Easter & Spring at Decorate To Celebrate!! :)

**It's time again to decorate your celebrations with a Challenge at Decorate To Celebrate!!**

For Challenge #47, we are asking you to create any project to be used as a party decoration (or party supply) for an EASTER GET-TOGETHER, PARTY or EVENT!!  Let's celebrate EVERYTHING WONDERFUL ABOUT BUNNIES, CHOCOLATES, GOOD FRIDAY and THE RESURRECTION with your table decorations, party banners, pennants, yard signs, cupcakes, party favors and more!!  :)  Link up your project over at Decorate To Celebrate before 11:59pm (EST) on Tuesday, April 2nd to be eligible for YOUR CHANCE to WIN one of Rhonda's Mini Albums!!

Here's what I made for the challenge...

For my first project, I made one of my lighted glass blocks....  

The-Sweetheart drilled a hole in the base of the glass block so that I could put a string of white lights inside...  I like using the frosted blocks because of how soft the lights look when it is lit...

I found lots of beautiful flowers and accents to add to the top of the block -- I hope you think it's as bright and cheerful as I do!!  :)

I also made some of my hand-painted wooden signs in pretty Easter and Spring colors...

These are my two favorites -- "Show Me the Bunny" and "Oh, for Peeps Sake"...  tee hee...  Each sign was painted white before I hand-lettered the signs and then passed them off to The-Sweetheart to finish off with stain...  I then decided to add an extra touch with a homespun bow and a bit of white bittersweet...

Finally, I created a sweet arrangement that will be perfect on a table or shelf!!  The bottle is an up-cycled jelly jar that was painted ivory before I filled it with a spray of greenery, flowers, and bittersweet...

I wrapped the jar with a length of burlap and tied a homespun bow to the front...  I also added a sprig of bittersweet and a little purple flower with some greenery behind the bow...  I hand-lettered the "Spring Thyme" tag and pinned it to the bow with one of my "rusty" safety pins...  

And finally, I added one of these cute little feather butterflies to the arrangement...  It looks like it's getting ready to fly away because it's attached to one of my homemade "Wiggle Wires"!!  :)

I hope you've found some inspiration to join our new challenge over at DTC!!  For even MORE great ideas, be sure to stop over at the challenge blog to see what all of my wonderful DT sisters created -- Then, link up YOUR new project so we can come and check out your creation!!  :)

I'm linking up my Easter Signs at: 

1. Craftin' Desert Divas Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party #2... 

I'm also linking each of my projects at: 

1. Anything But a Card Challenge #15 - Spring or Alice in Wonderland 
2. Love to Create Challenge #57 - Anything Goes  
3. Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #107 Happy Easter...

I'm also joining the following Linky Parties:

1. D.L. Art's Thankful Thursday March Linky Party 
2. Everyday is an Occasion Sunday Funday #7
3. One Artsy Mama Shine On Fridays #72
4. Create. Craft. Love Keep Calm and Link Up #33

Until next time,

The Leprechauns Made Me Do It!! Decorate To Celebrate Ch#46: St. Patrick's Day

**It's St. Patrick's Day at Decorate To Celebrate!!**

The Leprechauns are coming, the Leprechauns are coming!!  Hip Hip Hooray, the Leprechauns are coming!!  :)

I know I've said it before...  St. Patrick's Day...  Is. A. Big. Deal. At. Our. House.  When I say it's a Big Deal, I don't mean that we kinda sorta like it...  I mean that it's BIG...  Like Christmas. And Mother's Day.  And the Fourth of July. All wrapped into one...  I'm pretty sure we started planning for this St. Patrick's Day last June.  Or May.  Or maybe even Mc-April.

When you have a child whose favorite color is RAINBOW, it only seems logical that St. Patrick's Day would be fun for the whole Mc-family.  Right???

If your cereal cabinet is bursting with the Lucky Charms and you greet your co-workers with a "Top o' the morning" each day, then St. Patrick's Day is like a celebration of life and all that is worth Mc-living for...  Right???

Come on, admit it...  You put a "Mc" in front of YOUR last name on St. Patrick's Day too, Mc-RIGHT??? :)

And that is why, for the next week or so, I plan to give you a little Mc-peek into some of the goodies that have found their way into our home to celebrate...  I hope you'll stop back by to see all that's in store...

For now, here's my Mc-inspiration for today's new challenge...

I created some St. Patrick's Day Decor Signs with some of my favorite Mc-sayings to celebrate the holiday!!  :)

Each sign started as a knotty piece of Mc-pine...  And even though my brother, my dad, and The-Mc-Sweetheart usually ban me from the power tools in their workshops, I managed to happily sand all of these my very own self (yes, with the power sander -- I even got pretty sawdusty in the process for those of you who are reading in disbelief that I got Mc-DIRTY!!)...  No, I didn't get to use the table saw or circular saw to cut the signs to just the right size, but I also got to keep all of my Mc-fingers (besides, letting him cut all these signs for me makes The-Mc-Sweetheart feel EXTRA useful!!)...

I painted the fronts of each sign with some "Shamrock Green" acrylic paint, then gently sanded the edges and sides (to remove any excess Mc-paint)...  After several hours, I was able to hand-letter each sign and hand-paint the light green shamrocks and accent dots on each sign...  When they were all dry, The-Mc-Sweetheart took care of staining each sign for me (because I'll never be interested in playing with the Mc-stain!!)...

