St David's Day Greeting Cards and Gifts

St David's Day (March 1st) is less widely celebrated than St Patrick's Day, but even so, it is celebrated by the Welsh community in Patagonia as well as in Los Angeles, amongst others, some of them listed here!

Unfortunately, although the devolved Welsh Assembly in Cardiff wants to respond to the wishes of the people of Wales, who would like their national Saint's Day to be a public holiday, the Westminster government refuses to agree to it. Nevertheless, a great many Welsh people find ways to celebrate St David's Day with eisteddfod's, male voice choral concerts, flying the Welsh Flag, wearing Daffodil or Leek hats or parades in Welsh traditional costume!

What could be more typical of Wales than a girl in the traditional Welsh costume, with its tall black hat, red cape, black skirt and lots of white lace? This is just a small selection of the St David's Day greeting cards and Welsh Girl gifts in my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru Zazzle store, many of them ready for you to customize.

Click on the image to see the full 'Welsh Girl' collection - 

Cute Welsh Girl St David's Day Gifts and Cards  

So who was St David, the Patron Saint of Wales? 

You can read what little is known about him here. But in spite of knowing so little about him, the people of Wales are very enthusiastic about celebrating St David's Day - Wales is, after all, a Celtic nation and they have a tendency to be pretty passionate about everything they do. It seems to be in the DNA - and, by the way, that's probably why I wholeheartedly support the Welsh Rugby team, in spite of being English - even when Wales play against England. It's infectious!

A few years ago, I designed and printed St David's Day greeting cards with collage Red Dragons and they flew off the display stand in local shops!

More recently, I've designed more Red Dragons - like many artists, I find them irresistible to draw! Curious about how the Dragon comes to be a symbol of Wales - a sheep might be more appropriate, as there are more sheep than people in Wales! - I did a bit of internet searching. This is what I found - Red Dragon - The Red Dragon of Wales. 

However, picturesque though the dragon is, I think the choice of a dragon for the main Welsh national emblem is purely symbolic. When I was researching St Carannog for another of my illustrations for the Lost Angeles celebrations, I discovered that in many myths and legends it was customary to represent any wicked, bloodthirsty warlord as a dragon.

Not that my most recent dragons are in any way wicked or even fierce-looking!

Here are just a few of my Greeting Cards and Gifts with a Red Dragon, one of the best-known symbols of Wales. You can find many more greeting cards and gifts with a Welsh flavour in my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru store. 

Click on the image to see the full 'Red Dragon' Collection -

Red Dragons  

I mentioned that some Welsh people wear 'daffodil' hats, not only on St David's Day, but there are many to be seen in the crowds at the famous 'Six Nations' rugby tournament in the springtime, whenever Wales are playing. There are often giant leeks to be seen as well, another of the traditional Welsh emblems! Why daffodils? And even more puzzling, why leeks? 

Well, I was intrigued by this - Wales seems to have so many special symbols, surely the humble leek isn't necessary? So I did some googling and what I discovered is included in this earlier blog post - it's quite a tale!!!

Daffodils are one of the national emblems of Wales, along with the Leek, the Harp and the Red Dragon. So one of these 'Daffodils' St David's Day cards might make a welcome change from the usual Red Dragons! Also the 'Daffodils' gifts would be welcome at any time of year and there are plenty more to choose from in my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru store on Zazzle.

Click on the image to see the full 'Daffodils' collection -

Daffodils for St David's Day

A couple of years ago, I decided to open a specifically 'Welsh' store, Posh'n'Painterly Cymru, on the Zazzle platform. 

And the wide choice of Welsh symbols set me off designing more greeting cards and gifts that incorporated them, including this one that features them all -

Here's the blog post in which I launched them and you might be interested to read some of my observations about Wales, having only moved here from England quite late in life. 

So here are just some of the many Greeting Cards and Gifts with the traditional Welsh Symbols in my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru store:

Click on the image to see the full 'Welsh Emblems' Collection -

Welsh Emblems  

Living in Wales seems to provide me with a multitude of inspirational images that I can draw on for my greeting card and gift designs! 

There are, of course, the traditional Welsh Tapestry designs - 

Click on the image to see the full Black and White Welsh Tapestry collection -

Black and White Welsh Tapestry Patterns  

Lots more, in different colours, in my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru store!

And then there are my Silly Sheep!

Click on the image to see the full 'Silly Sheep' collection -

Silly Sheep  

One of these cosy Throw Blankets would make a wonderful winter gift!

Click on the image to see the full 'Throw Blanket' collection -

Throw Blankets with a Welsh Flavour  

And then, of course, there are the Coffee Mugs, some with the text in Welsh!

Click on the image to see the full Welsh Coffee Mugs collection -

Welsh Coffee Mugs  

Not forgetting my special collection of Welsh 'Gifts for Him'!

