Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Happy April Fool's Day

Why a fish to say Happy April Fool's Day?  We Americans don't have half the fun with this holiday as our friends in Europe, especially France where you might discover that a friend has pinned a paper fish to your back.    The idea is that witless young fish in April are easy to catch, just like the person who is the target of your April Fool's prank.

Postcards featuring fish were all the rage for April Fool's Day greetings in France in the early 1900's and are very collectible today.  I'm not exactly French (as far as I know, my only French ancestor arrived here in the 1700's) but the idea of April Fool's Fish is too good to resist using it to wish a Happy April Fool's Day to my Land of Blog  friends.

I've visited France many times but was never lucky enough to be there on April 1 when you can buy all sorts of fancy goodies shaped like fish.  This is not France and so far nobody has offered to exchange elaborately wrapped chocolate fish.  Never mind.  I'll just go out and buy myself some Gummi fish in a plastic bag.  And eat them all.  Now you know my secret: I can resist anything but Gummi treats  (well, and Johnny Depp but don't tell anybody about that.)

Here are a few more  Poissons d'Avril cards to
enjoy:

A fishy version of the age-old  "Loves me, loves me not" game.  Looks like there might be some love there in the center. What do you think?



 What's this?   A Steampunk-style fish?  Just goes to show you there's nothing new under the sun.  And they didn't even have Photoshop back then.  Or did they???    Somebody had a grand time creating this wonderful postcard. This one is my favorite.

That's all for today.   Come back tomorrow to see a domino doll I created for a Yahoo group that specializes in domino work.
    And have a Happy April Fool's Day.
    Eat some candy fish and smile!   I did.

Want to learn more about this custom?   Here are some good links:
Poissons d'Avril in France 

Yummy Chocolate Fish

Friday, March 26, 2010

Star Mini-Book to Celebrate My New Camera

I love to make little books so this is a perfect project to show off the new camera my son gave me.  The old one is still hiding but the new one is even fancier.  Thanks Jeff!!!    And it was a perfect thing to create for my husband's birthday.   Each page celebrates something about him.  Some of the pages are interactive.   And the last page is a pop-up birthday cake.  I'll post instructions about making them   Can you guess how I made the little flower on page 5?