for free!
FLASH 10% DISCOUNT LAUNCH SALE!!!!
Automatically added at checkout
Ends 02.06.2021 23:59
Some of our previous covers have been given a new lick of paint and we've brought back some old favourites like 'Una Unicorn' and 'Bee Happy', but given them a 2021 revamp. We've created more Blue, Grey and Plain designs if wordy pinky covers are not your thing. Plus we have designed a whole bunch of new styles including 'Sunflowers', 'Daisies' and 'Retro' covers.
Upgrade your book with our★NEW★ matching book bag!
If you personalise your book we'll personalise your bag
Send yourself or a loved one a gorgeous handmade with love gift, cram packed full of gorgeous stationery goodies. Lovingly wrapped in a variety of colourful tissue paper that will fit through your letterbox. We have two new lush designs. A bright vibrant flowery 'BLOOM' box. Plus a cute colourful food themed 'YUM YUM' box.
“The rainbow box is awesome!! I absolutely love everything”
Pamela ★★★★★
“This lush little box just filled me with happiness”
Sarah ★★★★★
“All products are amazing quality and great value for money”
Tracey ★★★★★
“My daughter had this as a birthday gift and it was beautifully put together with tissue paper”
Louise ★★★★★
“I got this with the My Week in a Book planner, everything in it is amazing xxxxxx”
Tracy ★★★★★
“Absolutely loved this box so much! I will be ordering any future boxes”
Cheryl ★★★★★
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HELLO! We have a bright and shiny new'ish planner to share with you - We say new'ish because it is a new book as well as being an update/re-launch of our My Sporty Diary!
We first launched our My Sporty Diary way back in 2016 and we decided now is the right time to re-launch and to give it a BIG makeover! In fact the makeover was so big and different that we also changed the name to: My Exercise Planner.
We re-designed this planner so you can plan all of your weekly exercises for 12 months of the year more easily than before. With a new daily layout that clearly helps you with what you've achieved and what to plan for the rest of the week.
Whether you're a fitness guru or just starting out, we hope you love the new changes and we hope you find them useful on your path to a fitter and healthier you.
So grab your trainers, put on your swimming goggles, find your favorite gym shorts and put your best dog walking foot forward - Get fit and keep fit with this ultimate workout planner.
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DOUBLE STARS TIME
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ORDER BY 23:59, 7 MAY 2021 TO GET DOUBLE REWARD STARS!!!!
We're super excited to introduce our brand new customer rewards and loyalty program! Now you can earn rewards when you shop with us!
With our loyalty and rewards program, you collect Stars which you can trade in for some great savings and rewards!
Activity | Stars |
---|---|
Signup | 100 Stars |
Order | 10 Stars / GBP |
Birthday | 100 Stars |
Referral | 200 Stars |
As you collect Stars, you'll become eligible to redeem them for rewards. Here are some of the rewards you can earn.
Reward | Stars |
---|---|
Free shipping | 250 Stars |
£5 Off Coupon | 500 Stars |
£10 Off Coupon | 1,000 Stars |
£20 Off Coupon | 2,000 Stars |
Good news, if you have a registered customer account with us, then we have already added 100 Stars to your account to get you started :) ...don't have an account? Don't worry, sign-up now to claim your first 100 Stars!
For all our customers with registered accounts that have purchased from our website this year, we have also added all of your earned 2021 Stars :)
If colour is not your thing...
Go Black & White!
I had a dream the other night that a customer wanted a black and white planner!! The dream was so real, as soon as I woke up I said to Anthony - we need to offer our diaries and planners in black and white!!! A few hours later and it was on the website.
We've added a new option on each of our products to choose Multi-colour or Black & White pages.
Go check them out :)
Anna x x