Where do you get your ideas from?

I'm sure everyone in a creative profession gets this question a lot, but because my bags are so unusual quite often my customers have never seen anything like them before. Can I really be so out on a limb? A mad genius concocting one-off wonders? No, of course not. In the wonderful world of the internet my bags are not so strange, and all great ideas have a starting point.

I first started sewing bags because I wanted a handbag to express my love of sushi. I thought that someone, somewhere, would already be making a bag shaped like a sushi roll, but when I couldn't find what I wanted I made it myself. I didn't realise at the time that I'd started something momentous, something that would lead me to start my own business. I'd been inspired by the cute and kawaii world of Japanese food, and in Japan there are already dozens of designers turning food into accessories, playthings and furniture.

Pastry cushions and sleeping bags from Felissimo

Modular sushi furniture by Sophia Yung

Miniature food earrings by Meow Box

The concept for my cake collection came from a desire to make this wonderful world more accessible to the majority of the British population, so I chose iconic British cakes that I thought would make a bold style statement. In drawing up my designs I had a lot of help along the way, firstly from other designers. It's always a good start to find out what other crafters are making and try to work out how they did it. I often browse etsy to get an idea of new trends. When looking for ideas for Swiss Roll bags (which was something I knew I wanted to do) I came across this ring. I was totally inspired by the simple shape and loved the idea of chunks of chocolate mixed in with the cream.

Chocolate Swiss Roll Ring from PinkFrog4U on etsy

Next I started looking up recipes. I love to browse recipes in books and online for inspiration. I came across this image through a good image search, and although it's only a stock image I was wowed by the amazing use of colour. Again the design features cream with added delicious chunks, but this time they're chunks of fresh strawberry. Looking at images like this inspired me to include a strawberry with each cake design. 

Shutterstock chocolate and strawberry Swiss Roll

Here's the result, my Chocolate Swiss Roll Handbag inspired by this recipe, topped off with the strawberry zip-pull. 

Chocolate Swiss Roll Handbag, available from the Lucky Ladybird shop

Of course if looking for beautiful pictures of food there's one place you can spend hours drooling over - Pinterest! Although my method of constructing my cupcake coin purses is a closely guarded secret, I will reveal that many of my cupcake 'recipes' are inspired by beautiful Pinterest images, such as this mouthwatering photograph of a batch of lemon cupcakes.

Lemon cupcakes from MontanaRosePainter on Pinterest

Lemon cupcake coin purse by the Lucky Ladybird

If you'd like to see more delicious images that helped to inspire my crafty creations, and even get a few clues as to some more recipes I'm considering adding to the Lucky Ladybird range check out my Pinterest board 'Cake Craft' which I've just make public.

The world of crafting is weird and wonderful, and the only limit is your imagination. As it turns out my imagination reaches about as far as my stomach! Keep looking for inspiration, and good luck in all your creative endeavours, 

LL xx