Of cabbages and Kings

Actually, gentle reader, this is about Brussels Sprouts and Princesses. OK, not real Brussels Sprouts, and the Princesses in question are the girls that I scrapbook with. See, we do a secret Santa for Christmas and of course, we make each other beautiful cards to go with the gifts. Except I don't. I can't remember which year it was precisely, but I was very sick of making cards and so I made each of the gals a small gift that included a tag. The tag says what a card would say, right? Well, this year, Baker Ross sent me a pack of round craft baubles to play with.

I did some research. (I looked at a lot of baubles on a lot of trees in some lovely shops.) I decided that I would go sophisticated. Paint the baubles with a lovely deep rich green, maybe add some gold mica, wrap ribbon around and top each one with a lovely wired ribbon rosette. Sounds terrific doesn't it? Well of course it does. And of course, it didn't happen!

I found myself painting dictionary pages with a green squirty paint (from the stash of no-longer-sprays that I specialise in owning). Then I ripped the pages up and used PVA to adhere them to the baubles. Takes a bit of patience coz of drying time (yawn), and for some, it's a bit messy. Ask me how I know. On the plus side, once it's dry, PVA is easy and fun to peel off your hands!

Suddenly I'm not stressing about perfectly formed rosettes. I'm ripping half moon shapes from the painted pages and layering them onto the baubles as if totally inspired. It was fun!  I used them as tags on the little treats I gave the girls. Because they are loyal friends and extremely good crafters, they recognised them as paper Brussels sprouts. Actually, the PVA glue was a great choice too...it dries rock 'ard, so these are some of the strongest sprouts. It means that the gals will have to hang them on their trees for decades to come, in case I pop round to check!