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!

Two Challenges to cheer up a miserable day!

After a beautiful, sunny and warm day yesterday, today is wet and miserable - though the wind forecast has not arrived (yet!). So instead of cutting the grass as planned I thought I would post a couple of challenge projects.

The first is the A Passion for Papertrey template challenge - a little gift to go with the gingerbread man card I have already posted. Its Lauren's small Milk Made template and the little cartons contain a hot chocolate sachet and some marshmallows and sprinkles.

The second challenge is a sketch for the Copic Colour Challenge. As you can tell I'm absolutely in love with Kraft cardstock and seem to be using it for everything!

And there's more...... I must join in the current passion for Lauren's little picnic basket template. I made this to match the button card made the other day and I filled it with fruity boiled sweets. I've given both card and basket to my sister who had major surgery last week and needed something to lubricate her throat after the anaesthetic. Hope you're feeling better today Jan!

The Next Level Challenge 7

This week's challenge is a sketch with a 3D image - I'm not very comfortable with decoupage and this card probably shows it! I've used some delicious stamps from Claire at Waltzingmouse Stamps and my lovely new Sakura Clear Star pen to highlight. I'm definitely going to buy some more of these pens as I really like the effect. The patterned paper is from my tiny precious Papertrey stash. Hope this card fits the bill!