2010 January

Butterflies at wisley

January 26, 2010 By HandMadeCards 1 Comment

My three great loves are flowers, butterflies and creating cards.

Here is an idea for a cold winters day -

Last year I attended a great event at Wisley called – Butterflies in the Glasshouse it was so popular that the RHS have brought it back!

From the 16th January to 28th February you can enjoy Wisleys winter garden and gorgeous butterflies! Sounds perfect to me!

There are no extra admission costs, just the usual garden entry price -

£9.50 for adults,
£3.00 for children (6-16)
Children under 6 is free.
For RHS members it is free.

You will see exotic butterflies, this will give you a great opportunity to see these beauties upclose as you learn about them.

This event is open from 10am and closes at 3.45 pm with last entries at 3.30pm ( I would suggest that you arrive as early as possible, as this is a popular event.

Extra family events: –

13th-14th February Make your own grass head butterfly
20th – 21st Create a caterpiller puppet

These are held in the Clore Learning Centre 10am – 3.30pm

How to get to RHS Wisley

Above photo is of the amazing exotic Owl Butterfly.

If you love butterflies, how about planting nectar rich flowers in your garden to attract them.

The English Cottage Garden Nursery provides a fantastic list of wonderful plants to plant in your garden to encourage our butterlies.

Filed Under: nature's gifts Tagged With: Butterflies, Butterfly, children's activity, Family, Flower, Recreation, Royal Horticultural Society, Wildlife, Wisley

A handmade Valentine gift suggestion

January 19, 2010 By HandMadeCards 8 Comments

A handmade Valentine gift

I thought I would share a handmade Valentine’s gift suggestion with you.

Flower bouquets can be very expensive for Valentine’s Day and I thought this lovely gift could be given to your loved one, handmade by you at a great price!

The above image is the finished image that I designed for one of my Valentine Greeting Cards

Here is what I did -

I bought a heart shaped oasis from eBay (size 9″), (you could buy a square one and cut a heart shape out, if a heart is not available.)

I then went to Tesco’s and bought several bunches of roses in various pink shades. (I used 40 roses in total)

Complementing colours and shades work best.

Are there particular roses, colours that your valentine likes?

I soaked the rose stems in a bucket of water with flower food added, as well as soaking the oasis in water overnight.

The following day I cut the roses and placed them in a pattern into the oasis.

Last but not least, you can buy some waterproof ribbon in a matching or complementing colour to add around the edge of the oasis.

To present your gift to your valentine, buy a gift box, place the oasis inside on some tissue paper and close. To finish add a pretty ribbon to tie around the box with a gift tag.

The cost of the oasis, roses, waterproof ribbon came to around £15.00

Finished Valentine gift as above.

The following image is our Valentine’s card for this year using the above method.

I hope you like the suggestion and that it will inspire you to give a handmade gift this year.

The above Valentine’s card is available through our website -

www.sendaflowercard.com and our BT Tradespace for £1.75 free P&P.

We can personalise the card with your message on the front and / or inside the card for free.

All images © Send a flower card – Anita Hunt

Filed Under: Choosing a greeting card, nature's gifts Tagged With: flowercard, flowers, gift, Greeting card, handmade gift, Holidays, roses, shopping, Tesco, Tissue paper, Valentine, valentine's day gift, valentines-day, Water

Valentine’s cards

January 17, 2010 By HandMadeCards 1 Comment

Valentine’s Day can be a controversial topic.

Sensitivity is required when talking about the matters of the heart and Valentine’s Day can be the subject of a much heated debate.

It can be a day of pain for many people, for those who are single and those who have been through a divorce, or widowed for example.

Some feel that this day is far too comercialised and that they don’t appreciate the pressure of being told they ‘must buy’ a gift to tell their loved ones how much they love them, when love should be shown everyday.

Whatever your view on Valentine’s Day, my suggestion for this valentine’s day is to perhaps visit a garden, maybe one filled with snowdrops with some friends or a loved one. (I have provided some suggestions of where to visit some glorious snowdrop displays in an earlier post) it would make a lovely day out and wonderful memories of our lovely countryside. Let’s hope the weather improves by then.

I have designed some Valentine’s cards for those who wish to buy them and hope you will like my collection.

This year I have introduced a new size of card into the collection – 19.8 x 21cm

Here are a few examples of the cards available -