Shamrock Shenanigans

 Hello!

Card by inkspired, with hand inked ‘Polished Stone’ background

Let’s have some Saint Patrick’s Day Shamrock fun!

Found on Pinterest

 Did you know a shamrock always and only has 3 heart shaped ‘leaflets’?

I didn’t!

Card by inkspired, with Polished Stone background

A clover can have 3 or 4 ‘leaflets’, but they’re not always green!

Clover comes in white and purple too.

I didn’t know that either!

Here’s a fun Shamrock maze:

Best Coloring Pages, Pinterest

Here’s a fun 4-leaf clover puzzle!

TheTypicalMom.com

4 leaf clovers are found 1 in 10,000 give or take a few dozen.

So if you find one, you are considered lucky!

Here’s a fun way to add some ‘luck to your room -

Poshmark

Spiral Shamrock spinners

Cut a 4-6” circle. Starting at one edge, cut in a spiral design to the middle. Cut out a 4 - 6” shamrock or 4 leaf clover from green cardstock. Write message in white or gold pen. Attach Shamrock to one end of spiral card. (Glue, staple or tape). Attach other end to the ceiling.

Here’s another Spinner idea:

CraftCornerDIY

Use the same basic directions, only use a much larger piece of cardstock for your base circle. Attach several shamrocks to each spinner from top to bottom.

Iris Folded card by inkspired

Here are a couple leprechaun puppets you can string together either with string, brads or eyelets.

Leprechaun Puppets

Artwithcrystal.com

ThePurplePumpkin blog

Next I have for you some 

Recycled Postage Stamp Wall Art.

On a blank piece of paper, cardstock or poster board draw a shamrock lightly in pencil. Make it as large as you want. 8” can be a good size to start with, and easily framed.

Sort through a bag of used postage stamps. Pick out all the ones that are primarily green. Arrange on your shamrock shape. Set aside. Brush on about 3” x 3” square inside the shamrock shape with glue or Mod Podge. Press stamps into glue. Continue with small sections until the entire design is covered. You can finish coat it with a layer of Mod Podge or clear acrylic spray.

You can do this with any shape, any holiday pretty much!

Here are a few shapes to help you -

TheTypicalMom.com

 

Winterandsparrow.com

You can use these basic shapes for lots of different crafts.

Fabric Sachets & Pillows

Cut 2 from fabric and 1 from batting. Sew together, insides out, with a 3/4” seam allowance, leaving a 1 - 2” opening. Turn right side out. Stuff with batting and hand sew closed.

Depending on the size you now have a decorative pillow, or a scented sachet for your drawers (add a few cotton balls soaked in fragrance oil inside of batting, or use fresh herbs in a net pouch, inside of batting.

Betty Home Decor, Etsy 

Shamrock Pins

Make them smaller, sew on a pin to the back and you have cute pins to give all your friends.

Cut them a tad larger and catch a piece of braiding or ribbon in the seam, to form a loop. Attach a clip and you have a cute accessory for your backpack or purse.

Card by inkspired

Fun Fact:

McDonald’s Shamrock Shake 

is 55 years old!

If you have followed me at all, you know I have a love affair with beads. Here are a couple bead patterns to make:

Bead earrings and bracelet

I believe this is from PandaHall.

Kandi Patterns

Fun Fact:

The 1st USA St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in the 1760’s!

I found 2 similar versions of tissue paper suncatchers, so I’m posting them both.

Tissue Paper Suncatchers

CraftCornerDIY

munchkinsandmilitary.com

Cut out 2 shamrock shapes. If you have a Cricut it works great for this project.

Lay 1 shape on top of sticky side up sheet of clear contact paper. Next is the fun part. Start placing tissue paper shapes on top of the sticky contact paper. Shades of green and yellow are perfect. When your shamrock is full place 2nd shamrock outline on top, and finish with a second sheet of contact paper. Trim edges. Hang where the sun can shine through it.

