As I make greeting cards, Valentine’s day is a key date in the year of a greeting card maker, but I also realise that 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, so I find it hard to advertise my cards for this reason.

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). Another suggestion is a visit to RHS Wisley to see their Butterflies in the Glasshouse event. They would make a lovely day out and wonderful memories of our lovely countryside.

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  -

To see more of our collection please visit our online shop – Send a flower card – Valentine’s greeting cards

Tomorrow I will be adding a ‘how to make a special flower display for your loved one’.

All images © Send a flower card -  Anita Hunt

This Christmas we have some freebies for you.

I have designed a downloadable Christmas Gift Tag template , which includes 12 tags on an A4 sheet.

The download is free for you to use, for personal, non commercial use.

I have also designed a free A5 size colouring in Christmas card for children to print out onto card or paper, colour in and add any extras like glitter, to give to family and friends this Christmas.

We hope your children will enjoy using the card:) we would love to see any photos of their designs, and we will add to our website for all to see and admire.

If you would like to use our tag design and / or the colouring in Christmas card for children, please would you consider donating to our Anti-bullying fundraising campaign , raising money for the charity Bullying UK .

Donations can be made through our Just Giving page – http://www.justgiving.com/areyoubeingbullied the link can also be found on our Christmas  Page with our Just Giving Widget. Thank you.

I hope you like the designs.

If you would like me to design a personal gift tag for you, I would be happy to do so, if you would be possible for you to make a donation to the campaign.

Through our fundraising work, we are hoping to raise £2,000. Please contact me if you would be interested in a downloadable designed gift tag.

Our range includes Gerbera, Anemone, Bluebells, Anniversary rose…

Usually these special canvas eco-friendly tote bags are priced at £10.00. Our special offer price is £8.50 including a free keying from our collection.

This would make a great Christmas gift for someone who loves flowers and gardening!

We can even gift wrap and post directly to the intended recipient.                

only £8.50!

only £8.50!

There is a also a gift set available, where you can purchase a tote bag and matching greeting card or Christmas card.

We can also personalise our canvas tote bags with your photo image for no extra cost!

This offer is running until midnight 15th December.

www.sendaflowercard.com

Today we will be looking at the business Studying Online.

The aims and objectives of Studying Online are – 

• To provide professional online English lessons and courses to speakers of other languages.
• To create a course tailored to your English language needs
• To help with everyday English skills, to improve accuracy, fluency and pronunciation
• To help you prepare for exams, entry to college or university
• To help prepare you for the citizenship test 

The flower that I have chosen for this business is the Lily

In the language for flowers the lily stands for

• Eloquence,
• Fluency,
• Articulacy,

The lily is known for its grace, elegancy and beauty.

Here is some interesting information about this flower.

• The lily has about 100 different varieties, from the lily of the valley to the Alliums.
• To see a wide selection of the family of lilies, please visit  BBC Gardener’s World – lily
• You can find them growing in Europe, North America and Asia.
• The growing season of the lily is from early summer through to autumn.
• The lily plays an important part in history, as a symbol in the Christian faith for purity and innocence linked with the Virgin Mary.
• From Greek mythology the lily was said to be associated with the flower of Hera.
• In Roman mythology Venus was so jealous of this flower’s beauty that she caused the flower to have a pistil grow within the flower.
• To the Egyptians the lily represented southern Egypt.
• Lilies are popular in poems, and plays, to see some quotes visit -  The world of Quotes – how many have you heard before?
• The RHS have provided a guide to growing lilies in containers
• Lilies are a favourite food of slugs and lily beetles and sometimes the bulb can be affected by mould.

I cannot talk about the lily without mentioning my favourite series of paintings by Monet; his ‘The Waterlily Pond’ is one of his most famous works, and I just love the detail that he includes in this piece. For all of Monet’s paintings with this beautiful flower please visit Claude Monet Complete works – the water lily.

A favourite garden for me to visit is Bennetts Water Garden in Weymouth. It is a beautiful garden to visit to see the water lily. They even have a replica bridge from Monet’s painting.

