In Bloom

Coming to a creative project near you! 

Get ready to play with petals when the Cut Flowers collection arrives soon on Lettering Delights. Flowers are always in and this time of year they are inright, outright, upright . . . downright the thing to craft into many a darling project. 

These flowers have the power to make your party a hit. They have the elegance to make a bride blush. They have the sweetness to make a baby coo. And they have the beauty to make a mother smile.

I will be sharing many a fun and lovely project ideas with you as soon as these blooms are ready to pick. Get ready for projects that will never end and flowers that will never wilt!

In a bind all week and loving it!

My Woodland Tails fabrics are gracing the covers of some of the most lovely handmade books in the country, and it is truly an honor for me.

This week Rag & Bone Bindery is having its online trunk sale, a popular event each spring. Rag & Bone Bindery is an artisan book, journal and albums company in Pawtucket, Rhone Island which produces beautifully crafted handmade items sold in speciality retailers as well as their online shop.

This year’s Rag & Bone Bindery trunk sale will begin on Monday, April 23 and end at midnight on Monday, April 30. There will be a wide variety of products including Baby’s First Year Book, Twelve Wishes for Baby Book, journals, photo albums, accordion books, and more. You will be able to buy the books with my Woodland Tails fabrics, shown in the photos above, when you go to the online sale.

“The Rag & Bone Bindery Trunk Sale is an event we look forward to every year,” Co-owner Jason Thompson told me. “This year we turned the selection over to our talented staff and the range of fabrics is more dynamic and beautiful that ever! We look forward to sharing these unique finds with our customers and the fans of the fabric designers during this special shopping event.”

I am thrilled to be a part of this brief but beautiful handcrafted event and would love to have you visit their online store and learn more about the exceptional quality and design that goes into each product they create here in the US. I think you will agree that their product encompasses the essence of handcrafted quality.

Above is an image of the books that have been made with Woodland Tails fabrics by Rag & Bone Bindery for their trunk sale. Click on the photo to see larger image.

You have a week to shop the Rag & Bone Bindery trunk sale, but don’t get yourself in a bind, and wait too long to see these fabulous, handcrafted creations, before they're gone.

Cut flowers year round

It’s springtime, and it’s beautiful outside, and there are lovely flowers blooming all about. I do not garden, I don’t even work in the flower beds, but I love flowers. Love to see them in my neighbors yard. Love to see then at the florist. Love to see them in nature. Love to see them fresh, cut and in my home. However, this will have to be my way of sharing cut flowers, but bonus, they will last year round.

Enjoy this bouquet if you aren’t able to have your own fresh cut flowers this season.

Hide and Seek with the Costume Clubhouse kids

I have an update on the hiding of the Costume Clubhouse kids. They have just been spotted. My Costume Clubhouse halloween collection is now back on Lettering Delights and ready to sport their costumes again. Well, it’s hardly halloween season, but this collection is also about to be released as fabric with Riley Blake Designs, so you might want to get these cute kids in paper crafting with LD to coordinate with your decor and sewing projects from the Costume Clubhouse fabric collection I have with RBD.

Here’s a sneak peek of the fabric collection with RBD which is available in April. This collection shares many of the same characters and activities that you will also find in the paper crafted items with LD. Below are the three colorways of fabric available for the Costume Clubhouse collection.

Above is the purple colorway in fabric for Costume Clubhouse.

Above is the orange colorway in fabric for Costume Clubhouse.

Above is the gray colorway in fabric for Costume Clubhouse.

If you want to get a jump on the halloween sets on Lettering Delights you can go to my artist page (pages 2 and 3) at LD and review the many paper crafting projects and decor from these costume kids now that they are back home where they belong. Just think, halloween decorating is only about six months away, so get in the spirit now! :)

You can also start looking for the Costume Clubhouse fabrics in quilt shops and online stores any day now.

