True Love Marquee Heart

My little girls name is Rose Manawa (which means Heart in Maori) and when I saw the Heidi Swapp marquee heart light come out before Christmas, I decided I would get one for her new bedroom.  I'm not much of an OTP scrapper, ok, I'm not one at all, but this year I really want to mix things up and do some different projects.  I'm all about the challenge - not always a good thing!

The Paper Teapot has the new Kaisercraft range called True Love which is aimed at Valentines day but has lots of lovely florals so can be used for lots of things, including a marquee heart light for a little girl.  

Three pieces of paper were used for this light: My Baby, My Darling and My Sweetheart. Firstly I used the template to cut out the heart shape using the My Darling floral paper. I wasn't looking forward to cutting out the holes as I don't have a hole punch but I found that my Tim Holtz retractable knife worked really well (and I hate using craft knives). My first thoughts when starting this project, was that I didn't really know how much was going to be too much, so I wasn't entirely sure if I would use the floral paper for the insert but I love it!

Next I cut strips of paper from the other two pieces, one lot was 1 inch wide and the other was 2 inch wide. I wasn't sure how these would work around the edges so used double sided tape rather than glue to prevent wrinkling. Halfway through doing this, I realised there was the inside to do as well, guess I could have left it white but it looks cuter all covered.

When I purchased the heart, I also got the pink globes and I am as yet undecided if they are a bit much, but Rose is only 3 and she is girly so I reckon they are fabulous for now. I wanted to test it on a wall (because it's a heart right...no flat bottom to stand it up on!) but we are camping out at my sisters at the moment and I couldn't find a hook anywhere. So here it is, being held up to the wall for testing purposes...no lights as I need to get batteries.

The verdict: "Is it for me? I wuv it" with a cuddle. Gotta love the littlies.

Little Barista

For mothers day one year, I was the lucky recipient of an espresso maker which is perfect for a coffee addict.  Liam loved to watch me make coffee and wanted to help so over time, he was allowed to help, from grinding the coffee, to tamping it down and even (carefully) turning the water on.  It usually wasn't as strong as normal but I really appreciated him wanting to join in.  One day I am sure he will be as much of a coffee lover as I am haha!  I love coffee, probably a bit much, and I now really prefer to drink one particular blend from a particular brand.  I am not sure when this came about, but over the last year, it has be come more obvious to me that I just do not enjoy any other!  

Kaisercraft's My Year, My Story has cute little die cuts in black and white that are needing to be coloured, and one of them happened to be a tea cup.  Well....I'm not a big tea drinker but I thought if I popped something over the teabag that it would look like a coffee cup! 

I was using the 6x8 paper pad so pulled a sheet of white cardstock from my stash as well as a piece of patterned paper to mat on and decided to create a diagonal layout from top left to bottom right.  I had to cheat and use two sheets of the spotty paper to make a full length strip and then messy matted from some of the other papers.  I seem to be quite drawn to coral and teal as they are also colours I choose for Liams clothes a lot, and recently I brought a bunch of tea towels in these colours.  Gorgeous!

I pulled out collectibles in the colours and some bits from my stash that worked well.  I really liked how I stuck to the two colours plus white and might try this again in the future.  Finally, I used my Yasutomo pearlescent watercolours to colour the little cup in, I think I need some practise!  

 

Products used:  Kaisercraft My Year, My Story 6x8 paper pad, collectables;  Amy Tangerine puffy stickers, Letter stickers; Cocoa Vanilla Life is Beautiful Ephemera pack; Crate Paper Hello Love paper pad; Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolours; Heat punch, EK Success 2 inch circle punch.

Best Day Ever

In July we took a trip down south to Invercargill and took the scenic route through Wanaka, then back up along the coastal route through Ashburton.  We had seen the cool looking playground at Ashburton a few times and I had even stopped there previously but due to one child sleeping, didn't get out.  As it was a 'scenic drive' home, we figured that we would stop and check it out and let the kids stretch their legs and have something to eat.  The kids LOVED it and Liam declared it was the best day ever - which got me excited as there are so many 'best day ever' elements in scrapping and I always feel it is a hard thing to use...how can there be so many best days ever?  Well, since then, there have been a lot of best days ever, so maybe it is an age thing now I have a school boy! 

I had planned on using some other paper for this photo but the beautiful Cocoa Vanilla Free Spirit was calling to me!  I actually mixed it up with some of the older Hello Lovely collection, I love that they work well together.  I am thinking it is a little dangerous that there are so many delightful embellishments that are coming out with the collections; I used the woodies, puffy stickers, enamel shapes and ephemera pack on this layout.  I am still hankering after the sticker sheet and the cute little buttons but I am telling myself that I cannot have it all.

Products used: Cocoa Vanilla Free Spirit Word Jumble, Wildflowers, My Way, Puffy Stickers, Woodies, Ephemera, Enamel Shapes;  Cocoa Vanilla Hello Lovely Life Story, Lucky Dip, Sticker Sheet; Doily; White Cardstock.

Rose and Santa

There is a tradition in my family to get a photo with Santa each year.  I'm not sure how old I was when we stopped getting them but I am determined to get as many as I can.  Unfortunately, Liam is just as determined not to get too close to the jolly fat guy.  This time I pretty much begged him to get in the photo so I could scrapbook a page, but even that didn't work!  So here is my darling wee madam who will likely always want to get in the photo with Santa.

For this layout, I used my beautiful collection of Fancy Pants Wish Season papers and various tags and ephemera.  I also used from Pink Fresh alphas and stickers.  We are in the process of moving house so I was limited with what supplies I could realistically bring with me a. on holiday and b. to our temporary accommodation but I was pleased with how this turned out, especially since I also created this sitting on a bed!