A Collection of Thoughts

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- Day Five + Special Offer

Friday night - my favorite night of the week and I have to say this is my favourite project too- I have had this in mind from the very beginning. I hope you love the concept.

While we are not huge Valentines celebrators as such - you know the typical husband response - commercial nonsense - ANYHOW  I am decorating this year as you know and my girls are huge fans of wring me love notes. They usually consist of I love you Mumma and snuck next to my bed or with a cup of tea in the morning - its so sweet. So I thought of making it something we really try hard to do during the Valentines week- and Richard has to play too.

I have decorated 4 little white paper bags with sweet tapes from Kyoto General Store - Skye and Pip have the best stuff - but more on that soon -

I also added  some alpha stickers- one bag for each of us

and hung them on my little doilies hanging spot which I use for favourite post cards or nice mail - photos - whatever takes my fancy. So at the moment it has my little bags.

Next I put together a basket of trinkets - cards some precut notes, stickers - tape  cute Miffy pens  bling and pearls:) and have placed it on the table near our bags.

The idea is that through the week before valentines we all have to write one another some sweet love notes -as many as we like - and I'm particularly going to get the girls to write something if they have had cross words and pop them into the bags.

Then on valentines day we will open up  them up and read them all.
I’m so excited about this - and so are the girls. Richards saying does he really have to add bling to his notes? I said no only if he feels like it. I'm guessing that won't be the case.

I hope we end up with some nice ones that I can scrap. It will be a lovely keepsake don’t you think?

Now if you’d like to make your own using the same tape

Skye has kindly offered all my readers 30%  off all orders until Valentines day (promo ending midnight 14.02.2011).

You  will need to enter discount code love is in the air.

AND she’s also offering the first 10 orders a free miffy love pen ....just cause she was  in the mood to share the love around!

We have these pens and they are just too too cute. Sof wanted to take hers to school but I won’t let - mean mother I am - I don’t want her to lose it :)- and besides it looks so cute in my basket of goodies.

 I’d love to know if you set up something similar at your home and how it goes :)

 Don’t forget to pop over to Mel’s blog too today for her last project. I know you’ll love it.

Over the weekend I have one or two more things to share  as I’m not quite finished with  my decor yet!

Hip Hip Hooray for Valentines :)





 

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- Day Four

 Welcome to Day Four - Todays post is a little special treat just for you:) In the busy day to day stuff that happens around here its easy to get lost in teh shuffle. You spend all your time doing for others and nothing much happens for you - or you become last on the list.

So for this valentines I suggest you carve out a little time for yourself. Back in our Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays the girls made some baths salts - so I asked Tals to make some more this time just for me - She made them red for valentines - the rules are they are just mine. She popped them into a  coffee jar and added a doily and some red hearts.

All I have to do now is light some candles and grab my fav mag and close the door.

I intend to.

 Even better the jar has multiple baths in it so I get to do it more than once.

 YAY for creative girls who can follow simple instructions and like to do stuff for their Mumma.

 

Ingredients

• Epson salts
• Sea Salt Crystals
• A few drops of almond oil
•  Orange Oil
• A few drops of red food colour

 A clean jar

 Doily, paper hearts and some red cord to decorate

 

Method

Mix together the two salts - In a seperate bowl add the wet ingredients mix then add to the salts.   Work the colour through.

Spread onto a baking tray and leave to dry out for  a few hours or over night preferrably.

Seal into a clean jar

Decorate your jar

Add to a warm bath

Light some candles and relax.

Don't forget to pop to Mels blog - she has another project for you today too :) See you tomorow for one more project and a little surprise :)

 

 

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- Day Three

Hello and Welcome to Day Three. The girls and I had lots of chats about what treat we should make for this Hooray project- and they came up with many ideas! But I made them focus on just one thing and they came back to cupcakes - Sorry I know we do make alot of cupcakes in our house - I think its because they are so yummy - but also because they are easy to transport and give away too!

So today's post focuses on a cute idea for decorating your cupcakes.  Fortunately for my colleagues its a someone's birthday at work tomorrow and we are having morning tea -so they will be munching on these ones and we will be making more closer to the big day to share with neighbours and friends.

The same basic recipe that we use for all cupcakes

• 1 cup sr flour
• 90 grm butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• dash of vanilla

 This makes a dozen ish ( or double it for two dozen if you need a class of them )

 for decorating you will need

• icing sugar
• water
• red food colouring

• patterned paper
• heart punch
• toothpicks

 

 Ice your cupcakes - Using a thin paint brush - paint  hearts using red food colouring

 I just pop a few drops into a bowl - and I drew a heart to see how easy it was to do- very easy!

 and for a second idea

Punch two hearts per cupcake topper -  stick together with glue onto the toothpick and pop into your cupcake

Yum these will be so nice at morning tea tomorrow with a hot cup of tea:)

Don't forget to pop over to Mels blog - today she has a cute way of wrapping up those gorgeous hearts they made!

