STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

Dear Reader

This card is for two challenges Allsorts Challenge which I just couldn't resist as the theme was strawberries (following colours of a chocolate strawberry and cream cake or just strawberries and cream (check out the mouthwatering photos on the Allsorts Challenge) and Whiff of Joy Challenge where a sketch was provided. I really liked this sketch with the diagonal stripes - and found some MME stripey paper (not hard in my stash lol) to make some flowers to echo it. But I'm getting ahead of myself! The image is Whiff of Joy and features a Pink Lady (!) with a basket of strawberries wearing a dress of apples. Yes, apples. Perhaps not something for the real world but in the world of whimsy I guess it's ok. I've coloured in distress inks. The DP is Magnolia - design Strawberry - which I had just enough left to make this card. I love its soft colour. I backed with Bazzil from RWS to co-ordinate. The image is double mounted using the bazzil again but also some soft 'nude' beige pearlised card to tone with the background colour of the girl's dress. I've used part of a Prima pearl swirl which has the most beauiful 'nude' pink roses on it. I've been hoarding it for a while now as it was too lovely to use! The large flower is punched from MME paper using an EK punch and has a lare 'nude' pearl in the middle. As you can see there's a lot of nudity going on in this card! Chloe tells me that 'nude' colours are very 'in' at the moment so I thought I'd try and be 'on trend' as they say thse days and introduce them into a card.

The other flowers were punched in the same paper using Woodware punches and decorated with a small pearl. Finally, I used a strawberry charm I've been hoarding too. I saw it, liked it and bought it (just the one - steady Anne!) and have been carrying it around in my handbag for ages.

I'm very partial to strawberries (you've got to love a fruit that wears its pips on the outside!) and they have happy memories for me too. I've always enjoyed strawberry picking, going off on a sunny afternoon to find them, armed usually with a mad assortment of containers which I'd grabbed from the cupboard on my way out. I used to take the girls when they were old enough and when I went to see how they were getting on there would be five or six (usually ones that looked a bit green)in Chloe's punnet and none at all in Alice's. She'd eaten everything she'd picked. The red fingers were a bit of a giveaway! I've never been a jam maker (although I remember as a child my mother making it in a big heavy bottomed silver pan and constantly testing it on a saucer to see if it was ready) but I did like eating it. I like all things strawberry flavour. My favourite lolly as a girl was a Strawberry 'Mivvy' - I think that was the name - the one with the pinky red outide and the lovely ice cream in the middle. They remind me too of Wimbledon. When I played tennis in my late teens and early 20's I used to go to Wimbledon every year and the strawberries were always a treat. One year I went with a friend and we abandoned the strawberry tent in favour of the Pimms tent and I'm ashamed to say that after a couple of them we both fell asleep on the Centre Court basking in the afternoon sun. Can't have been a very exciting game - well that's my excuse! There's something quitessentially English about strawberries that say warm summer days, cricket, sun hats and fetes. I even have a strawberrry set, a china strawberry basket with a little cream jug and sugar bowl that sit neatly inside it with just enough room for strawberries for two in the middle! One of those pretty pieces that take up an inordinate amount of space in the dresser for just a few seasonal appearances each year. But it's an old friend I'm always pleased to see! And it's beautifully painted with, yes you've guessed it, strawberries! Anyway, hope you enjoy the card and it brings you some happy strawberry memories too.