A Few of My Favourite Things!

If there is anything you need to know about me, it is that I love chocolate.  Dark, milk, and even white (if I am in a pinch), chocolate is definitely one of my favourite things!

But truth be told – it is not the top of my list!  So, when I set out to use a wooden chocolate kiss shape as the foundation for a mini-album, I knew exactly which favourite things I did want to feature – my little family!  So out came the camera, a bit of lipstick, and with a bit of convincing, my models let me take their pictures with bright kisses on each of their cheeks!

Let me back up for a minute – this piece was actually part of a CropChocolate challenge, and I wasn’t too excited about the project right off the bat!  I really wasn;t sure what I was going to do with the wooden kiss, but as part of the DT, I wanted to be supportive of the challenge.  So, with some creative consulting with my hubby (the man is really creative – he really puts my craftiness to shame…but don’t tell him I said that), we decided to break out of the mold (literally), cut the wooden kiss in half, carve out portions to add a brass heart and turn it into a mini album…so how did we do?

Here’s a bit of a step-by-step of how the project took shape

This is my oldest daughter – she even did a kissy face for me!

 

…and this is the little one!

And of course…the brains behind the operation! Each picture has a hidden journaling pocket too!

Crate Paper’s Cottage collection was a fun choice for this chocolate inspired project!

Now, I have to tell you that we didn’t win the challenge, which was a bit heart breaking because there was a Cameo up for grabs!   But this is a project that I am really proud of for two reasons – the first is because I think we really did create something unexpected and beautiful.  More importantly though, this is a project that was really team effort for my family - we created it together!  So in the end, it is a project that not only celebrates my favourite things, but it also helped me to build more memories with them!  Cameo or not, I don`t think there can be any loosing here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower tutorial – A Mum for Michele

The other night, fellow CropChocolate design team member Michele was encouraging us to get going on a project for the weekly challenge at CropChocolate. So, I thought I would take this chance to create a flower that was inspired by Michele (classic colours, with a bit of sass and spunk), and put together a tutorial for you!   I have actually seen a number of flowers of a similar shape popping up on Pinterest lately, all of which seem to be made with felt.  But you know how I love my pretty paper, so I thought I would use the paper cone trend to come up with my own version of this ”Mum-like” bloom (and with Mother’s Day around the corner, what better time to make some pretty mums ).

Here’s how you can create one too:

Step 1

Cut 12 – 1 1/2″ square and 11 – 1″ square (this will yield a flower with a 3″ circumference).  You can vary the size if you want a different size bloom, just remember that the smaller you go, the more challenging it is to roll the paper cones.

Step 2

Take each of your paper square and roll them into a paper cone with a point at the back end.  I tried to keep mine fairly uniform, but don’t worry about this too much – remember, flowers in nature are all one of kind!

Step 3

Punch a small 1″ circle (or cut one free-hand – you will not see it once the flower is complete so don’t worry about how it looks), and start gluing down your 1 -1/2″ cones in a circular pattern.  I used my glue gun, but any quick dry adhesive will work.  If you have varied the size of your squares, place them all down first to determine your spacing and to see if you will need more squares to fill in the spaces.

Step 4

Once you have finished all of your large paper cones, start layering the smaller ones on top placing them in the spaces in between the larger cones.  Continue in a circular pattern as you did with the first layer.

Step 5

Take a 1″X6″ strip of paper, fold it in half and fringe cut along the folded edge. This will become the center of your flower.

Step 6

Roll the fringed paper and glue the end.  Use your fingers to spread out the fringe at the top edge.

Step 7

Glue the fringe into the middle of the flower with your glue gun, glue dot, or any other quick drying adhesive.  Voila!  A beautiful bloom ready to adorn a card or even packaging (this would make a beautiful bow).

So there you have it – another paper flower to add to your repertoire! I am off to CropChocolate to post this finished card into the weekly challenge!  I might even pop on over to the DoYouStackUp blog to enter it into their weekly challenge since it is all about stripes!  Thanks for stopping by, and always, I would love to see projects you might create with this tutorial!  Leave me a link below and I will be sure to check it out!!  Have a great week everyone!