Spring Craft

Spring Blossoms: Bring ’em Inside

spcountrygal Decorating, Flowers, Home Accessories, Home Sweet Home, Spring Craft , , , ,

Cover Pic Spring Has Sprung

I know that it is only March, but we have been seeing signs of Spring for a couple of weeks now.  Crazy, isn’t it?

Spring blossoms are even gorgeous at night time:

Believe me, I’m not complaining about Spring coming early at all!  This year I decided to bring springtime to the inside of my house by bringing in blossom covered branches.  I am reveling in Spring inside and outside!

Pink blossoms arrangement

White blossoms arrangement

These have looked good for a solid week!  Not bad for something that cost me nothing more than 5 minutes work of cutting, gathering, and displaying.  I’ll admit that my white blossoms kind of stink a bit, but the pink ones smell divine.  Like Spring has sprung right there in my dining room.  The scents seemed to diminish after day 3, though.  For those of you who are allergic to spring blossoms, I am SO sorry!   Maybe you can have a loved one cut and display a bunch, leave them outside and enjoy them from indoors.

After day 7, my pink bouquet is looking a little sad.  No problem, I’ll venture outside and gather more.  I’ve got an extra couple of minutes!  The white bouquet, however, looks just as good as it did the day that I brought it inside.

So, what’s the weather like in your neck of the woods?  Has spring sprung yet?  If not, you have that to look forward to…don’t worry.  It WILL come.  And, when it does, make sure that you grab some blossom-filled branches and bring a bit of Spring inside.

Cover Pic Spring Blossoms Arrangement

 

*********Linking up to these awesome parties*********

 

Raid Your Yard: Lovely in Lavender

spcountrygal Accessories, DIY, Flowers, Quick Project, Spring Craft , , ,

LovelyLavender

What is growing in your yard right this very minute?  If you don’t know, run and look.  I’ll wait.  At this spring time of year it seems like everything is in bloom and looking beautiful.

Here are some areas in my yard that I am absolutely loving right now:

Azalea
Iris
?
? Only yellow in Spring
Lavender
Rock Rose

Today I decided to get all Martha Stewart-like and bring some of my outdoors…indoors.  Some people like to gather a bit of every kind of flower that they have in bloom and put them in a vase.  Me?  I prefer only one type of flower in each arrangement.  That’s just me, though.  I decided to gather lavender since we have absolute TONS of it in our landscaping.

Lavendar
Lavendar

Let me share a story that I always think of whenever I see lavender:  My friend was wearing the color lavender when she was approached by a guy who, in what must have been his best “designer guy” impression, said to her, “You look lahv-ly in lah-vender.”  Cracks me up every time.  Just trust me when I say that this stuff is buzzing with bees.  Buzzzzing like crazy

Since we have absolute oodles of lavender, I decided to make a few arrangements with items that we already have on hand.  Ready to see?

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I think that this is an actual Martha Stewart pitcher.  I like it.  I like it a lot.

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This is a tall, modern vase that I like to keep in my kitchen window above the sink.

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This funky, modern looking vase was purchased at Michaels a couple of years ago.  My daughter likes to keep it in her room.

And lastly, this one:

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Just a simple jar that everyone, and their neighbor’s dog, has.  A drop of blue and a tiny drop of yellow food coloring makes the perfect aqua water.  A touch of raffia completes the look.

I’m loving having the outdoors, indoors today!  Four new arrangements and it didn’t cost me a dime.  Love that, too!  My home is lovely in lavender.  (Snicker!)

Now, why don’t you grab some scissors and a vase and go raid YOUR yard!  I promise you will be glad you did! (Just watch out for bees!)

 

(Check out the Link Parties that I like to link at)

Pastel Tissue Paper Spring Sign

spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, Home Accessories, Spring Craft, Super Saturday , , , ,

Has Spring sprung where you live?  It has here and I love it!  The trees all blossomed a few weeks ago and flowers are coming out and everything is SO green.

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The phrase, “A breath of spring” certainly comes to mind.  I wanted to make a little something today to celebrate spring.  I knew that I wanted to make a sign of some sort with a length of 1×6 pine that I had in my garage.  I originally thought that I would make an Easter sign of some sort, but Easter will be here and gone before we know it.  I wanted something that can stay out for a couple of months or so and this is what I came up with:

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I love this phrase.  To me, it means that where you are right now in location and life circumstances is where you are planted.  You might be thrilled with where you are planted like a sunflower planted in good soil with ample water and full sun.  Yep, it is easy to bloom well in those conditions.  Maybe right now you are planted in not so perfect circumstances.   Bloom where you are planted means that even if your part of the world right now is weed infested with poor soil and very little sun, do your best to bloom anyway.  Basically, think positive, be happy, take life as it comes and pull out those weeds if you can.  If you can’t, then you be the best bloom you can be to brighten up your little spot in the garden.

Of course I could have whipped out a can of paint as I usually do when making similar signs, but this time I decided to try something new.  Want to see what I used instead of paint?

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Tissue paper!  I love the mint green that came with this pastel tissue paper set that I got at little old Dollar Tree.  The steps were simple:

  1. Crumple up the tissue paper to get it all wrinkly, then semi-flatten it back out
  2. Using a regular paint brush, paint a layer of decoupage medium on the bare wood, top and sides.  Another option would be to paint a base color similar to your choice of tissue color so you don’t have to do as many layers.
  3. While the decoupage medium is still wet, lay a sheet of paper slightly larger on all sides so you can wrap it around the edges.  As you lay it down, encourage wrinkles but attach it securely.
  4. Immediately (meaning that the layer below is still wet) brush decoupage medium on top of the tissue paper layer.  Apply to all sides (except the back).  On each corner edge you will have an excess of tissue…just tear it off and lay the remaining down with the decoupage medium.  You won’t even be able to notice it.
  5. Wait until the layers are dry before adding another layer.  My bottle says to wait 15-20 minutes.  I broke all rules and used my hair dryer to speed up the process and it worked just fine.  I’m such a rebel.
  6. Add as many layers as you want.  I added 3, but if I would have painted the board first, I would have just added one, maybe two.  Maybe next time I will paint with one color and tissue with another just for fun.  Maybe white with one layer of pink tissue on top for a sheer color effect.
  7. If you get any tears, that is okay.  Just tear a piece of tissue (straight edges will show up more than torn) and decoupage right over it.
  8. If you want the back to look nice, decoupage it as well once the front has completely dried.

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Really, the process is super easy and adds a different look.  For added effect, rub a little stain or dark wax on to accentuate the texture.  Hmmm…maybe this Fall I will try that.

I cut out the vinyl lettering with my Roland Stika vinyl cutter, but you could easily just print this Bloom pdf out (the font is Café Rojo) on paper (maybe with a cute print) and decoupage it right on your sign, leaving some space so you can see the your wrinkled tissue border around it.  (Do a test run with this method…some printer inks smear with the decoupage medium.  If yours does, I have heard that if you spray your printed page with hair spray, it will fix the problem.)

So, there you have it.  Simple, yet profound at the same time.

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Unfortunately the pictures don’t really show the fun texture, but I really like the effect.  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!   Now, go BLOOM!

 

(This project was featured as one of 6 Spring-Inspired Projects at the Do Tell Tuesday Link Party! Thanks Lisa, Diane, Cassie and Tori!)