A May Day Basket

Last month, I participated in my very first swap hosted by Kari Ramstrom. The idea of this swap was to create and exchange May Day Baskets with your swap partner who was randomly selected by Kari.   The baskets were to be sent in time for a May 1 arrival. For my swap partner, I put togther this very artful basket using purples, beige and creams.
Contents included this very cool handmade "calypso" soap and local grown cinnamon I bought while in the Virgin Islands, along with a hand made bunny, a lilac candle (my favorite scent!), a big "H" (for my swap partner's first initial), a small "dragonfly" watercolor bowl, a journal, some Starburst jelly beans, and a mini album that I made.

I made this friendship album using Basic Grey's Kioshi papers and a Rusty Pickle chipboard flower album.

I was really pysched about this album because it turned out even better than I thought it would.  I loved the way the purple ink looked over the ivory painted edges of the chipboard.  I really hope my swap partner enjoys putting her own photos in it...and speaking of which....

if you were wondering, my swap partner never reciprocated...no basket, no email, no acknowledgement of the basket I sent, no reply to my email inquiring if everything was alright with her.  At first I was concerned that something terrible may have happened to her, but I noticed that she has been active on her blog, so at least I know she's okay.I guess life gets in the way sometimes, and even though we have the best intentions when we commit to something, life finds a way of taking over our plans. I hope she enjoys her May Day gift as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Garden Delights

My mother's clematis is absolutely gorgeous this year.

I don't think I have ever seen it with so many blooms!

And the peonies from my grandmother's home place that I transplanted along our driveway are as fragrant and as beautiful as ever.

I love these old fashioned ones.  They smell so much nicer than the new hybrid ones that I have mixed them with.

And look what has made a nest in the Rhododendrons under our dining room window! 

The cardinals are back after a two year hiatus when a hawk took their nest.  This nest seems to be a little less conspicuous so hopefully we'll have little babies soon!

I love my garden in bloom!

Artful Spring

Today I am home from work, sick with the croup bug my boys brought home last week.  It started on Wednesday, and progressively has gotten worse as the week went on.  I was able to teach my Turtle Dreams class on Saturday, but I think that is what pushed me over the edge. I have been confined to my room for three days since, but at least today I feel like actuallty doing something!

Although I haven't blogged in a while, I have been very busy creating lots of projects for lots of causes this spring.  First, I had to get my auction donations ready for my kid's school annual fundraiser.  I made two rocking chairs and five photo journals.  The rocking chairs featured papers from Anna Griffin's Isabelle line.

I also made a number of my favorite photo journals, similar in style to the class I taught on Saturday. (by the way, all of my fees from that class were donated to Sea Turtle Survival programs).  It is the same design as my Beach Comber project from last summer, but instead of the teal colors for the Creative Imaginations line, I used the coral papers. 

Here are a few of the pages from the project.

I am hopeful that I will be over all this sickness and can get back to work and back into my scrapbook room.  I have too many unfinished projects as well as too many ideas  in my head to get started on before summer!

Blossoms

Spring has sprung in Washington DC. My hubbie and I took the boys to the Tidal Basin on Good Friday to see the beautiful showing of the cherry blossoms.

It was a gorgeous day, and a bit crowded, but we got there early and left  the city before the crowds became too maddening.

I have already started a book using Basic Grey's Kioshi papers, Prima cherry blossoms and the chop sticks I kept from lunch at the Cherry Blossom festival.

Stay tuned!

New Photo Journal Class in May - Turtle Dreams

It's a go!  I will be teaching a class at Scrapbooks-Plus on how to make this very special "Turtle Journal".  Class is scheduled for Saturday May 15 from 10am til 4pm. The journal includes 4 signatures and holds over 50 photos.  For the front cover you will get a reproduction of my turtle watercolor and a gilded shell that I brought back from the BVI.  Inside are more than a dozen pages, pockets and tags for photo and memories,.

 You'll receive flocked yellow letters to personalize your book any way you'd like. 

I've included some very cute ephemra that I brought back with me to make some very cool pages like these beautiful hibiscus stamps and a card-map of the Carribean islands that can be used as a mat for a photo or for journaling.

We'll stitch some flowers and also hand make this very cool cloth fish that will cover a plastic CD case that will hold two CDs of movies or pictures from your trip.

Trust me - there is a CD case behind this that opens up within the book.

This is one of my favorite pages.  I found this shell on the beach - you'll have to replace it with one of your own since I only found one!

I am pricing the class at $50.  Again, I will be donating all my instructor fees to a good cause - this time it is the Carribean Conservation Corporation - which is 100% dedicated to the protection of Sea Turtles.  What better cause for a Turtle Journal!