Hearts 'n Things

Coming to you from Portland

I was inspired to get crafty for Valentine's Day after reading the February issue of Better Homes & Gardens - That is where all of these ideas came from. Click here if you want to see more ideas from BHG and get templates for these crafts.

These are just single servings of different candies/snacks that have cute little messages on them like "I Love You to Pieces" on the Reese's Pieces or "We're Mint to Be" on the York Peppermint Patty.  It was actually kind of difficult tracking down all of this candy in the perfect size to fit the templates I printed off of the website.  In the end I made some adjustments on a couple of things anyway. 

This is my favorite one: "I'm Bursting With Happiness That You're My Friend."  I just bought some little 3x3 ziplock bags to put the Starbursts in, folded the message over the top and secured it with double stick tape.

These are just large Hershey's dark chocolate bars that I wrapped in Valentine paper, ribbon and cut-outs.  Craft Warehouse had a miscellaneous package of paper cut-outs that said things like "Made With Love" and "All Love is Sweet, Given or Received."  They just added a little something extra to the design.  (Side note: Ribbon is very expensive! In order to get a variety I had to buy most of it by the yard and even that added up.)  I also bought the paper in a variety pack along with a few 12x12 sheets.  Paper is also really expensive and variety packs are usually the most cost-effective. 

I also did a few miniature Hershey bars.  After I purchased them I realized that the small ones come in plastic packages instead of paper and foil, so I had to wrap them in foil myself, but it turned out to be really easy - just like wrapping a present. 

I like this website, because it gave a lot of good ideas for things to get men for Valentine's Day which is always difficult - it's not really a holiday designed for men.  This is a homemade scratch-it and it was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be (go here for directions).  You just print off the template and write something into each of the hearts like 30 min. back massage or home-cooked dinner.  Then you trace the heart shape four times onto some contact paper ($7 a roll and I only used about 1/1000th of it! But now I will have it for a lifetime) and paint over them with two coats of a mixture of dishwashing liquid and metallic paint.  Then you just cut out the heart shapes and pull the clear part from the paper like a sticker and stick it over each of the messages you wrote in the hearts.  Add a shiny penny and you have the perfect homemade gift.

This is another easy gift for a guy.  I just went to the store and bought a nice case of beer with a red label.  Then I wrapped it in Valentine paper and velvet ribbon and added a little tag with a message. I also covered the handle with some white paper so it matched.

These are sugar cookies I made using a recipe from the website that I wrapped in cellophane and sealed with paper and ribbon.  They are not frosted, but I added some pink food coloring to the dough to make them more interesting.  All I did was cut a piece of paper to slide in behind the cookie and another one to fold over the top.  Then, using a small craft hole punch, I made two holes through the paper and cellophane and then strung a ribbon through and knotted it in the front.

Unlike Michelle I was not bombarded with Valentine's (I think I just got one from my mom and someone from work), but it really doesn't matter, because I had so much fun making everything, and I got to spend my Valentine's Day with the Trail Blazers :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

coming to you from pullman

another Valentine's Day has come and gone.  i was very pleased with my valentine's day cards this year and happened to have a great Valentine's day myself. i haven't mailed out my valentine's day cards yet, so some of you reading this can expect a card in the mail soon.  this year  i had a valentine's day card making party with Liliana.  here was our set up

things were a little more organized this year with all the tupperware - but not much.  even though i have all my craft supplies in tupperware, it's not organized within the tupperware so it still got to be quite messy.

These are all of Liliana's cards

and all of my cards!  let's break them down...

this ended up being my favorite card.  quote of the night: "does this look magical like a butterfly made it?" Liliana thought that was funny, but I was being serious :)  Anyway, some crafty people may experience this or perhaps it's just me, but sometimes i will buy things to use in crafts without having a particular project in mind, but i think that they are so pretty that i never find a project worthy of them.  well, the butterfly stickers fall into that category.  I have had them for 5 years.  it was my goal to try to use some of these "forbidden" items and I was successful!  these little hearts are from my heart punch that cuts out a big heart with a little heart punched out of the middle - that way, with each punch your get two different hearts to be crafty with; it's a good deal.

these were my "3-D" cards.  I thought that this wouldn't work at all, but my Elmer's glue turned out to be way more reliable than i had given it credit for.

these are all the cards i used stickers for.  the black letters with the white background stickers, are the kind you get at hardware stores - like to put your house number on your mailbox.  I got this, and a larger set from ACE hardware and so far I love them. they are perfectly simple.  The plain black stickers are the ones that I bought from Staples for my "I can't do this but I'm doing it anyway" project.  And the red label sticker is from my awesome DYMO label maker.  it came with 2 black roles, 1 red role, and 1 green roll of labels.  I have already gone through a whole black role.  once you get a DYMO label maker, you will find a lot of uses for it.  I got mine at Staples.

