Of Cabbages and Queens, Tutorials and Crepes

Ah, lovely spring break. While it's nice not running the three small humans around to various school activities and appointments, I wonder what I'll actually be able to accomplish with them all home!
One thing I did do with the Crown Princess (my oldest daughter Dana) was to make clay buttons from Ranjini's tutorial over on the Year of Color blog. Very fun and unique buttons and charms! Here they are, still drying on the paint tray. Speaking of tutorials, I myself was fortunate enough to share one of my own for Year of Color (it's still not too late to join!-Hurry if you want to participate in the giveaway. Check out Artsymama's blog for details)

The fabulously shabby nests and blossoms tutorial went up last night.

Since April's theme is polka dot, I had to sneak a few in there. Somehow I did forget to leave this pretty photo out.

Also going up sometime today in my shop will be a few more hand-dyed crepes.

Enjoy your spring, we are expecting snow by Wednesday!

Garland Swap Spoiler

OK, Kathy, no peeking. I warned you!

One of the best parts of being involved with ArtsyMama's (Kari) A Year of Color blog is being able to participate in swaps with other mixed media artists. I almost skipped this swap, but being as banners are just one of my things, I caved at the last moment. The swap turnaround time was very short, so we had to contact our partner quickly to determine colors and themes. Kathy, of Country Chintz, told me she liked one of Kari's "Nest" banners and a blue-grey, vintage look. I'm not sure if I got the blue-grey color, but it is a nice soft blue. I had saved several boxes from the SweetHearts candies to make these pretty shadow boxes. Each piece is dimentional with lots of vintage texture and a bit of subtle sparkle. The original concept of a SweetHearts shadowbox banner came from Teresa McFayden's Winterbella E-zine. (Love those bellas!)

It will be on it's way to you soon, Kathy! And for anyone else interested in a Year of Color, you can still join us and catch the next swap- May Baskets!