We often ogle Google Maps...

... so imagine how excited we were when we discovered Google Maps ogling our map letters!

It all happened earlier this year over on makeably.com, one of the other online locations where Little White Dog can be found. Makeably is a rather nifty place where you can get something made exactly the way you want. It's all about collaboration & discussion between makers and customers.

Google Maps asked us to make the words 'Google Maps' in their particular font. The tallest letters are 30cm high and the whole sign is just over 2 metres in length. Each letter is made from a different map or satellite image showing the location of a Google office around the world.

Click here to read the whole story, including some photos and video of the letters in progress.

Scribbling

I received a wonderful present back in January but I've been so busy that I barely even had time to play with the box, let alone the thing itself!

I don't really consider myself much of a draw-er (or a drawer!) in the sense that I'd rarely sit down to do some observational sketching to create a picture, but I do have notebooks where I scribble half baked ideas for designing & making things. I've been very curious about drawing tablets for a long time now and lucky for me a beautifully gift wrapped Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet arrived on my birthday thanks to my lovely husband, Gareth.

It's like a giant, pressure sensitive touchpad that you can use with a special stylus or with your finger. The stylus takes a bit of getting used to because you're drawing with your hand but looking at the computer screen instead of the drawing surface. When I discovered an animation app I thought that drawing almost the same thing over and over, frame by frame, would be good practice and increase my accuracy. I decided to do something with the Little White Dog logo (since that was one of my own scribblings in the first place) and then I added some music in iMovie. You can click here to see my 16 second video. Watch this space for more scribblings to come!

My Mummy Was Born In A Mini

In our house, back in the very early 1980s, we danced around the living room to the likes of The Birdie Song on the record player. We also had a record that I  was utterly convinced was called My Mummy Was Born In A Mini because that's what my older brothers and sister and I used to sing! 

I was more than a bit disappointed to discover what it was actually called. Here are The Children of Tansley School singing My Mummy is One in a Million which reached the lofty height of Number 27 in the UK charts in March 1981. I'll leave it up to you to decide which version of the lyrics you prefer. 

Mother's Day is Sunday, 10th of March this year and our final order dates for our Mother's Day Message in A Bottle are: Monday, March 4th (Republic of Ireland) and Wednesday, February 27th (UK and Northern Ireland). 

Need a cure for the January blues?

How about a little bottle of something that will cheer you right up, has no calories and won't give you a hangover?

The thing is, I think I've invented the best job in the whole world ever. I spend my days taking people's love messages, typing them on ribbons, putting them in little bottles and sending them around the world. It's impossible to feel unhappy doing this. In the past few days I've typed messages of love, hope and happiness, a marriage proposal, a message from a wife telling her husband he's going to be a daddy, and several slightly cryptic ones that I can only guess the meaning of.  

What impresses me most is people's ability to say all that needs to be said in just a few words. I give a forty word limit because that's roughly the amount of ribbon that will fit comfortably in a bottle. Some people use slightly more than forty words (that's ok... as long as all forty words aren't "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!) and others sum it all up in as few as three. 

I'm often asked "What do people write???" (the inquisitors do the extra question marks with emphasis and wiggly eyebrows). The truth is, I concentrate on the messages while I'm typing them to make sure I get them right and then I pack them up and forget them. By the time I get to the post office I can usually recollect the general sentiments but not the exact words. They're not mine to remember or to share so I don't do either. 

If you'd like a Message In A Bottle made just for you or someone special click here to visit our shop.

Happy Christmas from Little White Dog

We're taking a break this Christmas but don't worry, we'll be back again in January with some new & exciting projects. The shop will be closed from December 15th until January 3rd so any orders placed during this time will be made and shipped in January. If you placed an order before December 15th it will be shipped by December 20th and we'll be in touch with tracking details. We'll be checking our messages every few days so if you have any questions about custom orders or delivery times please get in touch. Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year! Suzie, Milo & Holly Xxx

And By Itself And

Forget about celebrity couple nicknames like Brangelina or Bennifer, we think it's time to celebrate the &! Our ampersand paper sculptures are gorgeous by themselves or combined with other letters.

A large customised & is a great wedding gift which can be personalised to represent something that the couple have in common such as:
-The place where they met or got engaged
-Where they live
-Their wedding location or honeymoon destination
-Their wedding song (contact us first to make sure we can find it!)
-Mutual hobbies or interests (tell us a bit about them and we'll see what kind of papers and pictures we have available)

The ampersand symbol is a combination of the letters "et", the Latin word for "and".  Its use can be traced back as far as Roman times. The word "ampersand" comes from the phrase "and per se and" meaning "and by itself and". You can debate whose name goes first in a couple: ladies first (Elizabeth & Darcy), leading man (Romeo & Juliet), in order of rank (Victora & Albert) or alphabetical order (Cathy & Heathcliff) but, whichever you decide, that ampersand in the middle is the perfect symbol for tying the knot.

Prices start at €50 for a large, 14.5cm, customised ampersand (but we can make smaller ones too). All of our map art and paper sculptures are presented in gift boxes, ready to give.

Click here to visit the Little White Dog online shop or here to contact us about creating a customised gift for you.

Where the heart is....

Our latest creation from the studio is our Bespoke Map Papercut. This personalised treasure map can show the location and coordinates of a special place anywhere in the world. It's the perfect gift to celebrate an engagement, wedding, anniversary or the arrival of a new baby.

Each unique piece is made with an original map from our collection of old maps and atlases. The raised heart shows a town, city or area, and the cut-out coordinates give an exact location within the heart. It could be the place where someone was born, where a couple met or married, or where they live.

You can either give us the exact latitude and longitude or tell us an address and let us find the coordinates for you. We can also add name(s) and date below the map if you wish.

The Bespoke Map Papercut is available in the Little White Dog shop unframed €50.00 (plus postage) or framed €75.00 (plus postage).

Click here to contact us about creating one for you.

We'll need to know:
-Location for the heart (e.g. town, city or place anywhere in the world)
-Coordinates for a specific location within the heart or an address/landmark
-(optional) Date and/or name(s) to be handwritten below the map (e.g. "Tom & Mary" and "24th July 1972"