Fun With Office Paper

You are probably thinking that office paper is not a lot of fun but that depends on what you are going to do with it.  Office work is not that amusing usually but all those sheets of rather pretty pastel paper invariably make me think of spring and Easter.  My grandmother used to make them into paper flowers when her sister in law gave her some sheets from the office where she worked and I have made some iris folded cards by cutting them into 2cm strips.

You can buy this card pattern and make your own by visiting https://www.craftsuprint.com/card-making/iris-folding-patterns/easter/easter-chick-iris-folding-card.cfm

Of course you can also use patterned paper and spring colored wrapping paper, seed catalogs or anything else including scraps of fabric or ribbon.  There are two other patterns in the Easter Iris Folding series and these are shown made up patterned.  Check out the bunny at https://www.craftsuprint.com/card-making/iris-folding-patterns/easter/easter-bunny-iris-folding-card.cfm

and the egg at https://www.craftsuprint.com/card-making/iris-folding-patterns/easter/easter-egg-iris-folding-card.cfm

Note the cheeky chick peeping out through the hole!

Blooms For Bees

A while ago I signed up for the Blooms For Bees project.  I did not expect to be lucky enough to be chosen so imagine my surprise and delight when I opened a mysterious brown envelope last Saturday and found that I was on board!  You can read all about the project here but in a nutshell it is about discovering whether a new bedding plant (a compact habit dahlia) is attractive to bumble bees, and which color flowers they prefer.

This is something near to my heart that I am always going on about.  As it says in the accompanying leaflet there is a discrepancy between the flowers bees and other pollinators will visit for nectar and pollen and the flowers people grow in their gardens these days.  Garden centers and catalogs are going for flowers that are ever showier, brighter and more artificial looking that appeal to humans (although not usually to this human) but not to anything else in nature.  Thankfully the RHS has put helpful "Perfect For Pollinators" symbols on some plants but not everything has been tested and there are new cultivars out all the time, hence this project.

I planted my seeds out in seed trays last Sunday according to the instructions and now have to wait and see what comes up.  The dahlias are going to be white, purple and red so it will be interesting to see which colors the bees like best and what bees visit my garden.  I imagine honey bees will like them too and who knows what else?  I will keep you all posted.

Until then here is what they look like now!

Keeping Mum

It is now officially spring here in the UK and time for making some cards.  There are so many occasions for them in the first four months of the year: Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Mothers Day (if you are in some countries) and Easter.  I made this card kit for Valentine's Day that can be bought here

This has banners that say Be Mine, Happy Anniversary, I Love You and Happy Birthday as well as "blank for your own special message" as they say on shop cards.  I was daft - why did I not include one that says Happy Mothers Day?

I am going to remedy this right now and here it is for download into the graphics program of your choice:

This is the same size as the others.  Just right click to collect, then save and use.  So now the card looks like this:

 Now, why did I not think of that before?!