Click on the image to see the full 'Welsh Gifts for Him' collection -

Welsh Gifts for Him  

And taking off my 'Designer's' hat in favour of my 'Painter's' hat, here are some prints and posters from my original soft pastel paintings of Wales -

Click on the image to see the full collection of 'Fine Art Images of Wales' -

Fine Art Images of Wales

I hope you've enjoyed this 'taster' from my Posh'n'Painterly Cymru store. 

And I wish you a very Happy St David's Day, wherever you are and however you spend it!

Daffodils for a Beautiful Spring Colour Scheme

This clump of mixed varieties of daffodils and their soft green leaves creates a wonderfully typical Spring Colour Scheme, set off beautifully by the purplish grey of the wall in the background - 

Spring is not my favourite season of the year - I love the late summer and I even enjoy a lot of aspects of winter (apart from the bigger heating bills!) 

Years and years ago, I used to paint watercolour landscapes and they were almost always winter scenes. I love the muted browns and purples in the winter hedgerows and copses and I also like the mellow golds and browns of late summer into autumn. The spring landscape, on the other hand, seems to me too strident with its brilliant yellow/green foliage - a colour that somehow seems to irritate me. 

But I do love daffodils, especially the ones that are almost white - maybe because of the soft green of their leaves.

If I were using the colour palette above for a decorating scheme, I'd probably stick mainly to the three more subtle colours in the bottom row, with maybe some of the pale yellow and white above - and then introduce either the brilliant orange or the bright yellow as an accent.

How about you?

Greeting Cards and Gifts for St David's Day . . .

. . . over on my other 

blog

Easter Parade -

There’s a saying, ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. 

And when I look at the Easter Cards I’ve designed for my online stores, I wonder whether maybe that could apply to me! 

I’ve used no fewer than nine different mediums – though when trying to define my ‘signature style’, people told me that no matter what medium I used, they would always recognize my work - though nobody told me what it was that they recognized and maybe I'd rather not know!

I wonder whether that’s true of this hotchpotch of Easter Greeting Cards that I’ve made into a kind of ‘Easter Parade’ – or whether it really matters?

(of course there's also some digital input in the borders and lettering on all of these Easter Greeting Cards)

Watercolour

Easter Daffodils Card, From Our Home to Yours by helikettle

Gouache

Spring Flowers Easter Card for a Grandmother by helikettle

Watercolour Pencils

Easter Card with Pink Hyacinths by helikettle
 

Pen and Wash

(Ink and Watercolour)

Easter Bunnies Card for a Grandson by helikettle
 

Soft Pastels

Easter Greeting Card, Riverbank in Spring by helikettle
 

Oil Pastels

Scarlet Tulips Customizable Greeting Card by helikettle
 

Hand-painted Paper Collage

'Spring Garden' Easter Card - French Greeting by helikettle

A mixture of Hand-painted and Digital

Daffodils and Polka Dots, Easter Card by poshandpainterly

and finally - a Photograph

Easter Card with Daffodils and Church by helikettle

The trouble is, I get bored sticking to one medium and when there are so many to choose from, it seems such a waste not to try them all!

I don't think very many Easter Cards are sent in the UK - at least, I don't know anyone who sends them. But if you are looking for Easter cards to send, there's a good chance you'll find something you like in my Easter Parade of different styles!

Click

HERE

for more

EASTER CARDS

and

Easter Bunny Mugs

The Arrival of Spring and with it the Golden Daffodils

Top right: my watercolour daffy-down-dillies pattern
Bottom row: all the various coordinating patterns
Top left my faux-patchwork pattern using the original desing and some of the coordinates

So now we’re well into March and Spring is definitely well underway here in South-East Wales! 

Lesser Celandine springing up everywhere at the moment -
these are nestled at the foot of one of the mature trees in
Bailey Park, just across the road from me.

A couple of questions have been on my mind and searching the internet has only provided me with partial answers. Maybe you can help me out with the second one?

Forsythia in my rather wild
front garden

Question 1 – why are so many of the early spring flowers yellow? 

There are primroses, crocuses, forsythia and of course, the 'host of golden daffodils' that Wordsworth celebrates!

A Google search quickly revealed that bees and other flying insects are attracted to yellow and that helps the plants to pollinate and ensure the survival of the species. (Later in the year, when flowers are more multi-coloured, the centres, where the pollen is held, are still invariably yellow).

This also answers the question of why my yellow crocuses are pecked to death by the birds, whereas the purple ones are left free to grow undisturbed – the birds are after the insects that were attracted to the yellow flowers!

Here you can see the damaged remains of the
yellow crocuses in contrast to the thriving purple ones!

But I couldn’t find an answer to my second question –

Question 2 – why are the yellow flowers normally followed by blue and purple ones? 

