Since having Maggie, I've looked for fun rainbow spots to snap quick St. Patrick's Day pics. The first year, I happened upon a little pot o' gold. A wall painted with a rainbow on it.
We returned the next year.
Poor Mags was sick on this visit, so we only snapped a couple of pics and then headed home.
This brings us to 2015. It dealt our rainbow work a double blow. 1. The wall had been painted a pathetic shade of everyday gray. Bummer! 2. I was pregnant and home with an IV much of the time. The combination of these two things put this year on hold.
Last year, I had two kiddos in tow, which meant less energy and less desire to seek out the magic rainbow, so I decided to create my own with our sweet friends using balloons.
This year, it was paper to the rescue. I had just received a box of goodies from Close To My Heart, including a gorgeous assortment of paper offering a full spectrum of color, so I set to making paper chains.
Once complete, I threaded them on a yardstick, which I hung above my table. My paper rainbow makes a nice St. Patrick's Day decor element and also a fun photo backdrop for this year's pics.
Since I was feeling lucky and had some pretty new Close To My Heart products on hand to play with, I continued to set the stage with some table fun.
First, I covered my kitchen table in kraft packing paper. Then I set to decorating. I framed each spot at the table using the CTMH gold glitter tape and stamped our names using CTMH stamps.
Wanting our decorated table to serve two purposes--fun and memory keeper--I drew rainbows across each taped "place mat" so we could write what we feel lucky to have. I loved helping Maggie make her list. What a doll she is!
Time for the fun! I gave Mags some colored pencils and let her color her rainbow in.
I used CTMH cardstock in three shades of green to create a little pop on my table. Fist, I cut cardstock hearts in small, medium, and large sizes, and folded the smaller two sizes in half to create a center crease.
I then stitched along the crease to create the pieces of my clover. I pieced three heart stacks together to create a shamrock. A little stamping along the hand-drawn stem, and I was ready to welcome the luck o' the Irish.
I used the Some Kinda Wonderful stamp set from Close To My Heart to create the #lucky tag.
I love the end result. I will definitely snap pics to save it in my scrapbook.
Since our sweet Lulu is too young to create a rainbow, she stamped a clover with her bitty thumb.
Time to add our St. Patrick's Day treats to make the table time complete.
Oh, and I've found another way to use the 3D clovers when our table is cleared. I'll send a little luck on to others. I used the same CTMH #lucky stamp, masking the outer frame around it.
I stitched a vellum bag on the inside, creating a pocket for some chocolate coin.
Speaking of gold coins, I created a few four leaf clover bowls from cardstock to hold my coins and other sweet treats.
To create these, I first cut larger paper hearts, cut a slit, pulled the heart onto itself, and stapled it in place to create each clover petal.
I then used a scrap of cardstock as a base and glued the petals in place.
Once all four petals were in place, my clover dish was ready for it's pot o' gold!
Maybe I should move this to the living room, where I made a rainbow garland, with gold on one end and happy cloud on the other. The rainbow is made from one of my favorite crafting supplies--felt beads!
The "gold" was punched from Close To My Heart glitter cardstock. I then stitched the pieces together using my sewing machine.
All in all, it was fun crafternoon, making rainbows in our home. I look forward to pulling these pieces out year after year to make March a little more fun for my girls.
May the luck of the Irish be with YOU this spring.
Cheers!