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- WINNERS

I have drawn three random numbers ...

drum roll

Nicole (scrapper_au76@yahoo.com.au) has left you a comment:

This is such a simple idea but SO effective. I can imagine that lovely tree staying up all year, and just changing the decorations to match the season or event. . . . . I am off to find my very own sparkly (or not so sparkly) tree! ! ! !

 and Lucky Winner No 2

Jaki (ourboyroy@yahoo.com) has left you a comment:

I love this idea, and the thought that it can be used for so many occasions throughout the year! I will be keeping an eye out for something suitable for sure.

and Lucky Winner No 3

Lee Mills has left you a comment:

Hi there, hope I am not too late to enter the competition - LOVE, LOVE the hearts!!! I have been glued to the tv all day as I baked (Taylor's birthday tomorrow) watching the cyclone unfold....poor QLD enough is enough!!! Having lived in Cairns for a year we have lots of memories and friends - special thoughts and prayers to all xx

 

 Thanks for entering - email me your addys so Richard can get your hearts in the mail to you tomorrow :)

 Back later tonight with my latest  Hip Hip Hooray Post

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- Day Two + Giveaway

Day Two of our Hip Hip Hooray Posts :)   Today we continue with our paper loving -  remember yesterday Is said we are creating a little space  of decorated goodies :) - Now we are adding to that little space.

A couple of years ago I found a glitter tree at a home deco store. It's old gold glitter - so not yellow gold more silvery gold if that makes sense.  One of the things I love about it is that I use it LOTS for decorating our home. It's easy to add things to and it always looks sparkly and pretty. It's definitely not a purchase I regret - even though at the time Richard said what one earth is that for LOL.

If you don't have a glitter tree - then perhaps just go for a little walk and find a tree branch- spray it or leave it all natural:)

We just had ours decorated up for Chinese New Year -and this week I didn't even put it away before switching things around and adding paper hearts.

 So while I had my papers out the other day making hearts for my layout - I cut out 21 more  for my tree.

 


 
Punch a hole in the top and threaded some wax string thing each one

 

 

and add to your tree.

 aggh so hard to get a nice photo - but you get the idea.

Hidden down the bottom is our  love Cassie - She is modelling  a gorgeous new outfit from The Stitched Bluebird.- designed for Chinese New year but perfect for a our valentine decor too.

Ok onto my giveaway

Today I have not one set, not two sets but three sets of  paper hearts to give away - - a variety of papers :)- all valentiney and gorgeous

All you will need to do is punch your holes and add your waxed string - which I will provide too.

Now let’s make this a super quick give away -  leave a comment here before 8.00pm tomorrow night ( Qld time ) and I‘ll draw three lucky winners to receive some hearts in the mail.

Aus only please as I’d like to get them out to you straight away.

 Don't forget to go visit Mel's blog too- Today  Bella has made the sweetest project I love it so much I'm getting my girls on to it this weekend!

 

Special Offer

As a very special offer for our lovely Hip Hip Hooray readers, Quilt Fabric Delights have put together another super deal for you all, running until Friday 4th February 2011:

20% off all orders!!

You will need to enter the following code at checkout to receive your discount:

Valentines

Go HERE to start shopping!

Enjoy

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines- Day One

Welcome to our  week long posts for Hip Hip Hooray for Valentines. Mel and I had so much fun bringing you our holiday edition we are back again with some projects filled with love.

This week I'll be sharing quite a few paper crafting projects. I used in total about 8 sheets of coordinating papers - keeping the left over bits each time to use on the next project. So do pop them to one side as you will use them up!

We have a mix of adults and children projects to suit you as well.

To kick off I have a layout for you. I have started setting up a little corner in the family room to display all my treats I am making and this layout is going there too :)

 For this layout you will need

•  4 sheets of  coordinating patterned paper
•  adhesive
•  5 x7  landscape photos
• some ribbon or cord
• decorative scissors or a punch to make a scalloped edge
• rhinestones
• alphabet letters
• hole punch

 Choose your papers

Cut three of your patterned papers to be strips of approximately 2 inches wide

 Scallop one of them if you have a decorative punch or scissors.

Cut 9 or so  hearts from the same papers - I have a cutter but you can just hand cut a heart shape if you don’t have one

Layer your strips  down the bottom of your layout

 
Cut a mat to fit the size of your photo

Add your photo to your layout

 

 

Layer your hearts over the top

Add your title and add some rhinestones at the bottom of each heart

Hole punch down the side of your photo - and thread through some ribbon or cord

Tie the top in a bow and pop the bottom through to the back

 

Hang up somewhere to begin your Valentine display :)

Don't forget to pop over to Mels blog to see her first  project too- hand made stamps :-)

See you tomorrow night for our next project .  Make sure you let your friends know that we are running our series again.

Hip Hip Hooray For Valentines

Hooray! It's time for another Hip Hip Hooray series :)

This time around Mel and I are bringing you something special, just in time for Valentines Day.

Beginning January 31st for five days we'll be sharing some fun and creative crafts (all focused around the love theme) and there will be a mix of children's and grown up crafts this time too.

We're super excited to share this series with you all, I hope you'll enjoy following along. New blog buttons to share will be available in the next few days !  Spread the word :)

Hip Hip Hooray for Valentines