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. 

Famiy Christmas Card

Coming to you from Portland

I know this is cruel, but she is so cute!  This is the picture we used for our Christmas cards.  She always runs away from me when I grab one of her outfits, but once I get it on her she stands completely still, which makes her easily maneuverable.  All we had to do was upload the picture onto the Walgreens website and choose from one of their Christmas borders.  It was $10 for each set of 20 - a very simple way to pump out your cards a week before Christmas. 

To-Do List Champion

coming to you from pullman

this weekend feels super unproductive, because I didn't really get much studying done.  I was working diligently on my to-do list however...and watching Mad Men episodes.  I actually really like making lists and I don't really know how I would get anything done without them.  Amanda got me this amazing book to make lists in

  

I saw some other books like this at Paper Source in Portland on 23rd St (lovelovelove this store).  Those pages are from the lists "Bad things you did as a kid" and "Most memorable friends from you past."  Anyway, I was going to tell you everything that I got done on my to-do list, but when I wrote it down, the list seemed short, so I will tell you about a couple of crafty things that I did.  I made this card

Will this be my "signature"?  I'm feeling it out.

I don't find that there is any one approach to making cards.  I really just get out every single art supply that I have and hopefully something comes to me.  Things that are good to have:

• Cardstock for the actual card part
• ribbon is always good to have
• Inspiration from google searches or from cards at the store.

You just have to go for it and see what works and what doesn't.  Here are some Valentine's Day cards that I made for V-Day 2011.

 

I create a similar sized mess to when I "minibook", but since my last minibook event, I have made some changes to my art supplies organization system so that I can go from this...to this in under 5 minutes.  My paper bins are organized into scrapbooking paper pads, scrapbooking paper pre-cut into 5x7 rectangles, miscellaneous paper scraps, magazine clippings, & stickers.  I have one big bin that holds all the supplies that I use the most and a smaller bin that hold all of my stamps and ink pads.  Other bins contain miscellaneous art supplies that I do not use as often.  This has made crafting so much easier.  Someday, it would be nice to have a table set aside for projects like this so that all of my supplies were within reach and I would not have to move them around. 

 

 My other project is secret - to be revealed once this package makes its way to Amanda.  This package will be en route to the greater Seattle area starting tomorrow.

Listening to

Something Borrowed soundtrack

Life As We Know It soundtrack

Take Me Home Tonight soundtrack

Say You Like Me by We the Kings 

Watching

Psych Season 5 (season 6 premieres October 12th!)

Mad Men (I'm trying to make it to Season 4, because Matt Long is in 7 episodes.)

Bend it Like Beckham has been moved to the top of my Netflix queue, because there was a trivia question at trivia night on Tuesday about this movie, and although I got it right - and was one of the only questions we got right in that category - everyone was appalled that I hadn't seen it. 

sunday afternoon project - organize cards

coming to you from pullman

most of sunday was spent organizing my papers (huge stacks have accumulated), art supplies, old class notes.  this involved buying a lot of Tupperware.  one project in particular was to organize my cards.  I have lots of unused cards and think that maybe if they were organized, i would actually use them instead of running to the store every time i need a card.  i have a card for probably every occasion...just hard to find.  so, had great idea to organize them.  set up camp on my bed so that i could watch a movie at the same time. 

 the "before" picture.  drawer of cards on the left
including a "happy boss's day to the top banana,
from one of the bunch" card that i think my boss
will appreciate (boss's day observed on Oct 17th
 this year - don't forget!); supplies on the right

 addy helped throughout the entire project

 dividers cut and ready to go; my labels were: thank you,

blank, Christmas, invitations, misc. holidays, misc.,

stamps 'n things, and envelopes

some of my favorite "misc." cards were an "I will miss

you" card that never made it to it's intended recipient -

unused, but I remember who I bought it for, and an "I'm

so happy you said yes" - well, to that effect anyway, and

they actually said "no," which is why I still have the card.

 this is where addy chose to spend a large

portion of her time during the project

finished!  very pleased with the final result.

watched no strings attached while i was organizing my cards.  the second movie in my weekend movie marathon (just go with it, no strings attached, and something borrowed).  it was more rom than com.  not a waste of a dollar, or whatever they are charging at red box these days.  some of my favorite moments were when he made her a period mix, when she said he gave her premature ventricular contractions (although i think what she meant to say, was he gives her an AV block; premature ventricular contractions feel like a skipped beat, but it's actually an extra beat that is initiated in the ventricles instead of the SA node; AV block is literally your heart skipping a beat...or two.  i'm sure she wasn't being literal.  As a side note, to this aside, i am having premature ventricular contractions as i write this from having too much coffee), and when he told her she eats like a baby dinosaur.  also, kevin kline was in it, which was awesome.

happy crafting!

countdown: 4 days until fall