Voilets, bluebells, purple crocuses, harebells, irises - and of course this wonderful purple Aubretia, that has escaped from my garden and attached itself to the huge hedge of evergreens that runs down the side of my house.

My runaway Aubretia thrives on the outside of my hedge where it gets plenty of sun.
Don't you just love flowers that spread outside of their boundaries, sharing
their loveliness with passers-by! (I'm training my climbing roses and honeysuckle to do that too.)

I'm sure Mother Nature has her reasons for blue to follow yellow! 

Anybody know the answer?

 

Click

HERE

to browse more

Daffy-down-Dillies

gifts and greeting cards

Spring Sunshine to celebrate Norooz and the Vernal Equinox!

Spring Sunshine Repeating Pattern and some coordinates

What a change in our weather! 

The interminably long and stormy winter has given way, at last, to warm, dry sunny days with brilliant blue skies. Spring has definitely arrived here in Wales!

It’s already our ‘meteorological spring’ – that one began on March 1st. But there’s another week to go before the Spring Equinox on March 20th, which most people regard as the start of Spring. And that falls around the same time as the Persian New Year, Norooz, which you can read all about here.

Chic Turquoise Lumbar Pillow: Daffodils Polka Dots by poshandpainterly
 

The start of spring seems like a very good time to celebrate a new year, with all the new beginnings in Nature appearing! 

But it’s a very busy time for the greeting card designer! Not only do we have St David’s Day Cards, Easter Cards and Mother’s Day cards to work on, as well as, maybe, March Birthday Cards – it’s also time for our St Patrick’s Day Cards . . .  and then there’s Norooz to think about as well! 

Custom Front St David's Day Daffodils Card by poshnpainterlycymru

Daffodils Norooz Card From Our Home to Yours by poshandpainterly

Mother's Day Card, Daffodils and Check Gingham by poshandpainterly

  

Daffodils and Polka Dots, Easter Card by poshandpainterly

Mother's Day Card, Daffodils and Polka Dots by poshandpainterly

Daffodils, March Birthday Card to Personalize by poshandpainterly

St Patrick's Day Shamrocks Card to Personalize  
   

    

Just as well I designed mine while the weather was still wintry, before I was tempted out into my garden! 

Chic Jumbo Coffee Mug: White Polkas on Green Jumbo Mugs by poshandpainterly
 

   

But it was only when the rain eased off and the temperature began to rise that I thought about making a Spring Door Wreath! 

It would never have occurred to me if it weren’t for Pinterest and it was only because I found an old wreath base amongst my Christmas decorations that I began to take the idea seriously. 

When I looked more closely at the base I’d found, I decided it would be a shame to remove the dried flowers from it and, with a bit of refurbishing, it looks quite at home against the white boards on my landing.

So, having decided not to use this wreath base after all, I set about looking online to see where I could buy a new similar base – and immediately came across some excellent instructions for making my own!

How to make your own wreath base

(instructions from 'Modern Country' a blog that I'll definitely be returning to!)

I have plenty of honeysuckle and ivy in my garden to provide the materials. 

The honeysuckle opposite my kitchen window is where the sparrows congregate for a gossip and the blackbirds have even nested in it a couple of times so I would have preferred to take what I needed from the ivy!

But knowing how tough ivy is when I try to remove it from places where it shouldn’t be spreading to, I was really surprised to find that it was more inclined to snap than the honeysuckle. 

Here are a few photos of the various stages to prove I did actually make it from scratch - which still amazes me!

Sorry about the difference in colours - it is the same wreath
but I changed to using my 'proper' camera for the final pics
because I'm not yet very good at taking photos with my phone!

Wrapping the last ‘binding’ round was slightly scary – I was sure the stems would break. But I found that as long as I bent them gently, a little at the time, they cooperated perfectly. (I also talked soothingly to them and I'm sure that helped!)

When I tried to photograph the (almost) finished wreath on my front door,
the flash made the Edwardian glass panels sparkle so much it really detracted from the
wreath - so here it is, hanging from a picture hook in my bedroom!

(A florist in town, where I bought some of the silk flowers, told me that Old Man's Beard (clematis vitalba) from the hedgerows is excellent for wreaths too.)

So have I inspired you to make your own Spring Wreath - from scratch? I hope so and if you do, THIS is where you need to begin. 

I'm sure you all know by now that I'm no perfectionist and patience isn't my strong point; I lose interest in anything that can't be completed in a day or so - painting, dress-making, wreath-making . . . so if I can do it, I'm sure you can too!

And I'd love to see how they turn out if you'd like to send me your (low-res) photos to include in a future blog post! 

.........

Click

HERE

to browse more of my

Spring Sunshine

greeting cards and gifts

 

Daffodils Pillow or Cushion: Faux-patchwork by poshandpainterly
 .