springtime memories

One of my favorite things to do when the boys were young was to have an egg hunt. 

 It was fun. 

We'd wait for them to go to sleep, then take out the (tacky) plastic eggs- fill them with coins and treats, then hide them.

 The trickiest part was remembering where they were hidden.  A few always showed up months later with a petrified jelly bean inside or better yet a few coins.  

We don't do egg hunts anymore, but I seem to always put the colored eggs out around this time.  

This year, though - I decided to change them up a little.  

I painted the eggs and wrapped them with twine, decorative paper, vintage fabrics and buttons . . . 

 . . . then put them in a few spring baskets.

And, Mom, you'll recognize this basket!

I'm guessing I got this for my first Easter... I would have been just shy of 5 months.  

We can officially say it's 'vintage' (and then some).

The bunnies, I made out of fabric from a vintage Christening gown.  The shape is perfect, they remind me of the solid chocolate bunnies we used to get in our basket.

First order of business was always to bite off the ears, then the tail...

. . . then it would be taken away and cut into small bite sized pieces because,

"we wouldn't want to wreck our teeth."

 Mom do you remember all those fancy eggs we used to make? We made Bill blow them out, then we used those minuscule scissors, cut them open and decorated the insides.  

Dad and Kelly ate the eggs.  

We made so many, I think Dad even drank some raw eggs

 and that was even before Rocky was doing it.  gag.

So for ole times sake I cut apart some plastic eggs and decorated the insides.  The others were much better, but this was fun nonetheless. 

  More eggs covered with scraps, these not so tedious.

  I'm pretty sure I'm done covering eggs for awhile.  

It's time to just enjoy their bright colors

while we wait for the spring flowers to come up.

Happy Spring!

paper krafting

Have you heard of kraft-tex kraft paper fabric?

It's cool stuff.

It sort of feels like leather but it's paper.

You can decorate it anyway you want

and it's washable.

It comes in Natural and I think black and white now.  Mine is natural.

I doodle painted a piece of it with acrylic inks and textile medium.

Then made a bag.

It is like leather as it will perforate with a needle so the inside was quilted instead of the outside.

Another piece was decorated with water pastels,

then cut and glued to the cover of my new sketch journal.  

I sprayed this piece with a sealer because I didn't want to wait for the pastels to cure.

 Awhile ago I needed a folder for some quilting designs so I made one with the kraft paper.  

Water pastels were used here too and they held up fine and the folder has too.  

It's stitched together with stitched in pockets as well.

I'm always looking for cool stuff to use with my art.  

This kraft - tex kraft paper fabric by C&T Publishing didn't disappoint.  

jelly belly

There is no secret about it: 

I- Love-Nature.  

Today is the online ArtSquared group reveal and the theme is nature.

The hardest part of this challenge was to decide what part of nature to create.

 I picked the 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

 Or affectionally called - Jelly Belly.

The Grosbeak come around in the thick of summer 

when the days are

 hot 

and long.

Put out a cup of jelly and soon you will notice him visit.

He will bring his wife 

and kids too.

He lovingly shares his jelly with his family, 

but eats most of it himself.

And if you look closely at him when he is finished, you will notice jelly stains on his beak.

No time to clean as he has to get right to his music. 

The best part of the Grosbeak's visit is his sweet song.

He will sing for you well into the evening.

Happy Nature Watching!

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 And if you've been sleeping all winter, it's time to wake up sleepy head

BASEBALL SEASON IS BACK!