Here are a couple more games:

HOMEMADEHEATHER.COM

CuteColoringPagesForKids.com

These pipe cleaner shamrocks are fun to make, and you can tuck them all over the house for a touch of whimsy:

Beaded pipe cleaner shamrocks

Onelittleproject.com

Cards with Polished Stone hand-inked backgrounds by inkspired

Fun Fact:

9% of Ireland’s population are redheads.

Here is a clever use of paper mache’ letters and pennies:

Lucky Penny Letters

Marzipan.com

Spray or brush copper paint onto paper mache’ letters. Doing a small section at a time, spread glue or Mod Podge generously on dried surface. Place pennies in rows. Alternate ‘heads’ or ‘tails’ as desired. Let dry. Finish with a couple coats of Mod Podge to seal.

So why Ireland and shamrocks and Saint Patrick?

Saint Patrick was a captured slave at age 16, in the 4th century. After 6 years he escaped and returned to Great Britain. He then went back to Ireland as a Roman Catholic missionary.

It is said he used the common shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Digital art by inkspired

Let’s make some garlands to decorate the house and classroom.

Shamrock Garlands

Irish flag colors garland

This simple garland is cut in the colors of the Irish flag.

Cut shamrock shapes from white, orange and green paper. String with baker’s twine or heavy thread or string. You can glue the shamrocks on, or punch holes and thread them onto the string. You could even tape them in place.

Book Page Banner

Homeroad

Use pages from a damaged book. You can run these through a color copier and print a shamrock on each page. You can also use a Cricut machine to cut out shapes from either paper or fabric. Glue these shapes onto the book pages. Finally, you could also use a stencil and acrylic paint to paint a shamrock on each page.

Fold the top of page over 1 inch. Sandwich a string in between folds and glue in place.

Fun Fact:

Ireland has no snakes, moles or weasels!

Vintage card

Next I have an inexpensive door wreath:

Puzzle Piece Wreath

Dollar Store DIY

You will need a jigsaw puzzle, acrylic paints, a paint stir stick, cardboard, scissors and glue. Optional ribbon for bow and hanging.

Cut cardboard in shape of shamrock. Paint puzzle pieces a variety of shades of green. Snip end off paint stick, and paint in rainbow colors. Layer puzzle pieces on top of cardboard cutout shape. Glue in place. Continue layering and gluing until you have several layers deep. Glue paint stick rainbow in place. Seal with acrylic spray sealer or Mod Podge. Add ribbon bow if desired. Attach ribbon on back for hanger.

Card by inkspired

Here is another great 4 leaf clover bead pattern:

PandaHall.com

Fun Fact:

Hallmark printed the first St. Patrick’s Day postcards of shamrocks 1910-1915.

These clothespin leprechauns I thought were pretty cute. Put a pin back on them and you have a great St. Paddy’s pin. Add them to a wreath. Glue a dowel or chopstick to the back and use as a plant poke or seasonal addition to a flower arrangement.

Clothespin Leprechauns 

I wish I knew who to credit this idea to.

You will need wood clothespins; a couple colors of green acrylic paint; felt scraps in green, yellow and black; a scrap of reddish brown yarn and glue.

(I like Aleene’s Tacky Glue).

Follow the photo for ideas of colors and felt placement.

A tiny silk shamrock tucked into the hat band would look super!

Found on Pinterest

This next wreath works up quickly and is super easy. You can add more decorations to it as you want. Sometimes plain and simple are the best, though.

Ribbon wrapped Wreath

Just Us Four, Pinterest

You will need a styrofoam wreath and 2 kinds of ribbon; glue and straight pins.

You could also use crepe paper to cover the wreath base.

Using a straight pin, pin beginning of base ribbon (or crepe paper). Start to wrap around wreath form, being careful no styrofoam shows through. End by pinning tail in place. Now go back and carefully lift ribbon at beginning and glue in place. If it looks like it doesn’t want to stay, use a pin to temporarily hold until glue is bonded. Repeat at end.

Start thinner, decorative ribbon in same way, wrapping more loosely. Glue both ends, tucking under ribbon so end cuts do not show.

