I can sing a rainbow [and buy one, and gift-wrap it too].

 

 Hi hi.

 

If you caught my rainbow craft tutorial last week then today's post will explain a little more about why rainbows are on my mind right now. And it's not because of St.Patrick's day tomorrow ... because, until last week, I didn't know rainbow crafts were a big thing for that ... no, here's the reason why I've been chasing rainbows in the last few months ...

 

It's that time of year again, when I head off to a converted barn in the most picturesque of countryside locations. Think Spring lambs gambolling in rolling fields; think dry-stone walls and trickling brooks; think waking to the sound of cows mooing in the milk shed; think having to walk to the end of the drive to get any kind of reliable phone reception.

 

Both the route to the phone signal and the whole crafting-weekend-away is a well trodden path by now. Our March 2015 trip marks the 12th time I've been away with the same group of friends, to the same area of the North Yorkshire countryside, and every year we've had something of a running theme for the weekend.

 

And every year we wonder if maybe we should maybe stop picking a theme.

 

Then every year ... we pick another theme!

 

So far our themes  - which have an effect on everything from our menu to our projects and also the gifts we buy to exchange - have included: Afternoon Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland [remember me in that dress?!!!], Halloween, Easter, Christmas [both in November and March ... which thereafter became known as Marchmas] and America. And our latest was: the Rainbow.

 

And so, no sooner had we finished with our Christmas theme during last October ['Octomas' didn't catch on] then we were thrown into plotting and planning to hunt out:

• 7 suitable gifts,
• one in each of the colours of the rainbow [the ROYGBIV version] 
• with a maximum spend of £10.

And so ... after some bargain-hunting and colour-seeking here's what I ended up buying:

• A RED Pritt-Stick.
• A box of ORANGE scented toiletries heavily reduced in the post-Christmas sales. [They're called Orangegasm; so clearly we're not the only ones who like to glue two words together to create a new one a la 'Marchmas'!]
• Rolls of washi-tape in YELLOW and GREEN.
• Flowers in BLUE felt and INDIGO paper, and finally ...
• A packet of fudge sweets  ... because the packet was VIOLET!

I thought it was a decent mix of something that [hopefully!!] smells nice with some useful crafty bits that whoever gets my gift can use while we're away; plus some sugar to keep them going if they feel like crafting until bedtime!

The second half of the task was to wrap each of the gifts in matching colours and fortunately I had a pack of issue paper on hand to help me with that part:

Then I dropped everything into a kraft gift bag which I customised using patterned papers [the rainbow fish design is actually some Paperchase wrapping paper I've been saving for about a decade!]:

And, of course, the tag is the one I made using the rainbow embellishment from my tutorial last week. If you missed the tutorial last week, here it is again, just click the image to be taken to it [it should open in a new window for you].

By now [this is a post I've scheduled ahead of time] not only will those 7 gifts be in the hands of their new recipient ... I too will be on my way home with a rainbow of gifts in my bag.

And as our thoughts turn to what the theme for next time might be ... I feel it's only right that we should go for gold ... after all isn't that what you're meant to find at the end of a rainbow?

----------------------------------------------------

 

I know that my group of friends isn't the only one that takes itself off for a creative weekend at this time of year. So do feel free to share any blog posts you've written sharing your springtime crafting adventures in the comments and we can all drop by and compare converted barns and  craft projects!

Julie :-)