Happy Easter

Happy Belated Easter.  This is the first time in a long time that I've decorated my little tree mainly because it had been tucked safely inside a cupboard that finally got a good cleaning out recently.  I found the little glass egg ornaments and more.  

My Easter cards this year were a little on the spur of the moment, but I wanted to use things that I had on hand.  I had ordered some stamps back in February from a new company I hadn't used before - Holly Berry House located in Colorado.  Well the order got delayed and the owner was so apologetic that she included some free "goodies" for me including these Easter stamps (the flowers on the outside and everything on the inside).  I needed to find a way to make this flap work and remembered my little bunny stamp and die which I think worked perfectly popped up so the flowers tucked behind him as a closure.

In searching for something (typical pre-creative necessity) I had a bunch of items on my craft table and instead of just packing them away again I decided to use some of them for some quick spring projects.

A stamped image and a little crocheted flower became this little gift tag insert.

A little paint on this wooden bird, a screw eye hanger, some ribbon, a sticker dot, and those crocheted flowers for wings became this little decoration.

A wooden slice and some felt flowers and birds along with patterned paper were used to make this.  When adding the screw eye the bark became unstable so I peeled the rest of it off and used some scrap corrugated paper around the outside.  Initially the background was left raw but I decided to paint it (very carefully now that the other items were glued on).  And I now know that the paint was too close in value to the leaves because they are barely visible so I will be updating this soon with a lighter background.  

In my craft room searches I keep coming up with items that have been saved - some for specific purposes, others just because they might have some potential.  And as mentioned above, I tend to just put them back aside to get to the project at hand, but I have made a little mental promise to myself to do something with those found bits and bobs because they're really not doing anything but taking up space by just storing them away again.  I think crafters like me that have that "I might need this someday" philosophy for gathering things keep postponing that someday not realizing that there is opportunity any given day to make something useful.  It might not be the greatest thing you've ever done, but it could be something that has a purpose, if only to make someone smile for a minute.  Collecting things in bags and boxes endlessly only takes up space. And taking up that space only weighs us down.  It's worth noting too that things can be reevaluated for their potential also during these round-ups.  Not everything saved needs to be kept.  I look at things and try to see the uniqueness in them.   Is it something that I can put my hands on again easily if I need it, or is this something a one off and not going to come my way again?   

So, moving forward, especially during the month of April when we celebrate Earth Day and are encouraged to be more aware of reducing, reusing, and recycling, I hope to do just that.  Stay tuned.