this was my card for Liliana.  I used my dinosaur paper!  (one of the "forbidden" craft supplies) 

these were the cards that i started making near the end of the night when i realized that it was getting really late, and although i love my friends, i needed to put less thought into the cards i was making them so that i could go to bed.  i really liked how they turned out.  i free-styled the hearts, which i think gave a nice quality to the overall look.  i also used some "forbidden" paper (the teal with glossy embossing).  they were perfectly imperfect and i loved them!  I have already thought of a couple of classmates that i forgot to make cards for, but hopefully all my friends know that i love them without me putting a card in their mailbox on valentine's day :)  These are the valentine's that I got this year:

plus all the valentines I got from Julie in the mail.  plus a candy valentine from Becca and Stacie that i already ate...plus a valentines cookie from Teresa.  it was a good haul this year and the most eventful Valentine's Day I have had in a while. 

Love is in the air

Coming to you from Pullman

Valentine's Day is coming up.  I'm sure you can expect an awesome blog post from my sister since yesterday I received a package full of clever Valentines from her.  They were so punny.  :)  (punniness runs in the family).  I also have a couple of Valentine's "parties" coming up - making cards, baking things shaped like hearts, painting hearts on our nails...i also have a heart shaped egg ring if we want to get really crazy.  remember last year?

that was a cluster.  still fun...but my crafting has become much more organized since this time last year.  Valentine's Day is such a good opportunity to do crafts and to randomly give all your friends a cute little card.  Even though I love making Valentine's Day cards, I have only actually celebrated Valentine's Day conventionally once; most years it's just another day of the week or a night to go out to dinner or drinks with my friends (last year a guy from the Globe Trotters asked me out at Rico's...haha).  When I was little Dad would get us baskets with candy and sometimes a little gift like a movie.  One year I got the movie Happy Accidents, which has turned out to be one of my favorite movies.  Anyway, here's a little taste of what this weekend may entail...

Courtesy of Pinterest of course.  I think I'm supposed to link each individual item here, but it's late and that would take so long.  Sorry Internet etiquette.  That "pinterest" link is to my Valentine's Day board so you can access all these projects.  Anyway, so much to be excited for this weekend.  And maybe I'll do some homework too. Have fun crafting this weekend :)

Kitchen Remodel

Coming to you from Portland

This was only a one day project for me, but my dad spent all weekend building these custom shelves.  They are stacked, open-style cupboards for a kitchen.

The open space on the right is where the fridge will slip in.  I sanded over all the places that had been filled for imperfections in the wood.  Then three of us lifted the shelves up to the wall and finally after about five attempts we got them installed.  There was a vent on the wall that made it impossible for us to place it in at an angle.  My dad had to cut out the back of one of the shelves so we could slide it striaght in.  He will later have to build a false back to replace what he cut out.

The open space straight ahead in this picture is where the stove is going.  We had to position the shelves on each side just right so that they were only about one sixteenth of an inch away on either side from where the vent and the stove are going to fit in.



A list makers dream come true

coming to you from pullman

Do you like to make lists?  My life practically revolves around it.  Most aspects of my life could be traced back to a list...things to do today, things to do this weekend, things to do this semester, things to do this year, goals this year, favorite things, favorite songs, songs i want played at my wedding ceremony (hypothetical wedding of course), books i want to read, movies i want to watch, things i want for my birthday, things i want to blog about...i think you get the idea.  it's out of control.  maybe it's how "P" people make sense of the world, although i know that "J" people tend towards lists too - perhaps it is the one thing that transcends the "J/P" dichotomy, something we can bond over, something that connects us.  (if you are starting to think that i'm speaking a different language, go here.  MBTI has given me a lot of insight into my own personality, but also how i interact with other people around me and helps me to identify the source of an interpersonal problem and seek a solution.  it's not just about knowing your "letters"...mine are INFP.  but i digress). 

Anyway, what's got me all excited about lists right now you ask?  CorkboardMe!  A fellow alumni of mine from high school, Tim, has been working on this website (i'm not sure what he does exactly...he's a programmer maybe?  yes, probably.  definitely an engineer of some kind i think.  i must work on my facebook stalking skills.  he was my drum major in marching band.  we went to band camp together.  Good times.)  so obviously we're facebook friends and i see all these status updates...Corkboard this and Corkboard that, and i finally paid attention.

Surprise!  it's a virtual corkboard where you can keep all your sticky notes.  finally.  there are lots of functions including some that i haven't quite figured out yet. 

this is a part of my corkboard.  so far, i love it!  i hope that you can find some enjoyment in it too.  go to their website to start your own.  i would recommend that you check it out and start making some lists. do it!  okay, that's all.  i know some list makers out there that are going to flip over this :)  in other news, this weekend is going to be epic ...first installment of 2012 New Years Resolution