in celebration of August anniversaries

Sweet little fabric hearts.

show me some spring…

…on your shelf, that is!

Simple collection of yellow and Easter themed items – saved cards, my silly ceramic chicks, a stuffed bunny, and a bit of a bird's nest.

And of course a whole shelf devoted to my nest collection – hee!

happy hearts at home

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are some photos of how we decorate using our homemade heart hangers, valentine cards, and a few simple red cardboard hearts. Plus, I left my old window up on the mantel from Christmas time and re-purposed that for a change.

a few of my favorite things

On top of a shelf in the bathroom you'll find a few of my favorite things:

Evergreens.
I enthused about them a few weeks ago. A simple and inexpensive item to incorporate into your seasonal decor.

Milk glass.
I really like the look and feel of those little bumps! In my experience, milk glass is abundant and inexpensive at antique stores. Think multiples on the mantle like I did here, especially if your house has white trim like mine.

Bright red against blue.
A color combination that seems to come up in my house again and again!

Little birdies.
Also – I love and adore the art of Genine, who also shares my adoration of our feathered friends. Check out her blog too if you have not before. I am quite sure I have mentioned her before on this blog.

Reused Christmas cards.
A clustered group sharing the red bird theme. As I have written about before, saving and reusing favorite cards is another easy-on-the-earth, easy-on-the-budget way to decorate.

happy new home!

My lovely sis-in-law recently moved into her first home – an amazing condo in an old furniture factory along the river. A lovely and simple cut paper card was in order. She really does live one floor beneath the top on the left side of the building too!

Christmas card inspiration

My favorites from the Met Museums's catalog:

The colorful, free illustrations by Andy Warhol (he's more than soup cans!), the elegant ornamentation of Aubrey Beardsley's angels, and the adorable partridge by Eyvind Earle.

I won't be buying traditional cards this year because I'll be doing photo cards but if I were to buy some they might look like these. And I am very inspired by those angels. One of these days I am going to get back to doing some linocutting and that style seems to lend itself to that medium.

scrap fabric greeting cards

I was inspired to experiment with some abstract lines using the unraveled thread from freshly-washed fabric and glue. Mixed results but it was a fun bit of creative play for me.

upcycled wrapping paper

A crazy messy art experiment with my older daughter (then just 2 years old):

Cleaning out and refreshing my art room (more on that soon) led to upcycling the giant painting into wrapping paper and a matching card for mother's day:

fabric fishies for a birthday

It's my new favorite method of greeting card making: gluing fabric scraps onto paper. There is something so appealing about the contrast in textures.

Fishies for a fisherman's birthday below.

my claim to (blog) fame!

I was honored to be included as a guest poster on The Artful Parent  which just happens to be one of my all-time favorite blogs. Jean is taking a bit of a sabbatical from her blog this month and asked if some of her readers would be willing to submit posts. How lovely of her to share her space.

Here's my post on our valentine cards – a current work in progress.

Spoiler alert: Grandmas and aunties might get a sneak peek of their future valentine mail if they check out this post!

sewing on paper – an experiment

I was crafting up a greeting card with fabric scraps. I was about to glue them together when I took a second look at my sewing machine, threaded with magenta thread and sitting idly. Why not? I scooted over there and ran my card through. It worked rather well!

 I do think a larger, more spaced apart stitch would have been better though. The small stitch my machine was set on basically ripped completely through the cardstock, as seen on the inside of the card. Everything seemed to be holding together well enough to finish it up and pop it in an envelope.

I almost feel as though I am free to sew any sort of thing now that the quilt is done. Can you believe it took me a year and a half?! Well, actually, I can believe it. I am very excited to start some new – small! – sewing projects. Hold me to it, blog friends.

decorating with Christmas cards

Dear readers, I have been dealing with what my husband has been referring to as my "Christmas train wreck." As in all those crazy tasks and crafts and such that I happily assumed would be easy to check off my list piling up into a wreck! I think I am going to have to do my Christmas cards in August next year or something. I definitely don't have it all under control this time around! Hence, the lack of attention to this blog. I've had some stuff cooking though so you can look forward to some posts this week.

I know decorating with greeting cards is a topic I have covered on this blog before but I can't help but show you what I artfully arranged this year. I think being a graphic designer and a fan of art in general makes me especially attuned to the cards I love. So I keep them from year to year for displaying and use in crafting.

This year, I have several themed areas in the living room. For example, I have a red snowman plate (so appropriate near my red couch!). He's friendly and cheerful so I arranged some equally fun snowman-themed cards near him.

I grouped these two bright, graphic cards near a family photo. (Here's a great tutorial from Maker Mama for making those paper balls if you are so inspired!)

What belongs with the book Mary: Images of the Holy Mother? Cards featuring depictions of Mary of course!

This year I tried my largest nativity set on my white shelves instead of on a table. I actually think it's a nice (safe!) spot for it. The pieces spread across several shelves. I filled in the edges with appropriate Christmas card art. Above, a gathering of stars and angels.