All in the Family

Okay, so today I just have to share a proud moment and a link or two from one of my favorite photographers, my Dad! (photo of him below)

He’s about to have a gallery show opening on Thursday evening in Portland, Maine at the Elizabeth Moss Galleries. Here is a story in The Portland Press Herald about the upcoming show, including a few photos to show off his work, which this daughter praises highly. :)

Here is a bit of the story about his show from the newspaper ~“McCulley calls this exhibition “A Digital Homage to Edward Hopper.” As the title suggests, it’s a personal tribute to the famous American painter, who spent time in Portland in the 1920s and made several iconic paintings of the city. “I’m not trying to copy him,” McCulley said. “But he certainly inspires me.” McCulley looks for similar qualities that Hopper appreciated: Light, subject and composition.” All of his images are digitally enhanced, brightening the colors and adding textures that appear painterly.

To learn more about Clyde McCulley’s photography and see his entire gallery of art, click here to go directly to his website.

If you can’t make it to the show, at least you can appreciate via the internet. That’s how I have to enjoy the show as well, long distance. Sure wish I could be there.

Wrap your mind around this Easter treat!

Cupcake wrappers are ready for a new twist. Use the Sweet Peeps cupcake wrappers and pastel baking cups for more than baked goods this Easter.

As popular as cupcakes are, they never will overtake the always popular candy in any form. At least not for my three square meals plan—candy, coffee and Dr. Pepper. :)

Fill mini cups with traditional Easter jelly beans, M&Ms and my new favorite Easter treat, Peepsters. I’m lovin’ them!

Just grab the Sweet Peeps Cupcake Wrappers from LD; print and trim; get your pastel baking cups out to line the wrappers and fill with all of your (and your kids) favorite Easter treats. Even use a few of the Sweet Peeps graphic set icons to add a bit more Easter embellishing. (see photos above and below).

Believe me, this is a treat that’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 square meals on Easter Sunday!

The hunt is on

Easter is just around the corner and I have a few more ideas to share with you for your little Easter egg hunters.

I have taken the Sweet Peeps Cupcake Toppers and made them into little yard name tag signs that will be great for each of the visitors at the party. The cupcake toppers can be found here at LD and the name flags can be made from some of the Sweet Peeps Paper Pack on LD.

To make the yard signs I simply printed and cut out the round cupcake toppers (two each to sandwich the stick between). I also used some precut spring paper flowers (but silk flowers would also work, separated out) to slide up the bamboo skewer between the name flag and the topper.

I dyed each bamboo skewer with food coloring to get the different green sticks. These sticks are great because they are thin enough for the paper crafting and strong enough to stick in the ground for signs.

In order to dye the sticks I used cotton balls with food coloring and a bit of water, rubbing different greens and turquoises on the sticks for variety. They dry quickly once dyed. I would recommend wearing rubber gloves to keep the hands dye-free. Unless of course you want to go green. :)

The only thing left to do was to dye eggs, to have plenty for the hunt. Oh how I love dying Easer eggs. Such wonderful memories from my own childhood.

I also dyed larger skewers for the animal signs that will sprinkle my lawn.

So, sunshine or sprinkles, I say let the hunt begin!

Tiptoe through the tulips with me!

Get the ukulele, get the song in your head and then get with these Sweet Peeps as they tiptoe amongst the tulips. They are not the only ones who should be out in this beautiful spring weather dancing around in the flower beds. If you’ve got spring fever, do a little jig, and sure, let the neighbors see you dancing with your peeps. They might just join in on the fun with their own happy feet!

Here is the Sweet Peeps version of A Chorus Line as they make their way toward the house.

A “Sending Sweetness” Freebie for my Peeps

When I send packages in the mail I love to have a label that finishes the package off, something that usually coordinates with the content I’m sending. I thought it would be fun to have some mailing labels that could be used for Easter and springtime, and the Sweet Peeps collection couldn’t be a better fit.

I would like to share these labels with you, to help celebrate the season with your own peeps when you send them packages. I have designed the sheet with three Easter labels and three spring labels, and they coordinate with the Sweet Peeps collection on Lettering Delights.

These labels were laid out to fit a standard shipping label sticker sheet. The designs fit the 3.33" x 4" labels that typically come with six on an 8.5" x 11"sheet. I believe the shipping label from Avery is #8164, or any other brand with this format would work. Simply print out the free downloadable sheet (named SweetPeepsMailingLabels.jpg) from my U-Pick button at the right and print as many as you need to mail those surprise packages to your loved ones just in time for Easter.