A poem for Easter

And the winner of the paper flowers is....

Dede Warren!
I want to THANK YOU all so much and I will have more paper flowers to give away real soon! But in the meantime I'd like to share a very old poem with you,
Spring Song
by Mendelssohn

Wake!
Wake up you sleepers,
wake up the sleeping earth!

Now is come the Easter,
time for your rebirth!

All through the snows of winter,
you've been fast asleep!

Sunshine now is calling,
and little rabbits leap!

You, you little chickens,
in your eggs fast curled,

Peck out into the sunshine,
and see the great wide world!

You, you little seedlings,
sleeping in the ground,

Send up shoots and blossoms,
earth is green and round!

Lambs come a frisking,
all you young things play!

Life again is waking,
come this Easter day!

Ring the bells for Easter,
ring them full and deep!

It's Easter!
And life's awaking,

after a long winters sleep!
Wishing you all a wonderful Easter day filled with heaps of yummy chocolate bunnies, baskets of colorful eggs and warm rays of glittering sunshine!

Vignette details:
an assortment of antique Easter goodies including a golden paper mache rabbit candy container, two giant crinkled foil paper eggs, a handful of velvet violets, an old German papered Easter egg decorated with daffodils and little yellow chicks, and two cute round faced baby duckling figurines. The fuzzy bunny baby doll is one of my porcelain pieces. I created her using a reproduction mold, poured, painted and fired it. Then created a little bunny suit made from scraps of very fine vintage brown mohair I found at a local flea market. The doll is nestled in a silk cabbage purchased at the crafts store, a few tiny clay flowers and bits of silk ribbon were used to decorate the bunny hood!

Fanciful Paper Flowers Giveaway!

" The earth laughs in flowers" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In my book Fanciful Paper Flowers (available here) there are 30 different fresh and new creative techniques for crafting an enchanted garden,

also included is a library of vintage ephemera for you to copy and use in your works of art! Everything from lovely old floral post cards and these funny little daisy faces, even an antique chocolates box top from the 1920's! There are lots and lots of patterns to use to make terrific paper bouquets! All shapes and sizes and colors!

Very detailed instuctions on how to create beautiful bees wax dipped polka dotted Two Lips ( I know, it's not really spelled that way but I like it this way better! Makes me giggle every time I say it!) and ethereal tissue paper posies to hang in a window and let the sun shine through!

The first time you turn a flat sheet of paper into a dimensional blossom you'll want to make dozens!

And just in time for Spring too! No need to force those little bulbs here! The pink cheeked flower girl is waiting patiently and can be photo copied again and again!

The rosy roses you see here sit atop a "Secrets Only" journal! Who could resist writing in it? Flowers upon flowers, just spells fun!

You'll be surprised just how easy it is to create these 3 D buds! This particular technique would be wonderful used as a brooch too! One of my favorite projects in the book are crepe paper shoe clips which I use to enhance a pair of vintage slippers!

Metropolitan myrtle has grown and entwined it's self around a quiet bronze cherub!

Black pearls and antique rhinestone buttons accent this curly parchment vine!

And who says flowers can't be made from buildings and letters anyway?

So we come to the "Giveaway" part, the paper towel tube flowers here need a new home,

the 3 you see are the original pieces I created for the book, tiny little glass flat marbles have beneath them angelic happy faces,

and they dangle from long upside down "wire" stems strung with hundreds of pink glass seed beads, to weight them down and add some sparkle Amethyst and Rose quartz polished stones swing from the ends!

Hang them in a window to see them gently glow,

you may even want to create a few more! And you surely can as the decorative papers I used are included in the book!

I will pick a winner next Sunday, March 16th and ship them off on Monday!
Make sure I have a way to notify you!

Isn't there a Doris Day (love her!) movie called Don't Pick the Daisies?!
Ok, so it's Don't Eat the Daisies! Even cuter!
Well, these can be picked and made by the dozens even if you don't have a green thumb and best of all they never, ever need watering!

The Mad Hatter's Favorite Hat

Oh, La Dee Da! La Dee Da! Just thinking out loud...

Have you ever noticed,

that the very instant,

in which a Hat is placed upon your head, you are transformed!
Just like that!
That is the magic of a Hat!

A hat, any hat really, carries within its beribboned brim,

the power to convert the unsuspecting wearer,

to drastically change a mood, to brighten the day

and shade the sun or keep the rains drops from ones cheeks!

A hat worn in just the right way,

on just the right lady,

on just the right day,

can even spur on and spark a tune for the Easter Parade!

A pretty little bonnet, with all the frills upon it...

This one just happens to be covered in paper, decorated with parchment letters and bows, even a precious coiled gift from the sea!

And further fancied up with velvet berries and such, not too little , but surely too much!

Then drizzled with sparkling rhinestones and the softest of lilac ostrich feathers to gently float in the wind!

For all the details and every little how to, pick up the Spring 2008 edition of Altered Couture by Stampington & Company.

And then go on a hunt

for a hat of your own

to transform and transfix!