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Monday, March 28, 2022

Signs of Life!

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I love these days where spring just goes completely NUTS in my yard. This weekend, the mountain laurels bloomed - if you're not from Texas, this is a STUNNING dark green tree with waxy leaves that produces purple cluster flowers that look similar to wisteria, but more vibrant, and - WAIT FOR IT - they smell like grape koolaid! 

I also saw a few of my frozen plants start to come back - my Mexican petunia, which I was certain was a goner. My selloum, my seedum, a miraculous, impossible to kill jalapeno. My datura somehow is making a comeback as well, and my Lucifer Crocosmia. Right before the series of freezes, my sister gave me some irises we both thought were purple. They bloomed this week and they are a glowing bright white and are just stunning. We worked hard to protect our chile pequin bush - we built a structure, wrapped in plastic, put Christmas lights inside it and strapped a heavy moving blanket  on top. And while the top of the bush did get frozen - it's alive and well. 

I'm starting to understand why people with even small gardens can. Gone are the days I could make pints and pints of marmalade from my now dead tree. This past fall I dried a ton of herbs and froze a lot of my home grown veggies. You just never know!

I saw my first monarch today, and all the sudden the wasps and bees are going crazy. All that to say - YAY! I love the critters that come to life this time of year. So I decided to make a card that shows the business of even a suburban yard this time of year. It's funny - the name of the stamp set even matches my feelings :).

I used this gorgeous stamp set and dies - stamping most of the images in black, except the grasses, and colored them with alcohol markers. ALL the images are stamped on white, but I used a marker to edge them after die cutting so they have a little glow. The grasses are stamped in Jellybean Green, Fresh Asparagus and Key Lime, and then colored. NOTE - I don't worry about using dye inks with alcohol markers - you can see the result is just fine. 

You already know how I feel about mushroom stamps, so I was super happy to see these. 


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Beautiful Backyard
[ GNK ]
Understand Blue Slimline Folded...
[ CTC ]
Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3...
[ CTC ]
Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1...
[ CTC ]
Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2...
[ CTC ]
MISTI Stamping Tool
[ MSP | SSS | ELH ]
Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -...
[ BLIC ]
Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC
[ ELH | SSS ]
Crafter's Companion GEMINI...
[ SSS ]
Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring...
[ SSS ]
Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,...
[ ELH ]
CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear...
[ CHC ]
Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp...
[ ELH ]
Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045
[ SSS | CST ]
Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies
[ ART ]



Go outside and enjoy your beautiful backyard. Loveyameanitbye.

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