Oranges are the only fruit

To go with the strawberries and apples that I have made previously, I have made a couple of oranges…

but the smaller one's more juicy!

Charlie - my fun loving crocodile

This is Charlie. He's been named after a crocodile I once knew :) and after a boy who's coming going to be five soon.

On the whole Charlie is friendly, full of energy, very polite and is good at sports. He may eat you out of house and home as he is always hungry.

And he is now for sale in both my Etsy and Folksy shops, x.

Pippa's Mayfair

What a scorcher it has been today!

It was also the day of Pippa's Mayfair, the craft fair here in Tenterden. It was set in beautiful gardens, had plenty of visitors, and had yummy cakes and drinks for sale. There were various things for sale, cards, bags, jewellery, quilts, crockery, hampers - a real mixture.

It was so hot, I'm so glad hubby persuaded me to take our parasol. I think I may have keeled over otherwise.

Well done to Pippa and Mike for organising the whole event. I hope we raised plenty of money for their chosen charity, Pilgrims Hospices.

Key fobs

I found making my panda, Lola, so satisfying that I have carried on and made a few other key fobs.

So first up was the apples (I think I prefer the green ones).

Next came a strawberry, which turns out to be hubby's favourite.

Then came Cotton, the ghostie.

and Laurent joins the group

It was a special little girl's birthday this week, and I had to get moving on my number four design to get it into the post to her, especially since my youngest seemed intent on getting into the wrapped present whenever I had turned my back (she can sniff out a Peppa Pig at 100 paces).

As usual, I had to print a solid white four before I could start printing any colour. This is one of the problems with printing on brightly coloured card, but it's the best way that I know to get a strong brightly coloured animal.

This pile of card turned into an army of snakes:

They are really starting to look like a set now, I'm really chuffed with myself for getting this far.

Number five wont be far behind as I know I have at least five 5th birthdays coming up in June and July!

She draws

Well a couple of little things happened today that got me clapping and skipping with excitement.

Firstly while I was pottering around my Folksy shop (trying to build my profile and fiddle with the overall look) I noticed that someone had marked my shop as a favourite! Woo hoo. It completely made my day. She draws makes some really cool tea cup, tea pot and biscuit buttons.

They look really sweet, I also liked the screen printed (also tea related) calico, I'm now thinking what I could use some of it on.

Then my other bit of exciting news came about half an hour later. Not only had my hubby drawn me up a little logo to print on the back of my cards, but he'd also sent it off to get made up into rubber stamps - and they arrived today.

They look quite fancy, in a way it seems a waste to cover them in ink - but then again who am I to stand in the way of my stamp's destiny :)

Lola

I fancied doing a bit of sewing, and have mounds of felt that are just crying out to be made into something.

So after a cuppa and a bit of doodleing, I decided upon making a little panda head.

I ended up doing four different eyes, working out which way was best. Some had several layers of felt but they seemed to get too bulgey for me, and so settled with a simple stitched version which I think looks pretty cute.

Whilst I was sewing, I started to wonder what my panda could be. She could easily have been a brooch but I decided her destiny was to be a key ring fob.

That decided I then made a quick purchase of some split rings from here, and some ribbon while I was at it (there's always room for ribbon!)

And she was complete…

I couldn't bear for her to be lonely, so I made some friends for her at the same time.

Pringo

I feel like I have been away from my blog for ages, and was surprised to see that it had only been a week. My absence is due to the fact that I have been busy working on a big something that's been on my mind for a while. Sorry to be secretive, things will be explained later, but here's a sneaky peak for now.

But now onto Pringo (my daughter's choice). I know at least four little boys going to turn three in the next couple of months so this card will definitely get some use.

After the first couple of colours were printed, I had a slight problem with my screen - ending up with me wrecking the screen altogether! Oops.

So after another screen purchase, (which I tried to hide from hubby, but was a waste of time when the postie turned up with a HUGE parcel) I was back on track. Phew.

I always find it an interesting thing to try each design on different coloured backgrounds, just to see how the colours work against each other.

Quite typically, I prefer the design on blue but have lots of green card bought for this one. Maybe next time it can go on blue and I'll put Igor (my giraffe) on a different colour background. I'm always open to a pleasant surprise.

Here is the finished design. I'd had this sudden inspiration on how to get a good photo of the colours - do it outside!

Hubby really thought I'd lost it at first, when he found me crouched down in our garden the other day. :) He soon understood though.

Shame the rain clouds have now rolled in, will have to wait for another sunny day to do shots of my next design.

Interesting papers

Now this is where I go all print & pattern on you.

The couple of weekends ago we went to see my hubby's cousin's newborn twins, obviously bearing gifts.

The cousin in question, is very fortunate indeed to have both a healthy boy and a girl in one innings. So I chose two different papers to wrap their gifts in, one typically boyish and one girlish (both with blue and pink bows on, respectively).

I have left the wrapping off cuts on the top of our piano, and as I pass by them every day I think 'gosh aren't they lovely!' And so I thought I'd show them here for others to see. I feel that they are both quite retro-y, in their own way. And I LOVE retro looking things.

They also make me think that if I get better, and quicker, at my screen printing I might have a go at printing my own Christmas paper this year. Bit early (in May) for those thoughts though, isn't it?