The RHS Wisley has one of the best national collections of water lilies, which is well worth a visit.

William Blake wrote a poem about the lily

The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

Here is a poem that I wrote about the Lily 

Lily O Lily,

Your beauty portrays such innocence and purity.

Taking part in nature’s spectacular display,

Delighting the artist’s eye.

The moonlight touches your petals with such delicacy,

Protected by your strength and grace.

May your elegance always remain, shining brightly for all to see.

Clear as Crystal’s objectives are -

 - To understand what your business is about in order to develop a website for your business and client needs 
 - They work to provide the perfect package for you
 - They provide a ‘clear as crystal’ professional service.

The flower I have chosen for Clear as Crystal web design is the wisteria

In the language of Flowers the Wisteria means -

• Steadfastness
• commitment
• promise
• assurance

The Wisteria is a beautiful plant, providing wispy branches of purple, lilac, blue , pink, white or cream blooms, that has a lovely delicate scent.

Wisteria flowers in late April / early May – June. The flower grows from spurs, and is often seen as a trained plant along old cottage walled gardens, bridges, arches and so on. They are part of the wonderful climber family of plants, with woody, flexible stems as they branch out.

Gardens to see the wonderful Wisteria -

• Heligan gardens  has a wonderful display 
• Kew Gardens has a wisteria dated back to when it was first introduced in 1830.
• Besthorp Hall in Norfolk
• Apple Court Garden in Hampshire
• RHS Wisley in Surrey
• RHS Rosemoor in Devon
• National Botanical Garden of Wales

Here are the species and varieties -

• Brachybotrys Species
• Floribunda Species
• Hybrids
• Sinensis

For advice on how to care for your wisteria the RHS have a guide on how to prune your wisteria 

The 2 species that are usually seen as Wisteria Bonsai for example are the floribunda Japanese wisteria, and the sinensis Chinese Wisteria.

To see their various varieties please visit the website gardening data

The wisteria is often seen as quite a romantic flower; for its delicacy and ever reaching boughs of perfumed flowers. If you lavish care and attention on them each year, your wisteria will come back year after year, committed in giving us a spectacular show. I can’t wait for them to be in flower next year how about you?

Christmas cards and gifts

As the clocks turn back an hour and thoughts turn to warming casseroles and preparing to meet up with friends and family over the Christmas season, we thought we would share with you, our new cards and services that are available this Christmas.

With the various Royal Mail postal strikes, this would be the ideal time to choose your cards, so that there is plenty of time for your order to be delivered.

Being aware of the recession, you may have to be re-evaluating your christmas gifts this year.

Sending a special card with your message can be a great way to show your loved ones, friends and collegues how much you value them.

We have a few options for you to choose from this year.

• We can provide a completely bespoke greeting card service , turning your precious photo and wording into a special card.  
•  
•  
•  -You may have a family photo from a past celebration that would be great to send to friends and family.
•  
•  - You could have a fun day out and be creative in capturing the perfect photo for your christmas cards. Do you still have that santa hat or reindeer antlers ?… maybe a bit of tinsel thrown in for good measure?… let your imagination grow  
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•  - If you would like a larger pack of cards, please email  us with what you would like and we will get back to you as soon as we can with a quote.

• We have various packs of 10 and mixed Christmas card packs of 20 – 25.

 - If you would like to choose these options, we can personalise the cards with your message on the insert, which can be different in each card at no extra cost.

 - please let us know any wording you would like, otherwise we will not add an insert. 

 - We also have a range of gifts  that are suitable for Christmas, so please take a moment to look at our range.

 - Soon we will selling ‘Pocket Garden’ and the ‘Bee Good’ range which compliment our floral cards.

• As getting ready for Christmas can be quite stressful, we can make your cards, add your message and also post the cards from your chosen pack to the intended recipients. This will then leave you to focus your attention on all the other things you have to do.

- Please contact us  if you would like to take advantage of this service.

- We will need a list of addresses to post the cards to (we will only use the addressed for this purpose) and we will also need to add a small p&p rate to cover the additional postal costs.

