All backgrounds in the Mrs Blossom and Sniffy book are created by using a variety of crayon rubbings taken in and around the house and garden.

Every illustration is a collage made up of the crayon rubbings; along with a series of cut out pen and ink drawings (which have been filled in with coloured pencil and/or crayon).

Why not make your own Mrs Blossom collages by creating some background rubbings yourself? All you need is a crayon, a piece of paper and some textures! You can create many interesting rubbings using most house and garden surfaces. Why not try taking a rubbing of a floor tile, a door or a wall? Or even surfaces found in the garden; like a fence, bark on a tree or a leaf perhaps? Once you have your rubbings, think of what the textures look like. Do they look like grass or a pavement perhaps?

For example, I took a rubbing of the textured glass in my kitchen using blue crayon and once done, it looked like the sky!

Once you have a collection of rubbings; print off, colour in and cut out some of my downloadable templates to make your own Mrs Blossom pictures.

Please note: When making your own Mrs Blossom collages; to avoid any ‘show through’; glue (thoroughly) the A4 template down on top of a blank piece of A4 paper (to give ‘double thickness’) and allow to dry before cutting.

If you would like some more Mrs Blossom and Sniffy templates to colour in and cut out then please complete the contact form, and our customer service team will email them to you.

Good luck! Rachel Sherfield