GKD - APRILBOOK

This is going to be a longish post so hope you'll have time to read it from start to finish!

Gina K has challenged her designers to pick a favourite children's book, make a card using this as the inspiration and tell a little about the book and what it meant to them. This is also how she will choose her CSS team member for the next stamp release. Anyone can enter, as long as you follow the guidelines and use one of the March release stamps for your card.

When I read the post I thought, nice.... a little different, and carried on with what I was doing, which was taking up a pair of pants for Walshie!!!

Sitting in front of the window stitching I started thinking back to when I was young and we'd go to stay with my Gran and Grandad.

At the end of each day we were bathed, said our prayers at the side of the bed then tucked up and Gran would read to us. Those who follow my blog will probably know what's coming next I've talked about it before! My Gran loved everything Beatrix Potter, so these were the stories she read us, always.

I was sitting in the chair remembering this and that somewhere there was a photo......old and very grainy but still, I had to find it .......... I don't think there's an early family picture where my brother has anything other than that look on his face!!! So funny.

Well, I had to make a card then..... the hard part was picking one of the Beatrix Potter books to feature. In the end I chose two.

Jemima Puddleduck ...... who very nearly fell foul of Mr Fox, all because she wanted to hatch her own eggs! I used the image from the STV Kit for my card, coloured with Copic markers. Lots of pink to match the colour of Jemima's shawl. Bubblegum Pink is the card base and I used dp from Basic Grey 's Bittersweet paper pad. A lace border punch and some pink flowers from Annabelle Stamps set with a pearl brad. Fo fun I added a ducks feather, which is so soft. This is a belated Birthday card hence the sentiment.

My second card uses Nina Brackett's beautiful set Nana's Needlework. Which has been coloured with Copic's. I've used Nina's Anniversary sketch for this card. The base card is GKD pure luxury heavyweight in pure white. I love the stitching stamp I used along the bottom of the card and stamped it in SU nearly navy. The sentiment was stamped in the same ink and cut with a Spellbinder die before popping up on foam dots.

The top portion is made up of layers to match the dp which is from the Kaisercraft Gypsy Sister's Collection paper pad.

Now for the fun bit I've made a pair of knitting needles from tooth picks by cutting them to size and whittling the ends so I could push on a bead ..... (my Dad will be looking down smiling on this!!). Then I knitted this little piece using embroidery wool, leaving a nice long end so I could wrap it around the card a few times. Double sided tape holds this to the front of my card.

If you know the story of Benjamin Bunny you'll know his Aunt was the mother of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter. She was a widow who earned her living by knitting rabbit-wool mittens. This is the inspiration for my second card. Just a flick through, looking at the beautiful illustrations in these books makes me smile.

Walshie bought me this boxed set of the Beatrix Potter stories some time ago after hearing me talking about my Gran. She was lovely, a very talented seamstress and embroiderer. She used to hand smock my dresses and nightdresses. I remember a new dress at Christmas ready for the Christmas Party at Dad's work, and my Aunt used to knit me an angora bolero to match!!!

All the lovely dresses etc are long gone but I'm lucky to have our family christening robe that Gran made in ivory silk, all hand smocked and embroidered.......beautiful!

I hope if you've stuck with me through this post you can tell how much I enjoyed making these cards, and remembering these special people and happy times.

It's a great challenge..... you don't need a competition to try this, have a go.

I'll see you soon, don't forget Monday is 'Magic in the Air' and I've got something other than a card this week. Hope you have a great week end and thanks for dropping by.

Edited note: I was just looking at Beatrix Potter sites on the web and found this fantastic site for children - check it out