We look forward to making a special selection of Christmas cards for you.

To celebrate our 2 year anniversary, yes 2 years! We have had an update, re-launch as you may say with new products, giving greater flexibility for you to be able to personalise a special card.

Here are the new things that you will spot -

 - Free post and packaging on greeting cards

 - Packs of cards! – We have special offers on packs of small medium and large cards

- Small cards are now only available as floral notelet packs – suitable for when you need a card quickly, to say thank you for a thoughtful gift, or to say thinking of you when a friend or family member who may be not well.

- We are able to offer a bespoke service, turning your special photo into a greeting card with your wording. We can also offer this service for Christmas cards.

- Christmas card packs! This year we have Special Christmas card packs available in 10, 20, 24 and 25 in various sizes. Each card can have a message included on an insert for free.

- We have a selection of gifts suitable for Christmas, birthdays, celebrations or even to treat yourself!

- Soon we will be stockists of ‘Pocket Garden’ and ‘Bee Good’! a lovely range of gifts that are perfect to go with our flower cards !

So please visit our new website – www.sendaflowercard.com   www.nitajoycraftdesign.co.uk

we look forward to helping you personalise the perfect card for you!

If you live in Dorset, then it’s definitely a must see garden!

Knoll Gardens is stunning throughout the year, as their planting schemes are for all year long interest.

For those who are wheelchair users you will be pleased to hear that most of the garden is accessible, which is great to see, as so many beautiful gardens are unfortunately not too accessible.

Echinacea

The garden has many areas of interest and planned in great detail. You recieve a free guide when you pay for your entry. The guide is well written with a detailed plan of the gardens, it also tells you the garden areas that are best seen in the particular month of your visit.

The Water Garden

We particularly enjoyed the Water, Summer and Dragons garden and walk, but we enjoyed all that the garden has to offer.

Dragon Sculpture

Lily Pond in the Dragon Garden

Knoll gardens has a refreshment cabin where there is a self service area with good quality and range of products. You are also allowed to bring a picnic with you and eat in the garden if you wish, with plenty of seating dotted around.

We were privileged to see many lovely butterflies enjoying  the Eupatorium purple bush.

Tortiseshell Butterfly on an Eupatorium purple bush

The entry fee is -

• Adults £5.50
• Consessions £4.50
• Children 5-15 years £3.75
• Disabled person and helper is £1.00 off each appropriate category
• Free for RHS Members

Knoll Gardens can be found at -

Stapehill Road, Hampreston, Wimborne, BH21 7ND

Directions and Map can be found here -Knoll Gardens

All images (C) Anita Hunt

We would like to offer our regular and new customers our new bespoke service, turning your special photos into a set of greeting cards.

We have 2 options for you

• Large Greeting Card Set of 10 cards – image size 13.5 x 13.5 cm on a greeting card 13.5 x 27cm
• Medium Greeting Card Set of 10 cards – image size 14.9 x 10.5 cm on a greeting card 14.9 x 21 cm

We can do more on request, please contact us for a quote.

Here are some suggestions of how this service could be useful to you.

* You need some special party invitations

* You are celebrating the birth of your child, with sending out a photo of your precious newborn with their details.

* Wedding invitations – please contact us for a quote.

* You would like a set of thank you cards

* Maybe you live far away from your family and have a new photo to share your latest celebration, or special day out, and you would like the rest of your family to share in a memorable family event.

* Christmas cards

The list of possibilities is endless.

Nita Joy Craft Design’s motto is

‘Send a card, brighten someone’s day.’

Well you can now have a complete greeting card personalisation service, from a business that specialises in the personal touch.

We love sending cards and delight in hearing customers stories, of how their friend and / or family member has smiled as they have opened their card that is just for them.

Bespoke cards from your special photos

You may purchase this through our website Personalised flower greeting cards, by choosing the ‘Bespoke greeting cards. Add the option you require to your shopping basket and after payment please send me an email with an attachment of your photo or photos  including your details.