The adventures of Bunjamin Benny and a Happy Birthday!

It's my sister's birthday today and like me she is into recycling (I much prefer the term to upcycling I have to say!!!) Anyway, I am a fan of Country Living magazine mainly for the gorgeous photography and I am especially fond of the little crafty supplements they often include as they are printed on matt paper. I save them for future use and making my sister's birthday card seemed the perfect opportunity. This is the one I used to make her card having carefully removed the staples.

This is the card I made from the pages I recycled, the front, with some added cloth tape, the red heart with stamping, some little wooden hearts and the wish ticket. 

This is the inside, the main addition is the little dress which is stamped and cut out, with buttons sewn on and some matching ric rac braid and a little stamped patch added to the pocket.  In the pocket is a picture of a knitted rabbit I made - more of than in a moment! I also added another heart with a stamped Happy Birthday sentiment and some Tim Holtz stickers (the black and white words on the left hand side which read "It's the little things that make life big" which seemed ideal for this theme.

I made the little rabbit for my sister back earlier in the year. I enjoy crochet, but despite coming from a family of very talented knitters with my Mum, Nanna and Mother in Law producing some incredible intricate work in days gone by, I was never tempted to knit as it always seemed too slow growing and fraught with the complete terror of dropped stitches. However, the thing that tipped the balance for me was seeing the beautiful little cotton rabbits produced by Julie Williams over at her blog . Julie is celebrating 10 years of blogging. Anyway, Julie sells her patterns and I decided to take the plunge which for such a novice knitter who could basically just cast on knit and purl was a big step. Julie's patterns give great instructions and links to suitable tutorial videos to help knit wits like myself! Here is the start of my little bun!

Here he is when he only had a head! I must confess I struggled to get the nose right, so mine is sewn on!

 

 

Here he is when he was finished and ready for delivery.

 



At one time you could buy Little Cotton Rabbit rubber stamps and I have had one of these for ages, so I was able to make a customised label colouring his clothes appropriately with coloured pencils. You can just about see it in this picture.

Anyway from Day 1, my sister has loved this little rabbit who was christened Bunjamin Benny and he has certainly settled into life with her very quickly and I get frequent reports of his antics which are a source of great amusement.

Bunjamin pops up at work with her.

He has helped with a book promotion

He enjoys his snacks (although I think we might have to teach him about his 5 a day)

 

but he also remembers to get some exercise climbing trees!

Most of all he remembers the importance of a good work life balance and remembers to relax, whether its daydreaming,

.... enjoying a good book .....

 

...  or relaxing in the bath with his very good friend on his lilo!



As you can see this little fella is giving us both a lot of pleasure and best of all, once I had made him my confidence in my knitting abilities has really grown and now I have also managed to teach myself to knit socks and am currently on my fourth pair!

It's a horrible wet day today, so I feel spending some time blogging is an ideal way to while away some time!

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Elaine