Birthday Cards

Happy Summer! It’s officially Summer now and the sun is shining bright and people are taking advantage of the outdoors. It’s a nice break from being inside all of the time for so many months.

The kitchen is still being worked on so another week still from being able to do some nice baking. I thought it might be nice to look at some of our favourite birthday cards that we have created. We haven’t been able to craft together for some time now so it will be nice to take a look at some of our favourite creations. I picked birthday cards in honor of my Grandmother who turns 93 today!

Enjoy and be inspired.

Penguin Day

Happy Thursday! This week we are looking at another national day, National Penguin Day. It’s quite fitting because we have been having quite a bit of wintery snowy weather, just what most Penguins love! I love Penguins. They are just so cute and cuddly looking so I am very excited to be celebrating this day.

Take a look at some cool Penguin facts so that you are ready to celebrate the day which is January 20^th.

·         Penguins are aquatic flightless birds.

·         Most penguins reside in the Southern Hemisphere but there is one species that lives North of the Equator, the Galapagos Penguin.

·         Most Penguins are a combination of light (white) and dark (black) shades which helps them in the water. They are countershaded for camouflage.

·         Penguin’s wings are like flippers for swimming in the water.

·         Penguins like to eat krill, squid, different fish, and other sea life.

·         The largest species of Penguin is the Emperor Penguin and the smallest is the Little Blue Penguin.

·         The larger Penguins tend to be found in the colder climates and the smaller ones in the warmer climates.

·         Male Penguins are called cocks, female Penguins ate called hens, and a group of Penguins on land is called a waddle and a group in the water is called raft.

·         The word Penguin originated from the Italian word Pinguinus.

·         There are many Genus’ of Penguins and even more Species.

·         Some Species of Penguins are...King, Emperor, Chinstrap, Little Blue, White Flippered, Galapagos, African, Yellow Eyed, Rockhopper, Royal, and Macaroni Penguin. And that’s not all of them!

·         They are distantly related to the Puffin.

·         They have a thick layer of insulating feathers to keep them warm in the water

·         They can drink salt water because they have glands that filters the excess salt from the bloodstream.

·         Even though the climate is similar to the South Pole, there are no Penguins at the North Pole!

·         Large populations of Penguins can be found in Anglo, Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa.

·         Most Penguins lay two eggs per clutch and all share in the incubation process.

·         Penguins have no fear of humans and often will approach humans with no fear when they come in contact. This is possibly because they have no land enemies in Antarctica.

Also, take a look at some neat Penguin crafts that we found along with a few cards that we have made in the past featuring Penguins!

https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/paper-penguin-craft/

https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/penguin-bookmark/

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/heart-penguin-craft-1253177

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTpasha.html

https://gluesticksblog.com/preschool-penguin-craft/

Crafting with the Colour of the Year

We are still in the Ultraviolet mood so we came up with a

fun quick and easy craft to keep it with you all year long. I had so much fun coming up with little bookmarks for the craft fair that I thought I’d come up with one that utilizes shades of purple. I made sure to get in the Ultraviolet shade which is the base of the bookmark that has a nice blue undertone to it.

This is a super easy craft to do especially if you have scrap pieces of cardstock and pre-punched and stamped shapes.

I took a piece of dark purple cardstock. Make it whatever length and width that you wish. Mine was shorter and not too wide.

Then I glue taped a strip of a lighter shade of purple and then an even lighter greyish pastel purple strip over that.

I punched out two purplish greyish blue one inch circles and then one about two inches for the center. I then glued them on evenly.

Lastly, I had a dark blue stamped and embossed flower which I glued on the middle circle. I thought blue would look nice amongst all of the purples plus it really brings out the blue tone from the darkest purple.

We also thought that we’d look through to find our purplest cards that we have made and share those with you in honour of Ultraviolet. Enjoy.

Christmas Traditions #1 -Cards

Ah! So October is over already and we’re on a countdown to Christmas already. Each year we do quite a few weeks of countdown to Christmas blogs and we’ve chosen Christmas traditions this year. Each week up until Christmas we’ll look at a tradition and explore it a bit and the places in the world where they are most popular. It’s only fitting that we take a look at a tradition that we are most familiar with and that is Christmas cards!

The tradition of giving out Christmas cards is largely dominant in North America and Europe (the UK in particular). The first Christmas card was created by Sir Henry Cole in 1843. A big tradition of the time was writing Christmas letters. It’s said that Sir Henry Cole had so many letters to answer from all of his friends that he asked a friend, who was an artist, sketch out a picture that he had created in his mind on cardboard which he had a greeting printed on. He then addressed each card with a personal little note and sent them off to all of his friends and that was the first Christmas card. Of course since then the Christmas card has changed and evolved greatly. You can find so many different types of cards each and every year. Some have cute little creatures on them, some are sparkly, some have beautiful scenes, some are 3D, there are so many to pick from. You’ll also see official Christmas cards that are sent out by the White House and the Queen. Another popular thing is charity Christmas cards in which the sales benefit a specific charity. A neat little fun fact is a that Jaqueline Kennedy painted two designs for Christmas cards which benefited the Kennedy Center; Hallmark still sells those designs each year because of their popularity. 

This year we’ve designed a new Christmas card. We’ve put a modern non-traditional spin on it by using bright different colours. So take a look, and see what we've come up with!