Card Making From An Old Book

Foxgloves

Blue Tits

Would you like a little peek at how I am getting on with my cards from The Diary Of An Edwardian Lady? I thought I would try first with the pictures that I least liked so that if it didn't work too well then I would not feel that I had ruined the really pretty ones ... the first few were terrible ... getting the stitch length right was important or the card tore very easily. They then got a little better ... see here ... now I think I can get them right and will post with some better pics later.

Book Now Ruined!

First Trials!

Now that I have got the hang of it I think I might be able to make at least fifty or sixty cards from this one charity shop book costing only £1.00. (I already had lots of card and envelopes). The next ones will be prettier I think.

The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady

Willow Warblers

In 1977 - so long ago - a charming book was published. It had actually been written (and beautifully illustrated) back in 1906 by Edith Holden and had only just been discovered. It was a lady naturalists diary, all written by hand, which included all her favourite mottoes and poems and lots of delightful observations on the wildlife and fauna around her home in Warwickshire and on her travels throughout England and Scotland.

Edith Holden 1871-1920

The drawings and paintings are just so very pretty and printed on faded parchment paper, and when I found a copy of it in a local charity shop window I just had to have it.

Daisy

Red Campion

Moor Hen

Now what to do with it?  I think I am going to chop it up (very carefully) with my guillotine and make it into some pretty craft cards. With careful stitching onto stock cards I am hoping that it will be a very personal tribute to the lovely work of Edith Holden (1871-1920). Edith died at the age of forty-nine by drowning in the Thames at Kew while gathering buds from a chestnut tree to draw! This really is a lovely book - do you like it too?