Having fun with the Green!

The Green is coming! Are you ready???

I discovered a sweet little gift shop here in town called The Hummingbird Junction, just blocks from where I live! I stopped in a few weeks ago (had already been many times), and took some of my crafty creations there to ask if she'd be interested in carrying some of my cards and albums, and she was! So I've been busy making cards, treat boxes (green of course) and teapot "cards".  Whatever she doesn't sell, will go into my Etsy shop.

Every year, I find myself wanting to know WHY we and so many other countries celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I always (kind of) forget. So here is info from Wikipedia if you're interested. I just love Wikipedia when I want to look up anything!

Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, "the Day of the Festival of Patrick"), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion(especially the Church of Ireland^[4]), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland,^[3] and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.^[5] Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilís, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks.^[6] Christians who belong to liturgical denominations also attend church services^[5][7] and historically the Lentenrestrictions on eating and drinking alcohol were lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption.^[5][6][8][9]

St Patrick's Day, while not a legal holiday in the United States, is nonetheless widely recognised and observed throughout the country as a celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture. Celebrations include prominent displays of the colour green, religious observances, numerous parades, and copious consumption of alcohol.^[8] The holiday has been celebrated in North America since the late 18th century.

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.^[12]

Here are two of my more "fancy" as I call them, cards. I used vintage images for all of them from The Graphics Fairy

Handmade double bow, handmade rosette, layered (digital) papers that I printed out from my printer (purchased from Etsy), and I had to make a special "box" envelope to hold the card.

Inside there is a pocket that holds some cute tags and an Irish Tea teabag.

I gold glittered the images. Isn't she the sweetest image?

I decided that these fancy, layered cards with pockets inside, and a teabag, were too labor intensive to put into a shop who takes 50% of the profit! So I made some simpler cards.. just as cute in my opinion.

Each card has a decorated envelope.

I made the paper bows using my We Are Memory Keeps Envelope Punch Board. I LOVE that punch board!  You can make so many things with it!

I made the tags that I put on some of the cards, using an old photo program (The Print Shop) that I have, where I can easily "collage" clip art images. I gathered together a top hat, some flowers, an old pocket watch, a hummingbird and a piece of lace (all clip art) and collaged them onto the tag.

I made all of the "word" tags using my photo program.. then backed them with a piece of white or green cardstock.

This fancy flourish behind the vintage image is a die cut using some gold glitter paper.

I made the circle "Happy St. Patrick's Day" tags and printed them out, then punched them out using my 1" paper punch. Then punched a scalloped circle to put behind the little tag.

Another handmade tag. This is an easy way to make cards!

Here are the tags I made:

I know this post is photo intensive, but also want to show you some darling little "teapot" cards I've made, following a YouTube video by Rejoice and Create.  Here is the link to her video: Mother's Day Teapot.  These are just darling! The card opens at the top.

Each card has a little stand I made, so it can sit up to be displayed. 

The top of the "card", where the gold clip is (or the ribbon bow) opens up and inside, there are 2 teabags, a fancy tag and a plain tag for writing on.  I had such fun making these and want to/will make some for my Etsy shop (soon I hope). I did also make a St. Patrick's Day teapot card, but forgot to take a picture of it.

And one more thing I whipped together - some tiny little treat boxes. Each one holds one little Ghiradelli chocolate square. These are in the shop in town now... and if they don't sell, I'll take them back and eat all the chocolates! 

Look at the darling little alpacas clip art I found on Etsy! 

I think I'm all "greened" out for now! 

We still have a good foot of snow on our ground and I'm SO ready for it to be gone (we DID have 2 feet, but some has melted and settled) - at least gives me an excuse to stay in the house and craft (except for having to go out and shovel every couple of days, we we kept getting more... and more..... and more)!

Have a good week everyone! Oh... and Happy St. Patty's Day!

~Marilyn~