Friday 5 September 2014

What A Wonderful World FREEBIE

I have this song running through my head so I figured more people should also be randomly singing it too so I whipped up this quick typographical template that you can use. It's called an ear worm, did you know? When something gets stuck in your head? Random bit of info for you there...
Anyway, I figured then we'll all be ever so slightly happier. Yes.
Everybody SING!!!

Your final cut will fit into an Ikea Ribba frame 23x23cm. You can pop a photo of a special someone inside the heart, fill it with glitter or jib it off entirely, tis up to you. Please don't ask us to email any free templates - ask a mate or summit cos it's FREE innit? ;)
....SING dagnammit!*

Download HERE

 "And I think to myseeeelf...."

Tuesday 2 September 2014

How Well Do You Know The Woodland Friends...Contest Winner - Under 11's!

The under 11's category was a tough one! All of the entries were so brilliant! You should all be super proud of yourselves!
I picked this story because I love the storyline, the characters and the little details!! Big congratulations to Erin Whyte, Aged 8.

Here is Erin's fantastic story...

It was a Tuesday in the forest. The woodland friends had gathered together for a spot of lunch. Bird sang happily in the tree and a great feeling of love was in the air as they played in the dappled sunlight without a care in the world. It was time to see what goodies were for lunch. Bunny found a lovely big cream cake and was just about to take a generous bite when..
.....they heard trumpets and that meant there was a new animal in the forest, her name was Luna. She was a little baby pony .
Bunny said to Luna "Welcome, I hope you had safe travels.
 Luna said  I did, I came to the woods because I was having some rough times in my life.
 Bird said "can you tell us your life time story?"
"Sure"  said Luna, "I was born on may 23rd 2013, I am only 1 years old. One day a terrible storm came and it flooded the farm that I lived on, I think I was the only one who made it out. My parents didn`t make it out, the farm was destroyed. So that's my story so far."
 Bunny was so sad and Bird started to cry.

Bunny invited Luna to join their picnic lunch, after they had all finished they all went to play together in the bright beams of sunlight that were shining through the trees.
After a little while the sun beams started to fade.
Bunny said "It's starting to get late so we better all go to sleep."
Luna was sad because she had nowhere to sleep,  Luna looked around and thought to herself that the forest looked really nice so I'll ask if I'm allowed to stay.
Luna walked up to Bunny and asked if she would be allowed to stay for the night. Bunny said, "Of course you are welcome, we always have space for more animals and you can sleep in my house. It's the one in the old hollowed out tree. Once we are there I'll let you meet my family and you can have some supper with us."
Bunny introduced Luna to all his family, his mum Jenny, his dad Rupert, His little brother Benjamin and is little sister Holly. They had a lovely supper and Jenny told everyone to get off to bed because it was getting late.

In the morning Bunny decided that everyone should go on an adventure to explore the woods and find Luna's farm. Bunny , Bird and Luna set off on their adventure after they had a snack.
The first night of the adventure Bunny saw something glowing in a pile of leaves and dust, Bunny said "It's a magic wand."
Bird began to feel hungry, suddenly the wand started to glow. It made them all a big feast, they all felt very happy and they really enjoyed the feast as it was very delicious.
After the feast Bunny said "It is getting late." Luna started to feel tired and the wand stated to glow again, It gave them all a tent to sleep in.

The next day they got up and had some breakfast, then they set off on their adventure again.  At one point in their adventure they came across an old oak tree, they found an old badger called Jim. Bunny said "we are on an adventure would you like to join us?"
"Of course" said Jim.
Luna jumped in and told him she was on an adventure to find the farm she used to live in that got torn down by a storm. Jim told them he used to live on that farm and it is rebuilt now and some other animals survived. Luna was curious to see if her parents survived.

Next in their adventure they met an old sheep dog called Rounder, Luna asked him if he wanted to join them to find the farm that her and old badger used to live on. Rounder told them he used to live on the farm too and he would like to join them.
They all set off walking and bird spotted some large buildings in the distance. "That's the farm shouted Luna, "I recognise every single bit of it." At the corner of her eye Luna noticed some ponies that looked very familiar prancing about in the field. They came galloping up to her.
Luna realised that they were her parents and she was trying to hold back her tears. Luna's mum Celestia said "Oh Luna, we thought we'd never see you again."
Then Luna's dad flash came running up to her and said "Oh Luna we have missed you dearly."
Luna and her parents had joined together back into the farm, the farm animals and the woodland animals became friends. Flash said "The woodland animals are welcome to visit us anytime they like".
The woodland animals and the farm animals joined their worlds together and lived in harmony.

