Mother's Day Ribbon Banner

If you know me at all, you know that my favorite crafts take just a few "ingredients". This one calls for a couple sheets of accent scrapbook paper, 3 sheets of colored cardstock (or less), a coordinated ribbon (I prefer grosgrain), a 3 inch circle punch, 2 inch scalloped circle punch, double sided tape, a stapler and a computer printer.

My accent paper is Sandylion/Disney 'Mini Flowers' design (RMDWSCB83, the same I used for my Paper Pyramid favors). For the cardstock, I chose bright pink, peach and yellow. Then I printed the letters of "Happy Mother's Day" on all three sheets, using capital letters in the Diamond font at font size 54. Don't forget to add an apostrophe after the letter 'R'!

The 3 inch accent circles get stapled to the ribbon, then the cardstock circles attach to the 3 inch circles with double sided tape, covering the staple.

The ribbon loop at the top of the hanging ribbon is not a knot (hee hee). I cut a separate piece of ribbon, about 7 or 8 inches, and made a figure eight with it (stapling its center), then tucked the hanging ribbon over that staple.

Hang one in the doorway of a mom you love:

I folded my banner and tucked it inside a cardstock favor box from Dollar Tree (8/$1) and put on a few foam flower stickers to fancify it.

I leave you with my favorite quotation on motherhood, by Mildred B. Vermont:
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs, since the payment is pure love.

Happy Mother's Day to all you great moms out there!

Two Dulcet Darlings

This weekend, with both days with heavenly temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s, we took the girls to our first Renaissance Festival. There was the requisite headlining act of jousting between two noble knights,

an array of sideshow street performers throughout the day - aerialists, jugglers, contortionists,

a petting zoo and an exhibit of rescued birds called 'Parrots of the Carribean'.

The most thrilling part of the event is that we met ROYALTY! The rest of the world can "ooh" and "aah" over William and Kate in London, but my two daughters were rubbing elbows with King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn right here in the USofA!

I was not expecting them to be so cordial with us commoners. What was even more adorable was they had a little ceremony to induct all the fair maidens to become 'Princesses of the Realm'.

First, they had to learn how to properly curtsey to the queen.

Then the queen herself taught them the secret (shhh!don't tell!) poem for them to address their subjects:
"Elbow, elbow. Wrist, wrist...

Touch your crown, and blow a kiss."

The little lasses were so intent on the queen's instructions. They all wanted to get it right. (All except for one hungry maiden, who was NOT abandoning her roasted corn on the cob, even when the queen was handing out their princess proclamation scrolls.)

I hadn't heard the royal poem before. Maybe that's why my legion of two are so insolent! At least they still blew their 'Queen Mum' a kiss.