Spring Crafting

Spring decorating this year began with St. Patrick’s Day. After seeing these “shamrocks” on The House That Lars Built’s Instagram account, I decided to make one for each dining room window. I put shamrocks in quotes because they actually start with 4 leaf clovers. And then when I saw a video on Instagram of an umbrella made in a similar way by Ann-Sophia Garcia, I decided to make one for one of the Spring trees. The umbrella starts with circles that are folded in half and then half again, glued together, and then opened up and glued together. I couldn’t tell how many circles she used, so I searched for more directions and ended up using nine. The House That Lars Built also has directions for eggs that are made using this accordion method, but they call for something like 64 half oval shapes, so I don’t think I’ll be making those!

Last year, I made a peg doll to represent a Påskkärringar – the young Swedish girls who dress up as witches on Easter Thursday and go from house to house begging for candy. Then I started to wonder what the Swedish boys were doing – didn’t they get to dress up and get candy, too? Well, it turns out that they do. Some also dress as witches and some dress as Paskgubbars – Easter Old Men – in “their best and blackest suit, a large fake mustache, and any old top hat laying around in the attic” according to the website scandinavianstandard.com which includes this photo.

So I decided my Påskkärringar needed a little brother. (I know he looks like the Monopoly guy!)

I’ve been wanting to make some felt flowers for the end of the hall, and after I took the class on wet felting flowers, I bought some fiber thinking I’d try wet felting and needle felting some. I hadn’t gotten started on those when I saw some felt flowers on Instagram made with felt sheets and hot glue by Resa Curbo Creative, which I thought might look even better. Resa sells patterns and bouquet kits, and I thought it made sense to start with a kit, so I ordered the Wildflower one. The flowers were easy to make, and I love the way they turned out!