Nutters!

Every Autumn for the past 10 years or so I have treated myself and my Mum to a bag of cobnuts from Allens Farm in Kent. They are hard to find in the shops but are absolutely delicious at this time of year - young and sweet - nothing like the dried nuts we buy at Christmas time. Mum lived in Mid Wales when she was a little girl and remembers the nut trees belonging to a friend of her Mother's.

About two years ago I found I had forgotten a few nuts in the back of the fridge and they had sprouted. I planted them in a pot and they have grown into three little trees which I put in the ground this summer. But it will be many years before they produce a decent crop. Oh well - its something to look forward to!

I "borrowed" the photo of cobnuts from a National Trust website - hope they don't mind! The digital kit is from Shabby Princess The ShabbyShoppe.

Tucked Away

This Timeless Template is definitely going to be one of my favourites. Its just such a great shape for gift giving. I love the way the front flap tucks in to close the box.

I've used some of my precious Pure Poppy cardstock with the Kraft here and again Vintage Picnic is just perfect to decorate. Its turning into my number one stamp set - just right for so many occasions.

There's something tucked away inside this one that I can't reveal at the moment but it has to start its journey to Essex today (is that a clue?).

Copic Colour Challenge 27

Phew! I'm really pleased to squeeze in another challenge this week after not managing to enter anything over the past few weeks.

And here's a good excuse to use my new Earth Angel set from the very clever Claire at Waltzingmouse Stamps . Isn't this little girl sweet - as well as an angel she can transform into lots of other characters and has lots of accessories. I love her. She so reminds me of someone from a Jane Austin or Charles Dickens story. And cleverest of all she can also metamorphosize into a butterfly - can you guess how!

A Passion for Papertrey Challenge 11

The challenge is a Thank You Card and there are quite a few people who deserve one of these!

Something I love about Papertrey stamps is that lots of them co-ordinate with each other. Here I've used stamps from the new Everyday Button Bits with some from the Paper Tray set issued in February 2007 which I bought second hand. I don't think you can tell they weren't made for each other!

Looking at the card again I feel its a bit "wishy-washy" - I could have used brighter ink for the flowers or even stamped them in different colours. I'll try that another time.

Apples & Pears

At the moment I'm not getting much crafting time but I do manage to get on with my amigurami apples and pears in the evenings whilst watching TV. My sister's friend Pauline is the manager of a residential home for older people and she has asked me to make 20 fruits to sell at their annual Christmas Fair at the end of November.

I've managed to alter my apple pattern to turn it into a pear and I've also made smaller apples (or could do a pear too) to use as keyrings or bag charms. Once prettily boxed up I hope they will make good fund-raisers.

The gift box here is another version of Lauren Meader's Timeless Template - "Get a Handle on it" decorated with images from Papertrey's gorgeous Vintage Picnic stamp set.

Thank you Sunny

This little gift is on its way to Kansas and my lovely 'penfriend' Sunny. Sunny is my 'proxy' Papertrey customer - she has bought stamp sets on my behalf and sent them to me using First Class mail, which is so much more affordable than the normal Papertrey shipping. I wanted to thank her and show my appreciation for her kindness a way other than just saying thank you a hundred times so I have decorated this little notebook for her using the set she purchased for me last month - the lovely Vintage Picnic. I absolutely love this set.

I've used a spiral notebook from Paperchase. They have a range of stationery in this brown parcel paper and black design which is perfect for embellishing. The sentiments are from the other set I bought last month - Everyday Button Bits (which I also LOVE) and I've made a little card with that set to accompany the notebook. I hope you like them Sunny and they arrive with you safely soon.

I'm afraid the photos are rather grainy - its a cloudy quite dull morning.

David Austin Roses

Yesterday my sister and I had a ride out to David Austin Roses - somewhere I've wanted to visit for a long time. It was a warm sunny day and everything there looked lovely - including our light lunch and the tea and cake we had later as it took us hours to decide which rose to buy. In the end I chose this one - its called Crown Princess Margareta and is a lovely apricot colour. My sister bought a salmon pink called Sunset Boulevard as unfortunately the rose that had her name was not in stock at the moment.


Apart from the rose nursery there is a lovely gift shop and a beautiful garden to linger in. The little cafe is so pretty and the food delicious and reasonably priced. All in all a very enjoyable day out and well worth a visit. And your Mum would love it!

Bean Bee

This is a really simple scrapbook page - there are only three elements in it - including the photo! But its such a lovely image I don't feel it needs anything else. Its a honey bee on my runner bean plants hopefully making beans for me... We've heard about the plight of the honey bee recently so its always nice to see them in the garden. There are plenty of bees around this year but I haven't seen many of these - which is a great sadness as I love honey!

I've used Tia Bennett's Toy Camera Frames at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Something for Aunty Jan

I'm away from home at the moment - my sister has had surgery on her leg and I'm helping out. I'm really feeling deprived of all my crafty supplies but have brought my crocheting with me to keep my hands busy when we have a break to watch daytime TV - we're addicted to 'Escape to the Country' for some reason!! Can't miss it.

So nothing much so show I'm afraid, but before I left my great-niece visited to make something for Aunty Jan. Here she is at my craft desk busy with my Copics. I must say I was a bit nervous as kids have a habit of pressing hard when colouring but she did just fine. We scanned a picture from a colouring book and printed it out on cardstock and here's the card we made. We also made a tissue paper flower like the one Lauren Meader made here to decorate some sweeties we bought as a gift. I really like this idea - that girl's so clever!