Church Flower Festival

The Flower Festival is finally here after all the preparation by many different people. I thought I'd share some of the lovely arrangements with you. (All proceeds from the weekend go to the Parish Church).



Village Hall Flowers



Baginton Songsters Flowers



Lucy Price Lunch Group Flowers



Sunday School Display



The Small Person's Flowers on Display



Coffee Circle Flowers



Women's Institute Flowers



Church Choir Flowers



Friendly Club Flowers



Church Donations



British Legion Flowers



Parish Council Flowers



Art Club Flowers

I also wanted to show off the lovely flower arrangement created by Kathryn, one of our Toddler Group Mums, to be displayed in the Church as Todler Groups contribution. Don't the children's creations we made over the last couple of weeks look wonderful?



Just like a wonderful little fairy cove :)



The Smaller Person's Flower Fairy

You can find previous displays here and here.

Our Scarecrows

I've mentioned in a few posts now that this weekend is the Village Open Gardens and Scarecrow Trail. This is a biennial event and usually attracts quite a nice turn out.
Last time (2010) I was pregnant with the Smaller Person but still managed to trek around all of the lovely gardens. Mr Bogert and I like to make sure that there are plenty of photographs to document the event and all of the beautiful flowers and creative Scarecrows.

I showed the Small Person's flowers and portrait of the Queen, which is part of the Sunday School display in the Church, in my last post, and before that the children's Toddler Group Crafts that will also be on display in the Church.

Mr Bogert and I also get involved by making scarecrows for the scarecrow Trail. Last time we made a one legged pirate. We also made a cowboy for my Nan and Grandad. We left it until the last minute for this years creations! Eeeek! But here they are.

Mr Bogert assembled and stuffed as I sewed and cut. Mr Bogert's grumbles throughout the whole process were mildly amusing (you know, as random limbs kept falling off and sticks slid out of position and he attempted to wrestle his half built Smurf into submission). Mr Bogert's sewing was also quite impressive. Contrary to what he would have you believe, he CAN sew. But, as he stitched up the back of the boy smurfs head, there was much stretching and overlapping of folds of fabric, the occassional knotted up mess, snapped and then re-attatched thread.



Partially assembled bodies.

We used garden canes, blue t-shirts from the pound shop, some felt, white socks, white fabric for smurfettes dress, some white toddler trousers (also from poundland) for the boy smurf, and old towel for the hats and lots and lots of newspaper for stuffing. I also used craft foam for the eyes and smurfettes mouth.

They are now positioned out along the main road, either side of one of the Parish Council Notice Boards.

Alexandra's Church Flowers

Alexandra's Sunday School always makes a contribution to the Church Flower Festival. This year each child is creating their own mini flower arrangement in red, white and blue in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. They are also drawing a little portrait of the queen to stand with their flowers.

The fower arrangement is set in wet oasis in a tupperware pot (!) which is covered in a dark blue satin ribbon. We've used covered florist wire to form a cross bar above for the crown, and have fixed the points where they cross with a double bow in red organza ribbon.

All of the visible space of the oasis has been filled with white Daisy Crysanthemums. We made four red organza ribbon bows, and four blue organza ribbon bows each on a twist of florist wire. The Small Person slotted these in between the flowers all around the sides.

To finish the whole thing off, I cut some more of the mirror mosaics left over from the crown decorating, but in double width strips. They are self adhesive so the Small Person stuck these over the top of the wire. I think she's done a rather lovely job!

We had a few flowers left over, so we tied them with some left over ribbon and took them around to Grandma.

The Small Person's mini portrait of the Queen is, as always, very good. Such a little artist! We just need to take them down to Church tomorrow morning before we go to dancing.

We've also been busy scarecrow building and Mr Bogert has been baking brownies to be sold with other refreshments at The Old Rectory.

I'll be showing you more from the weekend event throughout the next week, including our super duper fantastic scarecrows, and the Toddler Group Flower arrangment put together by Kathryn. It's going to be a busy weekend!

(Also, this morning we had a check-up for the Smaller Person following his hypospadias repair last October. The plastic surgeon has given the all clear, we don't need to go back again unless a problem arises!  Yay!)

Quick Stamped Cards

I'm just popping in quickly to show you these two cards I made this week.

The first one is an acceptance card for a wedding that Mr Bogert and I have been invited to in August.

I have used a small white textured square card blank. I have wrapped a wide burgundy satin ribbon horizontally across the centre of the card, and taped the edges on the inside. Next, I stamped a little church stamp onto some plain white card using black ink, sprinkled with black sparkly embossing powder and heated to set it. (You can't really see the sparkle or raised edges of the print in this photograph). If you can't quite make it out, the stamp says 'And they lived happily ever after'. I mounted the stamped image onto silver card, and then fixed this over the ribbon using little foam pads to raise it off the surface of the card. I used the same 'studio g' alphabet stamps and black ink as the Fathers' Day cards to spell out the word 'Acceptance', and then I used some of the leftover mirror mosaics from the Small Person's crown decorating a few weeks ago.

I finished the inside off with a piece of patterned paper that came free with a magazine. This covers the taped ends of the ribbon.

The second card is a New Baby Girl card for a friend. I have used the same type of card blank as the acceptance above, and stamped it with a large baby bib stamp in silver. I sprinkled white glitter embossing powder over and heated to set (again, you can't see it very well in this image). I then punched two small holes close together at the neck of the bib. Through this a threaded a thin pale pink satin ribbon (from the inside of the card). I tied the ribbon in a simple bow and trimmed the ends so that they don't overlap the edge of the bib print.

I finished the inside with another piece of free paper. This covers the holes where the ribbon is threaded through. I also stamped 'Congratulations on your New Baby' in black ink on the message side of the card.

These were so simple, quick and even a little bit fun to make!

Toddler Group Tuesday

This week's craft follows on from last week when we made paper flowers, and both todays and last weeks crafts will be displayed with our flower arrangement in the Church this weekend during their flower festival and as part of the Village Open Gardens and Scarecrow Trail event.

One of the lovely Mums that attends the group with her son, has organised these crafts and will be creating this years flower arrangement too.

Today we made Flower Fairies.

You will need:
- a wooden clothes peg
- glue
- fabric and ribbon scraps
- 2 pipe cleaners
- glitter
- pretty paper/card (we've used holographic wrapping paper)

First of all take some ribbon or fabric and glue it around the peg.

Next, take one of the pipe cleaners and wrap it around the peg, on top of the fabric, lower than the 'neck' of the peg, twisting it at the back to secure. These will be your fairy arms.



Twist at the back.

Bend the arms into shape.

Take the second pipe cleaner and twist this around the 'neck' twisting at the back again.



Twist at the back again.

Point the ends of this pipe cleaner up behind the 'head' and curl the ends into shape.

Fold your pretty paper or card in half and cut a wing shape, similar to a butterfly, making the widest point roughly the same length as the peg.

Open your wings out and glue along the centre fold. Press this glued area to the back of the peg.

Glue and glitter as much as you like! The very last thing to do is add a lovely little face.

All done!

You could make all sorts of variations: you could cut fabric petal shapes to be attached as a skirt, you could make mini wands from matchsticks and sequins, you could add extra decoration such as pressed or paper flowers, yarn hair, cardboard or wire crowns. Every single fairy can be very different. I'd love to see some of your creations. Please leave a comment or a link if you make your own fairy!