Attach decorations with glue, holding in place with straight pins until glue is bonded.  Add a ribbon loop to the back, gluing and tucking ends under.

(A heavier glue like Aleene’s Tacky Glue is essential for this project.)

Vintage sheet music, c.1911

Fun Fact:

The Chicago River has been dyed green every St. Patrick’s Day since 1962.

Here is a nice pattern to make a felt 4 leaf clover. Add these to a hat band, a lapel or decorate the above wreath with a cluster of them.

Felt 4 leaf clover

Molly and Mama

Did you know you can use your Cricut machine to cut felt?

Zentangle art

Use a simple outline of a shamrock or 4 leaf clover. (See above). Fill in with Zentangle doodles. Color with colored pencils if desired. Here are some samples of what I did:

Original Zentangles by inkspired

Here is a cute leprechaun to color:

Christina’s Creations

Fun Fact:

Several of the original Apollo astronauts carried clovers with them for good luck.

I hope you are inspired to try a few of these projects. Crafting is a great way to lower blood pressure, exercise a different part of your brain (which helps prevent dementia) and make a ho-hum place fun to be around. It is also a perfect opportunity for multiple generations to interact positively.

‘Til next time,

inkspired

Kaleidoscope by inkspired and KaleidoCam 

The Philippines Part II

Saychid

'Peace' in the Ivatan language

spoken in the Philippines as a native dialect

c.1920

Today I am typing on a new keyboard.

This one has larger keys, and is curved slightly. It's very thin!

So, I have found I am making many typing mistakes -

sorry.

I am trying to catch them all.

The reason we are trying out this new computer keyboard

is that it has no numbers on the side, like for a calculator.

Neither of us ever used that feature,

and all the keyboards with that feature are too long

to fit on our computer desk, along with the mouse.

I have to keep my mouse down on the same level as the keyboard.

Any of you with shoulder or neck pain -

try it!

Lower you mouse so your shoulder is not hiked up.

It has helped me tremendously.

Yeah arthritis.

Not.

dancers in the Bacolod Masskara Festival

www.lakbaypilipinas.com

Apparently our internet connection today is extremely

SLOW.

I am not taking 4 - 6 hours to type one blog again.

We can't figure it out if it is yahoo

or blogspot

or the local connection.

WHATEVER it is, it is darn frustrating.

AAAAAHHHHHH........

 

My apologies for not finishing

The Philippines

yesterday, as promised.

Michael thinks it is our server connection.

and yes...

it's being a big SLOW pain today also.

sigh.

At least I don't have to hand write everything

and illustrate with inks!

:0)

Taal Volcano

Batangas, Philippines

www.infoph.com

We finished up 2 days ago with just a start about all the volcanoes

in the Philippines.

18, remember?

SIDE NOTE: since the server is so slow, and it takes forever (seems like) to do any changes, like font color or size

I will probably do just black, in the 'normal' setting.

:0(

courtesy http://www.twistynoodle.com/

(funny name!)

The most active volcano is an 8,000 foot peak!

news.bbc.co.uk

Some of the current active volcanoes are

Mount Pinatubo,

Taal Volcano in Btangas,

Hibok-Hibok in Camiguin.

Mount Mayon in Alblay

Jolo

Didicas

Camiguin de Babuyanes

Iraya

Kanlaon

Makaturing.....and more!!

Ash from a 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo

http://www.uwe.edu/

Mount Pinatubo's June 12,1991 eruption plume

vuclan.wr.usgs.gov

The Taal volcano in Batangas is one of the most acive in the Phlippines.

It is partially submerged in Taal Lake,

with several centers that lie submerged, bringing more danger to the place.

Taal Crater Lake is high in sulfur content.

Many people swim in it and many divers explore beneath.

Hmmm...

and this volcano will erupt again....

hmmm....

c.1916

Crater Lake, Taal Lake Taal Volcano

In 2009 Mount Mayon erupted, forcing more than 33,000 people to be evacuated.

