Tuesday 19 February 2013

A gift in a card

A family friend turned 80 recently and had requested no presents.  Whilst thinking about making her a card I came up with the idea of incorporating a small momento into it.  This means she will have something lasting a little longer. 

I cut the numbers out of some silk fabric paper I had made, and blanket stitched them to a piece of silk.  Then I stitched little flower sequins on, held in place with a tiny bead. I love the way these flower sequins are shaped rather than laying flat.







Then I made it into a lavender bag, filled with dried lavender from my garden, and put a running stitch around each number stitching through the whole sachet in order to keep it flatter.  The final thing was a ribbon attached with bows and some of the little beads.





The ribbon slid tightly over the card, in order to do this I had to open the card flat and curve it a little, but being so tight meant it could not fall off.  A few of the flower sequins and beads were glued around to decorate the card itself but it really didn't need anything else.


Tuesday 5 February 2013

Signs of spring



The snowmen in my garden were only just reduced to small heaps of snow and a pile of branches when I spotted signs of Spring in a neighbours garden.






The first snowdrops peeping through, and bright sunshiny aconites.


I spotted them whilst walking down the road and went back with the camera especially.  It is lovely to see them and definitely bought a smile to my face.