I think this is a chrysanthemum....

 I saw a tutorial for making a rose, involving plain card and lots of water.  I didnt have the punches required and some of the steps were a little obscure so I decided to have a play with a punch I had and amend some of the steps.  I think my finished flower looks a bit like a chrysanthemum, not sure what you think.

This is the large punch I used and I punched out 7 flowers (only because that was how many I could get out of one A4 sheet - no technical reason for this number) using a cream heavy card that would absorb water.

I then coloured the edges of the petals - use a water based ink if you want the colours to run.  Dont bother being neat and tidy with your colouring.

Place the petals on top of each other and fix through the centre with a brad.  Now is the time to move the petals around a bit as you dont want them all lined up.

start pulling the petals (one layer at a time) into the middle of your flower and press them together firmly - again neatness doesnt matter here, it will all add to the character of your finished flower.

continue adding layers until...

your flower looks like this.  Squidge (dont you love my 'technical' terms) the flower hard together - be quite rough and firm here.

now comes the messy bit and you may prefer to do this over the sink.  You will need a water mister and probably an old cloth.  Open your flower out again and starting with the first layer squidged into the middle spray liberally with water (about 3 good squirts should do) continue to press the first layer of petals together moulding them quite tightly shut.

repeat the process as you add each layer of petals and then press the final 'bud' shape together quite hard, this is how your flower should look now.

carefully open your flower out again, getting some space between the petals.  You now decide if you are happy with the colouring or if you want to go further.  For the flower at the beginning of this thread I stopped here with the colouring but if you want then you can .......

spray liberally with Glimmer Mist, make sure you give it a good old spray.

again gather your petals into the centre and leave to start to dry - approx. 15 minutes at this stage.

now comes the fun bit - but be warned if you have sprayed with glimmer mists you will get very messy so may want to put on some rubber gloves.  Open out each layer of petals, bending and shaping the petals as you go - remember no 2 petals ever looks the same so no aiming for perfection here just go with the flow.

gradually open up the layers shaping your flower as you go - you can stop at any point here if you decide you want a half opened flower or a fully opened bloom.  Go back over petals already opened and adjust them to suit but be warned as they are still very wet you can pull a petal off so go carefully.

you should end up with a flower looking something like this.  Put the flower aside now to dry - I left mine on top of the radiator and it dried in about an hour but make sure it is fuly dried before you go on to the next step.

you can leave your finished flower as it is once dried or you can add a little sparkle and glitter to some of the petals if you like.

I now plan on playing with some cutting dies and stamped images and will if any of the work out, add them to the blog.

If you want to make your flower a little stronger once finished then give it a light spray with some clear spray varnish.  I hope you enjoy getting messy and inky and making these flowers.

Please Santa.....

I had this idea in December last year but it was a little bit too late so I stored the idea away for this year.  Of course I had to make 2 of these books, both inspired by the Forever Friends Bears.  Here are the covers of the 2 books which I bound using my Bind It All and I added the new Christmas ribbons from Crafty Ribbons and charms and beads from my stash.

Inside the cover I added a photo of each of the girls and as they are my little princesses I had to give them both a crown.  I designed the pages on my pc and the story so far reads

'Santa'  -  'I've been so good, I'd like a ......and....'

Lines have been included for the girls to add the details from their wish lists and there is even room to paste a picture of the item.

the story continues on the second page -

'I've seen this  - that looks so cute'

then on to the third page -

'and this is nice - if you have the room'

onto the next page and

'then there's this little list'

and on to the last page -

'Thank you Santa xxx'

Inside the back cover I had embossed a heart containing the word love and then cut these out and added the girls names.

on the back cover I have put the year as their mummy plans on saving these in the girls' memory boxes.  It will be nice for them to look back when they are grown up and remember their early Christmas' and to show these to their own children.

and here's the prize in all it's glory..

Three photos from the Bad Taste Bears' event - firstly the prize the kids won for best shield....

My d-i-l with their winning shield and artist Peter Underhill.


Peter Underhill signing the shield.

Nanna, havent you ever had a bad hair day???

Thought you could all do with a Sunday morning smile.

For a dear friend

We lost a good friend yesterday - hard to believe these photos were taken last month when we all celebrated his 65th birthday. Paul we miss you already, sleep gently dear friend.

Paul with his precious wife Jackie.

Arn and I with Paul

Shield and more - Update we won .....

Update on my post below - we won first prize, I am so darned chuffed, never won anything before. Thankfully the prize is a very rare Bad Taste Bear which the kids will be adding to their display cabinets - phew thought for a minute they might make me display it here. Picture of the prize is shown on my post of the 29th July. There are only 24 of these worldwide.

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Crafters get lots of 'strange' requests and when my grown up kids decided to enter a Bad Taste Bear competition they asked me to make them a blank shield they could decorate. Well stupid here made a good job of it and out of the kindness of their hearts they decided I could do the complete thing (or was it that they thought good old mum, she'll do it?). Anyhow here it is in all it's 'glory' - the latin motto round the outside has it's English translation round the bottom and reads 'United we stand. United we eat.....one another' hence the crossed knife and fork. The bears were drawn freehand from actual models and then 'adjusted' to suit my needs. The finished shield stands 3feet tall and is 2 feet wide. If they win do I get the prize?? - definately not, I wouldn't have one of those revolting ornaments in my house.

Daisy ribbon challenge

I was selected by Crafty Ribbons to participate in another of their ribbon challenges. A beautiful bundle of daisy ribbons duly arrived and the challenge was to make 2 things using the ribbons. So I set about making a couple of cards and then a nest of little boxes. I didn't photograph the inside of the boxes (oops forgot) but inside each I had made a glazed base using chips of coloured glass and beadlings and set a silver charm into the glaze. The tiniest box also had a little scroll with a quote on it. I think the boxes took longer than the cards to make, but each piece was a joy to put together so a big thank you to Ali and all the crew for another lovely challenge, just hope you like my entries.