The last volcano we will talk about is

Mount Hibok-Hibok, in Camiguin.

This hottie erupted in 1827, and then again in 1862.

over 329 people were killed in that one.

Then a 3rd volcanic explosion occured in 1871.

Earthquakes, smoke, ashes, dust, rocks and magma

covered a 3 kilometer area.

The eruption lasted FOR 7 DAYS!!!

running from ash clouds in 2006

news.bbc.co.uk

I bet alot of people thought this was the end of the world.

With all the eruptions, etc. a new volcanic dome was formed,

called 'Vulcan'.

Mount Hibok-Hibok

TRIVIA:

82% if Filipino people are Catholic

(80.9% Roman, 2% Aglipayan)

There are 5% Muslim

2.8% Evangelical

2.3% Iglesia ni Kristo

4.5% other Christian,

then the rest are unspecifiedm according to a 2000 census.

The Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia.

the Philippines flag



vintage Betsy McCall at the Unicef Fair

note the Philippines  woman at the top

I found some international flag designs for many different countries

to bead as safety pin pins.

No Philippines, so I thought I would try to make my own.

VERY CRUDE DRAWING, but perhaps you can use it:

Remember, you can always refresh your memory on how to safety pin bead

by writing in my search box, at the top of the blog inthe upper left hand corner. Just type in 'Safety pin tutorial' or 'safety pin pattern'.

I found this GREAT web site with the beginnings of an

ABC book in Filipino.

Here are some pages I found.

I think the artwork is terrific, and the idea is great!

http://fil-am-fam.blogspot.com/2008/06/filipino-alphabet-coloring-pages.html

A Ba Ka Da

(the traditional Philipipne Alphabet)

That's a great way to learn a new alphabet!

Next up:

The Philippine Eagle

It is officially calssified as 'critically endangered.

There are probably less than 500 alive in the whole world.

Their last remaining place to live is the Mount Apo region.

They have had to retreat their because of humans.

We have cut down the trees (deforestation)

we turned wilderness into farmland

and used harmful chemicals/pesticides

and poached the eagle to it's soon-to-be demise.

Plain language - that means we have killed them all.

How stupid stupid stupid we humans can be.

As if nothing matters except our own little circle.

Well, don't get me started on that subject,

or I will write a book!!!

Yeah, you heard that Michael...

http://www.free-for-kids.com/

I really don'/t want to bore you with too much Philippines,

so I will try to shorten things up!

There are these fantastic rice terraces -

The Benaue Rice Terraces

described as one of the

Hidden Wonders Of The World

according to http://www.jitourism.com/

The Rice Terraces are over 200 years old, and are a tribute

to the innovative design needed to grow rice on steep hills.

http://www.frank151.com/

I know I haven't said much about the history of The Philippines.

And you know I find history fascinating...

but I will try to be brief!!

vintage photo of a Tobacco Plantation

Most of the informatioin about the Tobacco Industry in the Philippines is courtesy Pinoy Kollektor, 2011.

Pinoy Kollektor is a collector of cigar and tobacco ephemera.

Good word to know - it means 'paper stuff'.

I also found a fine article written by Dan Mickelson.

http://swigar.net/2011/10/25/tobacco-industry-in-the-philippines/

The vintage photos are all from Pinoy Kollector Collections.

Ilicano women smoking

In all these vintage photos,

the cigars are size HUMONGOUS!!!

labeled as "Smoking Loloa"

As in many Spanish Colonies of the 16th - 19th centuries,

tobacco was introduced in the Philippines from the New World early on.

It was Magellan in fact who first brought tobacco to the islands,

while exploring the Caribbean.

'Spud Murphy'

The Filipinos made it a success, and the tobacco cultivation business

 is one of the Philippines oldest, continuous industries.

vintage Filipino cigar factories

The tobacco leaf quickly became the best thing since sliced bread

(as my Grandma McDowell used to say).

The local people really liked cigar smoking,

which gave the Spaniards entrance into many places that they would normally be persona non gratis .