This sign here would be my Mc-FAVORITE for the holiday...  Should anything go down on St. Patrick's Day, I can ALWAYS blame the Leprechauns!!  :)

I hope you've enjoyed my collection of St. Patrick's Day Decor Signs...  I'll be sharing another REALLY FUN Mc-project soon, and I'd love for you to come back and check it out!!

Now... if you create a decoration or party favor for a ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARTY or EVENT, be sure to Mc-JOIN US over at Decorate To Celebrate! for Challenge #46!!  Come help us celebrate EVERYTHING WONDERFUL ABOUT LEPRECHAUNS, SHAMROCKS, RAINBOWS, and POTS O' GOLD with your table decorations, party banners, pennants, yard signs, cupcakes, party favors and more!!  :)  Remember, you have until Tuesday, March 19th at 11:59pm to link up (you can do that HERE) and be eligible for YOUR CHANCE to WIN!!  I can't wait to see what you create!!  :)

Thanks again for sharing in my St. Patrick's Day excitement...  Here's hoping you have a Mc-wonderful March Day!!  :)

I'm Mc-Linking my signs up for the following challenges/linky parties:

1. Craftin' Desert Diva's Craft It Up & Link It Up Party -- Anything Goes

2. Anything But A Card -- Green, Irish, St. Patrick's Day

3. Everyday Is An Occasion -- Sunday {Fun}day #7

Until next Mc-time,

Paper Playtime Ch#5 -- So there's this doll... And she sent a card... :)

Hey everyone!!  I'm so glad you stopped by today!!  It's time for another FUN challenge over at Paper Playtime!!  It's an "Anything Goes" challenge, so be sure to pop over and link up with us!!  :)

Paper Playtime Ch#5 Anything Goes

Begins: Mon, Mar 4

Ends: Sun, Mar 17

Prize $15 Gift Cert. from The Robin's Nest

I can't wait to see what you link up!!  For inspiration, here's what I created for this challenge:

So there's this really amusing story that goes along with my card here...  You see, I grew up with Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls as well as a host of other "rag" dolls, so I'm pretty used to seeing them...  And my mom's decor is primitive country, so it's common for her to have little rag doll decorations tucked on shelves around her home...  BUT, there's this one doll...  And there's this one guy (let's just call him The-Sweetheart)...  And this one doll seems to have a CRUSH on The-Sweetheart!!  Really though...  The-Sweetheart doesn't so much "like" these little rag dolls...  I think it's because he's watched too many scary movies in his life because, when he saw this little doll on my mom's shelf, he said, "Hey, Aim...  I think that doll is looking at me!!"  I rolled my eyes and giggled a bit (because OF COURSE it's just a doll!!)...  And then The-Sweetheart says, "Hey, Aim...  I think that doll is carrying a head around in that little bag of hers!!"  To which I nearly spit my sip of water across the table before replying, "Um, Sweetheart, that little bag is just a little sign and it says LOVE, so I don't think she's the type to tote heads around!!"  After another bite of food, some big-eyed staring at the doll, and a glance back at me, the pellet stove in the corner made a loud squeaking noise that sent The-Sweetheart jumping out of his chair yelling, "Hey, Aim!!  I think she's coming for me now!!"  Sigh...  Shaking my head, I retrieved the doll from her corner on the shelf and brought her to show him that she had no legs to run after him...  I then assured him that the squeaking noise was merely the pellet stove motor, and he had nothing to worry about.  I don't think he was convinced.

The next day, when we got back to my mom's house, we found the doll like this:

After hearing the story of The-Sweetheart and his reaction to this sweet little doll, my mom found a little paper bag to hide her, um, "scary" face from The-Sweetheart.  We had a good laugh about it (especially since my mom thought she had seen The-Sweetheart looking cross-eyed at the doll that morning over his cornflakes)...  She actually thought it might be more amusing to move the doll around the house like the Christmas Elf...  I thought the bag might cause fewer heart attacks for The-Sweetheart...  But I did find a digital stamp from Dustin Pike that reminded me so much of the rag doll that I had to "help" her make this card for The-Sweetheart!!

Tee-hee...  I colored her with my Copics before matting her on red and white cardstock then added three little red gems... 

Since this was supposed to be a card for The-Sweetheart from the doll, I found a perfect little sentiment from K Andrew Designs "Of Mice and Little Men" set that says "Thanks for noticing me"...  I mean, that little rag doll got more attention than she could have ever imagined!!  :)  

The-Sweetheart didn't laugh quite as hard as we did when he received the card...  After jumping a little at the resemblance of the doll on the front of the card, he mumbled something about his "creepy little secret admirer" and tucked the card out of sight...  Tee hee...  

As for the doll...  She's enjoying the view from atop her shelf (bag-free again) while convincing the rest of us that it really IS the pellet-stove making that high-pitched eerie noise from time to time... And whenever The-Sweetheart comes to visit, she gives him a wink and pats her little bag...  :)

Thanks again for stopping by to see my card...  I hope you enjoyed the story and inspiration and will have a chance to show us what you've made for the challenge!!  Be sure to stop back by on Wednesday to see the first of my St. Patrick's Day goodies...  I'm so excited to share them with you!!  :)

Until next time,