Vinny has a go!

Vinny (Mia's big brother) getting involved with card making in preparation for Father's Day on Sunday...

Our new cards!

Indian textiles stamp

New cards

New stamps, Father's Day and the will to carry on, here are our new cards..

Mia

Concentrating on a new card!

Get well soon (with a Quentin Blake witch's spell!)

Any word? Can do!

We got these on Ebay for 99p! Any word, any message, any occasion!

Blueberry Muffins!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Radio gaga

Chris and Jenny got mum this years ago.. how nice is this radio?? We thought some music would help!

Mamma n Mia

Matilda

Aaaaaarrrgggghhhh

I don't know why but some of our pictures are not uploading to this site, meaning we have gaps appearing. Very annoying! Sorry!

Not old......vintage

My monkey mate!

It's the weekend!

mammamiarose labels

Mum made these for the cards, so that everyone who gets a card can see this blog! We sent a card to mum's friend Rob today. He got the 'Pigs and Flies' one. We are working on some more cards tonight because it's FRIDAY!

Eco Weddings by Mia Rose

I made my first wedding card on Saturday morning with her next door neighbor,Connie,
using stamps,(with mine and mamma's new purple ink!!!)foam stickers and beautiful silver card!!! I sure hope a couple will decide to get married!!!

Get well soon

Mia's first 'get well soon' card. No-one needs it yet!

Crazy croc

Mia created this crazy croc card this morning..she says it's her least favourite but I really like it.

Using felt tips

Ah, we all have some half dry felt tips knocking around, but don't they look rubbish when you try and colour with them... no!

If you scribble on a piece of paper then slice it into a strip, suddenly the faded and scribbly effect looks brilliant!

Try this to add colour and texture to your cards.

Mia working at the workstation

Waking up on a Saturday morning and making cards!

Happy Birthday

A very girly card by Mia!

Peanut butter cookies

No-one can work this hard without a decent snack and peanut butter cookies are our favourite! We thought we would share the recipe with you!

6oz sugar
4 oz peanut butter
1 egg
4oz soft butter
6oz self raising flour

Set the oven for 350 degrees f/180 degrees c/gas mark 4
Beat the sugar and butter until fluffy
Add the peanut butter, flour and egg and beat until smooth
Put teaspoons of mixture onto a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes

How to do it by Mia Rose (special)

Hi,this time I'm going to tell you how to make a SPECIAL card! Follow the steps on a basic card.Then,lets say we put on a flower stamp and stick it to the card.So after that, you get either foam sticketrs (to stick at the bottom) or an old transparent sweetie wrapper (to put over the stamp)! There you go, that's all you need,and just to prove it works, I had sent a SPECIAL card to my friend Lily ,who lives in Ethiopia!!!

How to do it by Mia Rose (basic)

Hi,I just want to show you exactly how to make these wonderful environmental cards! First, you get either white or coloured card,then fold it into a half.After that you stamp an image onto a separate piece of card.If you like you can put the piece of card that you have stamped,on a bigger piece of card for a beautiful 3D effect.Secure with double sided sticky tape or fold your normal everyday sellotape for an even more 3D effect! Later on,you can write your beautiful insert inside!!! There you go, that's your excellent Eco friendly card!!!

These cards were made at a 'Stampin' Up' evening. This is really where the whole thing started because Mia won her stamping set in the raffle that night!

Buttons and cakes

Pigs and flies

Monkey business

Meet the artists

Hayley Fern is a community arts development worker at Rawlins Community College in Quorn, Leicestershire. As part of her job she works with countless children in over 13 schools in Leicestershire as well as organising large events such as World Community Arts Day, Art Camp, Sparc Day and Learning Days. She teaches art and craft techniques and runs another blog under www.hayleyfern.com

Mia Rose Francesconi is ten. She is a very talented young artist with a keen eye for detail and colour. She likes making things and helping younger children to learn about art. Her style is wonderfully free and experimental and she believes that here is no such thing as a mistake in art.

Our workstation

We wanted to show you this because we think it's possibly the most amazing card making set up ever! The desk folds out to reveal what you see here, an incredible labyrinth of carved wooden sections which rise, lift, open and conceal all manner of places for craft materials.

If you have ever seen anything like it, please let us know because we have no idea of it's history. It includes a cushion which looks to be for moistening stamps and with so many compartments which are perfect for papers and envelops we wonder if it may have been made for a post office or a textiles purpose? A mystery as it was given to us (no-one else really wanted something so old and cumbersome but we moved furniture out to accommodate it!).

Mamma's first card

Using the fabulous set of Quentin Blake stamps (you'll be seeing a lot of these as he is absolutely my favourite artist), I constructed this small card using old birthday cards as the coloured parts.

Mia's first card

Here is Mia's first card for mamma mia rose, a fabulous Quentin Blake style boy card for someone in her class at school.

mamma mia rose is launched!

mamma mia rose is a mother and daughter collaboration (mum, 36, daughter, 10) to showcase our card making. We get to play on this together in the evenings and weekends, stamping, cutting, gluing and writing cards from our elaborate antique workstation (donated to us from a house clear out). We are not making money, but our ethos comes from two passions: the desire to send people we love nice cards with a personal touch and the belief that trees should not die for it.

We find card, scraps, old cards, packaging, recycled envelopes, wrapping paper from presents we open and off cuts from other things to make our cards. We stamp using stamps we have been bought as gifts or won (Mia won a set in a raffle recently!) and we save buttons, ribbons, raffia and lace from any where we find it. Beautiful scraps are everywhere, on old clothes, wrapped food, things people give to you, the back of drawers.

This blog is a bit of fun. It will show you the cards we have made and the ideas we have had. It should inspire you, not to buy our cards but to make your own, and to save the cards that you have been lucky enough to receive in order to recycle them into unique cards to send back! We are saving money and a teeny little bit of the planet, which is why we want you to join us!

Thanks for joining us,

Mamma and Mia