That means 'get out of here, you!', roughly translated!!!

'Granny enjoying her cigar'

The Spanish were able to gain access to

the largely Islamic island of Mindanao through the tobacco industry.

The leader at the time - Lapu-Lapu - expressed his thoughts about the Spanish on his island by removing the famous explorer Magellan's head.

Not a friendly type action.

But tobacco was the 'in'.

Like in other Spanish colonies, tobacco knowledge and skill

 passed easily through the Philippines by interntaional trade routes.

http://www.kentbaby.co.uk/

TRIVIA:

The Philippines were actually named after the Spanish king of the time

King Philip

The Chocolate Hills of the Philippines

Some more quick history:

We already know the Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony in the 16th century. In the late 1700's a booming business became severely restricted by the Spanish Crown.

The near demise of the tobacco industry is blamed actually on two families:

the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons, both ruling families in Spain.

Makes me think of Romeo and Juliet bit!

The 2 ruling families made a monopoly on the tobacco business.

This monopoly (because of taxes, strict rules, etc.)

made the Filipinos really mad.

Everyone had become 'addicted' to cigars in one way or another,

and now the demand from Europe was so great for high-quality cigars that they became too expensive for the locals.

In some places, cigars were used in place of currency!

Smuggling became commonplace.

Even the Catholic Church stepped into the fray,

and tried to exert influence and obediance on the natives

to respect the Spanish Crown.

This did not go over well with the nicotine starved populace.

a bead patter of hibiscus, a tropical flower to make as an amulet

A new Spanish company entered into the tobacco business the same year that the Hapsburg/Bourbon monopoly was officially abolished

1881.

La Compania General de Tobaccos de Filipinas opened its' first factory

and is still the leader of cigar production on the Philippines.

Spain held sway, perhaps even after it was a sound financial enterprise,

 until after the Spanish/American War of 1898.

c.1898

In 1898 The Philippines was ceded to the USA.

C.1895

In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonweath,

with Manuel Quexon elected president.

He had the task of preparing his country for independence

after a 10-year transition.

In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese Occupation,

during World War II.

The USA forces and the the Filipinoes fought together during 1944- 1945

to regain control. On July 4, 1946

The Republic of the Philippines attained its' independence.

Filipino kids

http://www.jennahartkopf.theworldrace.org/

A 20-year rule by Ferdinand Marcos ended in 1986,

when a 'People Power" movement in Manila forced him and his wife Imelda

into exhile. They installed Corazon Aquino as president.

Yes, that is the Imelda Marcos famous for her shoe collection.

from 1000 B.C Photo, found at http://www.missosology.info.com/

In 1992 the United States closed its' last military base on the islands.

Benizno Aquino III was elected to a 6-year term as president in 2010.

The Philippine government faces threats from several groups.

Manila has waged a decades-long struggle against ethnic Moro rebels in the southern islands. This has let to peace talks - on/again and off/again.

These peace talks also include the Moro Islamic Libertions Front.

The Maoist-inspired New People's Army based through much of the country,

a growing Islam population in the island of Mindinao, and increased tension with China over disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea continue to add to the unsettlement of the nation.

It continues its' struggle to cross the threshold between 3rd world

and 1st world.

President Benigno C. Aquino III, http://www.noypi.ph/

All in all, the Philippines is rich in native culture,

Spanish colonial culture,volcano sight seeing, a variety of landscapes including beaches, mountains, volcanic lakes and superb scuba diving.

Manila Ocean Park, the Philippines

photo cred: Pat Roque http://www.yahoonews.com/ June, 2012

The Philippines is the third largest English speaking country,

after the United States and the United Kingdom.

fishing boats, http://www.thewindsweptsky.com/

TRIVIA:

after the United States,

the Philippines is the country with the most Boy Scouts!

With that, I will close this little bio about

the Philippines.

I would love to visit there some day!

but maybe not to swim in an active volcano's lake.....

:0)

inkspired

www.inkspired.etsy.com