More Tulip Tales

Hello!

Today I will be telling more tales about my tulips!

These are some of my Art Nouveau Alphabet letters that I have sized and tweaked, hand colored and placed in recycled bottlecaps, backed with very sturdy magnets:

I sell these in my etsy shop:

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

I like the little Dutch girls in the letter "I"!

(Yeah, I know. I need to get better pictures of my "L".)



Here are some paper dolls with tulips:

These are from a 10 Dolls, 10 Nations vintage paper doll set.

Thanks again to OrigamiBears. See side bar for web site.

courtesy of VivaLasVegaStamps: a flower fairy.

See side bar for web site.

courtesy of Dover Publications. See side bar for web site.

Yes, it's true. I have ONE tulip blooming now. It is very pretty, with a pink color.

I would like more tulips now!

I have many many buds, but no flowers yet.

I hope they survive the freeze and rain and even perhaps snow that we will probably get this month.

this is a finished card, using a Peddler's Pack stamp.

They have some really great ones!

 Here is a painting by Claude Monet.

I love his colors and brush strokes!

"Tulips in Holland" by Claude Monet

NikkiCrossApplesauce makes these wonderful origami tulips,

and sells them in her etsy shop.

Picnic Pockets

for sale at www.gailscrafts.etsy.com

This is a kirigami cutting that I have done. Then I went back and filled in the 'holes' with leftover scraps of origami paper, to bring the design out.
It is one of my favorites!

Lovely silk tulip wreath by http://www.elegantholidays.etsy.com/ 

This is another of Laura Walsh Anglund's precious paper dolls:

A parrot tulip



I'd like to finish today with a photo that has many different, great ideas on how to display cut flowers. I hope you see something you will want to try!

courtesy grinandbakeit.com

Enjoy the rest of your day!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com

Day 8 St Patrick's Day countdown, budget home decor craft, quotes n paperdolls

Hi!
Today is Day 8 in our 10-day countdown to St. Patrick's Day!

"May you have warm words on a cold evening,

a full moon on a dark night,

and a road downhill

all the way to your door."

sheet music cover courtesy of Museum of Indiana Published Music.

Refer to my favorite web sites on the right for address!

Here is an antique paper doll of an Irish miss, courtesy of origami bears:



http://www.origamibears.com/PaperDolls1/paperdolls1.html

I adore her site! It is a paper doll paradise, which she offers free of charge. She changes themes about 4 times a year, with all different paper dolls each time.

Wow.

I'm smiling.......

Irish history

Paragon Publishing, 2002

"Saint Patrick is most famous throughout the world for reputedly having driven all the snakes out of Ireland. There are several different legends and tales of this event.....

...The earliest Irish historical document not written in ogham is St. Patrick's own 'Confession', written in untutored Latin. So not only is St. Patrick's 'Confession' the only contemporary narrative telling of the arrival of Christianity to Ireland, it also marks the beginning of documented history...."

A Budget Home Decorating Project:

After making a project with many snips of ribbons and lace left over, I just couldn't throw the snips away - they were so pretty! So, I came up with this budget recycling project -

Wash and dry cleaned StarBucks cappucino drink bottles - the kind you buy at the grocery store. Save lids.

tip: Hard to get the sticky residue off? Try Goo-B-Gone, if you can find it. Check at your local hardware store, or craft store. You can also use acetone (which I only have because my husband is a guy). Fingernail polish remover might work, if it has enough acetone in its' base. Sometimes a little cooking oil will remove sticky residue. Last resort? Try scraping it with a fingernail, and then scrubbing with a dish scrubber & liquid soap. I use Basic H, from Shaklee.

You now have a bottle that very closely resembles those sold in craft stores for scrapbooking and rubberstamping; filled with things like buttons, silk flowers, trims, etc.

They are not cheap...........but yours will be!!!!

Fill your bottles. You can spray paint the lid to match your decor, or decoupage a flower clipping on to the lid.

Be creative! Use up those dibs and dabs that are always left over after projects.

Wouldn't these look great with a big silk daisy hot glued onto each lid?

I have one recycled bottle filled with white buttons. I have another filled with all those lovely ribbon and lace snippets. I also have ones filled with color groups of decorative string, yarn and embroidery thread. Coordinate these with the color of your room! They look so pretty sitting on a shelf together.

Other ideas for 'filling':

small wooden spools with or without thread

decorative buttons

silk flower parts - the green stuff!

bobbins for your sewing machine

foreign coins

layered colored sands

bottlecaps

fish tank colored pebbles

flattened marbles

dried flower pods

......the list could go on and on!

Let me know what you have filled your recycled bottles with!
dominoes@myinkspired.com

Here is a treasury I have put together with wonderful recycle artists:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca215aa0d0c6d91e02cef9a/word-of-the-day-recycle?index=23

A kirigami card I have made, layering 2 different designs.

"Eat oranges
Hear the larks
Wait on the sun."
- John Muir

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com