Testing Testing... 1...2....3....

Hi everyone.... this is a test to see if you followers get my blog post. My last one (or two) didn't seem to go into subscribers' email inboxes!  So here's a couple of pictures, just for fun.. and will publish this and see who gets it!  If you do receive it in your inbox, could you let me know via a comment?

Sure would appreciate it!

One lone tulip in my backyard flower bed.... plus LOTS of grape hyacinths! That's about "it" for flowers in my yard.... other than.............

..................a yard full of dandelions!  This is the backyard lawn we so diligently worked on last year... we scraped and hoed and dug and dug out weeds, and sprayed weeds, and seeded the lawn (3 times!)... and then we get this. I'm at my wit's end!!

Guess I'll just keep "weeding and feeding" (and digging out weed roots).......... and hope eventually we will have a real lawn. I've always lived in the country and never had to deal with lawns!

Please let me know if you get this post in your email inbox. (And of course, if you don't get it, I'll never know!) 

Thanks!

~Marilyn~

Rosettes and Princess

UPDATE ON THIS BLOG POST!  I don't think this post hit many peoples' inboxes, so I'm posting it again, just in case you did not receive it. I checked with a few of my fellow bloggers and they hadn't received this post. So here it goes again! (posted on April 13, 2019)

Another month gone by,

Where did it go?

Did in hide in the clouds?

Or did it hide in the snow?

Did it hide in the sunshine?

NO.... the sunshine was broken!

Did it hide in the flowers?

NO.... they had not yet awoken....

From a long winter's snooze...

I kind of had the blues....

So I hid in my craft room...

Took off my shoes.......

AND MADE STUFF! 

Yup... I've been making and making and making. I feel like I've been living in a cave for a month! 

I did venture out in my yard today and inspected everything, and I do see that (finally) a few things are starting to bud out. I'm so happy!  Maybe I can come out of my cave now!

My big lilac bush on top left, Irises, Grape Hyacinths (I think?) lower left, and one lonely tulip.

I've made a few things for the little shop here in town, called The Hummingbird Junction. What a darling shop! I've made some Prayer Boxes, a Princess Treasure Box, Easter pillow treat boxes (forgot to take pictures), and some pretty rossette wands. 

The Prayer Boxes are origami boxes...... and I made all of the little prayer request tags to put inside the boxes.

Found these darling little animal buttons at a local 2nd hand store. They are perfect for the little boxes. I have some pink and blue elephant buttons too.. so will make some more Prayer Boxes for those.

I had some pretty "Princess" papers with sentiment tags, so I thought a treasure box would be very appropriate for a little Princess!  I made the tags also....... and once done, they were so cute I put them (digitally) in my Etsy Shop here.  They come six to a sheet and you can print them out and cut them for tags for the little Princess(es) in your life... for gifts or tucked into cards or notes.

I also printed out some pretty colored tags from digital papers I purchased from Etsy. I use my Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to punch the pretty tops to the 2" wide tags. Makes quick tags!

I'll definitely be making more sweet Treasure Boxes and Prayer Boxes, now that I have all of my prayer request cards made.

My tulip (again),  top right are strawberries just barely peeking up, lower left is some sort of really HARDY geranium that can survive over these cold winters, and lower right is my peach rose. That geranium has gotten HUGE. They grow to become large shrubs that can be about 4 feet across and 3 feet high!

I've become obsessed with paper rosette wands again (and rosettes in general)! I've made tons of rosettes for my Etsy shop (probably 3-4 years ago). I see them on YouTube, and they come and go, but alot of the gals seem to be making them again, so I joined right in!

You can also use cupcake liners or crepe paper to make the rosettes.. so I, of course, had to immediately run to the Dollar Tree to buy cupcake liners and crepe paper!  Oh I'm such a sucker for trying something new and different.

This wand above has a clear cupcake liner on the back (white) but it was kind of cheap and thin (from the Dollar Tree). I'm going to get some nicer ones to use.. and of course, there are TONS of them in all colors, polka dots, stripes, etc. to buy online. I'm in trouble.

I used paper straws for the wands. The are very sturdy and found some at the Dollar Tree. Now I've learned (from YouTube of course!) that I can make my own paper straws! Any paper I want, any color, etc., so I'll be doing that too.

I'm on a mission this year to use up some of my older papers and stickers for various projects. Except um.m.m.m.m.m.  that doesn't count buying digital printables from Etsy (and other sites) does it?  I may use some of the rosettes in my Etsy shop to make some rosette wands for my shop... but they may be too costly to ship.

My little fairy garden needs revamping. The one little clump of daffodils is from my neighbor's yard. So at least I have a little pop of yellow.

I made a sweet little "Life" photo album for my (soon to be) daughter-in-law. She's the one who has the gems/rocks/jewelry shop in Astoria, Oregon. She loves dragonflies, so I used a little charm she had given me for the front cover.

I've also made two good sized photo albums for my Etsy shop. They were so fun to make and I used up some of my older vintage style papers and emphemera.

"Shabby chic 6x8" photo album, sturdy paper, with pockets & (8) 5" x 8" photo mats, vintage girl, 22 tags, roses, pinks, greens, yellows."

The above sweet album can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

"Vintage style 4x6 photo album, 7 pages, 14 pockets, 7 top pockets, tags, photo mats, Mother, birthday, pink, rose, gray, cream green, lace."

The above vintage style album, perfect for Mother's Day, can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

I also put this pretty, very sturdy (on 110 lb. paper) vintage "thinking of you" card in my Etsy store. I love these clock faces (free digital printables) I found at Shabby Art Boutique. Kerryanne is from Australia, has a wonderful blog, and store, and quite often has free "shabby" printables that she makes herself. 

This card has its very own matching (very sturdy) envelope!

Well friends... that's what I've been up to. I may have to come out of my cave one of these days, put on the gardening gloves, and do a little sprucing up in our (very tiny) yard.  I know most of you are already seeing many signs of Spring where you live. We are SO behind here... the snow just melted a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Spring!

~Marilyn~

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~