The EndVery well done to all the under 11 entry authors! Fabulous stories!!
(David Surgenor, please pop an email over so we can get a little prize out to Erin! Thanks.) 

Monday 1 September 2014

How well do you know the Woodland Friends? - Contest Winner!

We had some really genuinely cracking entries for this contest, I thoroughly enjoyed reading every one of them, and found it so hard to pick a winner! Everyone who entered clearly put so much time, effort, thought and love into their stories.
However, there can only be one winner (well, two, Over 11's and Under 11's... but in this post you're going to see the Over 11's).
I picked this story because of the humorous and clever use of the characters combined with real life, I thought it worked really well.
So congratulations, Danielle Lake-Langley, and here's the story in all it's unedited (and sweary) glory...


It was a Tuesday in the forest. The woodland friends had gathered together for a spot of lunch. Bird sang happily in the tree and a great feeling of love was in the air as they played in the dappled sunlight without a care in the world. It was time to see what goodies were for lunch. Bunny found a lovely big cream cake and was just about to take a generous bite when...

...there was a loud thunk behind him. "Shit!" Bunny turned around, he had never heard anything make that noise before. There sat on the grass was, well, he wasn't sure what it was. It was big but it had small ears and it was dressed a bit funny too. The big thing was wearing black trousers but looked like its white waistcoat was on over the top of its jacket, you could only see the black jacket sleeves. "Shit! Shit! Fuck!" it continued.

 Bunny looked at Bird, he was sat in the tree with his beak wide open in shock. It looked like Bunny would be investigating this alone. Bunny took a large bite of his cake (For courage.) then stowed it away for later. As he hopped over to the thing that made the funny noise it started to cry. "Excuse me, erm what are you?"

The big thing was sat with its eyes shut, "I'm Louise.", it said as it wiped its eyes on the back of its paw. Bunny thought for a moment, "We've never had a Louise here before. How did you get here?"

The Louise began to explain," I was in my studio paper cutting as usual when I heard the ice cream van, it was really hot and I do love Mr Whippy. Any way Mr Panda wasn't around and I couldn't send Munch, he's no good with change and he'd eat it all before he got back..." Bunny was listening intently, he had no idea who Mr Whippy was but if the Louise loved him who was Mr Panda? And what on earth was a Munch?

"So I decided to be brave and I went to get one myself." The Louise continued. "Well on my way to the van I tripped over and fell through the hedge, now I'm here. With my paper cuts. I've turned into a Panda. I've finally gone mad!"

Bunny smiled, "Oh we're all mad h..." Bunny stopped, the Louise was glaring at him. "No Bunny! Don't say that, to be honest this whole thing is looking more and more like a massive copyright issue."

Louise looked at Bunny and sighed, Bunny shifted uncomfortably on his little fluffy tail. He didn't know what the Louise was talking about. "I don't like being outside." mumbled the Louise. Bunny wiggled his nose, he wasn't sure what to say next. They sat in silence for a while, "I like cake." Bunny announced, then he hopped over to a small bush and began to rummage in it. A moment later he produced a cake and hopped back to the Louise, holding out the cake very carefully he asked, "Would you like some?". The Louise had a nibble and so did Bunny.

Bunny sat and had a think, he looked from the Louise to his cake and the cake to the hedge. "Curiouser and curi..." Bunny was being glared at again, "Oh alright, I was just thinking if you came in through that hedge over there, you could try going back through it to get home to Mr Whippy."

The Louise smiled fondly at Bunny, then got up and walked towards the hedge, before she went through Bunny asked, "What's your name?" The Louise smiled, "I'm the mistress of copyright, the conqueror of internet trolls and the worlds' number one Mr Whippy fan. My name is Paper Panda."

And just like that the Louise vanished. Bunny never saw the Louise again but every so often strange cakes would appear in front of the hedge, the top was white and went drippy if you left it too long, it had a brown stick in it. Bunny called them "Num-nums" because they were so delicious that was the noise you made when you ate them.

THE END...Or is it?

Story written by Danielle Lake-Langley, who is a little bit useless but can make a pretty cake when she's brave enough to leave the bedroom.

Influenced massively by real life Paper Panda, Louise Firchau and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Seriously kids, copyright theft is not cool.