Sending Some Love

Finally it is the middle of the week and that means the weekend is getting closer and closer! It has been quite a week too. Nothing major, just tons going on every day it seems. I do need to get to work on Valentines to mail to my nieces and nephews and this week's challenge on the Riley and Company blog is Riley in Love and was just what I needed to get me going. I stayed fairly simple with the embellishments and layers since they will need to go through the mail. Riley is colored with Copic markers, paper and heart shaped brad are from The Paper Studio and the ribbon is from my never-decreasing ribbon stash.

I am still trying to decide what to do for Kip for Valentine's Day. We don't have any real traditions or anything for that. I planned our wedding for the week before Christmas and everyone told me that I would regret it because of it getting lost in the Christmas rush. I don't regret it, but I didn't make it any easier on myself when it comes to buying gifts for Kip. His birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, and Valentines Day, basically all the gift giving holidays, all fall within about a 10 week period. And like most men, he is hard to buy for! I have got to get my thinking cap on. Anyone have any great traditions they would like to share?

Have a great day!

Love is in the Air

I have been seeing tons of Valentine cards around blogland lately. I normally only make a couple of cards at most but I decided to play with this new stamp that I got at Hobby Lobby the other night. For some reason as soon as I saw this image, I knew I wanted it. I think it's cute with them hiding behind the umbrella. I have decided to make more Valentine friendship cards to send out next month. I used to be much better at actually sending cards to people. I have a couple of boxes of cards that I need to send. Lots of people could use some extra cheer in their mailbox, I just need to do a better job of following through. I don't think I will be sending this one out to a friend because obviously this couple is more than friends so I think I will save this one for someone special! This was another card that we made in the Copic class I taught this weekend. All the cards we made used colors from the R0 series of colors. The doily and the rhinestone heart both came from Hobby Lobby too. 

Copic Colors used:  Umbrella - E50/E53/E55,   Dress - R08/G24,   Jeans - B21/B23/B24,   Shoes E59/C5,   Shirt - G21, G24

It is time to vote on the AmberINK challenge site. You can go HERE to vote for your favorite organization project. Just scroll down to the bottom of the post to cast your vote.

Kip's Valentine Card

This is the card that I made for my husband Kip this year. I couldn't post it early because he reads my blog. Not every day, but I knew if I posted it early then he would definitely see it. I am so loving these House Mouse stamps. I can't believe it took me so long to finally buy one. For this card, I started with a red base and stamped little hearts with Versamark. My image was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I used Red Tinsel embossing powder on the inside of the little heart and then clear embossing powder on the rest of the heart. I finished it off with some ribbon that I got from Jo-Anns. Have a great Sunday.

Valentine Mailboxes

I was so happy that I actually found some of these mail boxes at Target this year. I love the Target Dollar Spot, I find so many cute things there, especially gift containers that can be altered. I had a hard time finding paper that I liked for this project. Most all of the paper I found had the hearts orientated in one direction which made them upside down on one side of the mail box. I was really happy with this Paper Studio paper that I found at Hobby Lobby. It looks good in both directions. The initials on the from used the CTMH Solo Letters and then I used pink embossing powder. Those pink foam hearts are covering my mistake that I made around the flag! Mistakes are just embellishment opportunities, right? Both mailboxes are stuffed with nail polishes, nail files and a pedicure set. I try to not do so much candy, but each girl also has a small sampling of their favorite candy, Fun-Dip for Samantha and Reese's hearts for Jenna.

We had a lovely Valentine breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel. Kip normally eats breakfast with his Dad on Saturdays. I love eating breakfast out, but not enough to get up and out of the house. Hope your day was great. 

Valentine Treats

This is a sample of the treats that I help the girls make for their Valentine exchange at school. We made about 50 of these little triangle treat boxes and filled them with Hershey Kisses. I bought a giant stamp from Inky Antics that has the cutting and scoring lines on it so all you have to do is stamp it and then cut it out.  They decided to use white paper and then stamp with various heart stamps. Every treat box is an original work of art, I don't think there is a duplicate in the the bunch! I am not sure where all the heart stamps came from, we just picked out all the small hearts from their stamp collection and mine. All inks are CTMH and ribbon is from JoAnn's.  You can't really see it in the picture, but we made tags with a small circle mounted onto a small red scalloped circle. Once again, I was so happy that I have a Scor-Pal now. I have used mine far more than I ever thought I would. When I first got it, I had a place for it, but I use it so much that it just stays on my desk all the time. Kip uses it and the girls like using it too when they make cards and mini-books.

The girl's mom thinks I am a little crazy that I enjoy making things like this. She is not a "crafty" person. She provides the girls with art supplies but they still love coming over to my house because I have more stuff. I am proud to say both girls know how to use the Scor-Pal, can cut their own die cuts with my Sizzix and know the difference between wet and dry embossing! Have a happy Valentine's Day. My hubby and I are going out for breakfast which is my favorite meal to eat out. 

Heart Shaped Box

I have a not so secret admiration of Martha Stewart and I watch her show every chance that I get. Unfortunately, not every day because of having to work, but I am normally off on Fridays so I can watch it then. Last week she made these cute little heart boxes. The template is available on her website if you would like one. Jenna and Samantha and I have been working on the Valentines for their classmates and they decided that they would like to make these for their teachers. They were very easy to make. We stuffed them with chocolates and then tied them with the sheer ribbon. 

Does anyone have any exciting Valentine plans for this year? Not us this year, it will be pretty low-key, but sometimes that is nice too. Have a great evening.

Little Ballerina

Look! A picture that isn't blurry!!  No, that doesn't mean that my computer is fixed, or even that I have a new computer. I am still working with Kip's computer but I can use my camera on here now. I have always been a little afraid of these House Mouse stamps. I just thought they would be so difficult to color and do them justice. I keep seeing them on the blogs from my blogger group and every time I do, I get a little more tempted. So the last time Hobby Lobby had stamps for 50% off, I picked up a couple. (BTW all stamps on on sale this week too). It was a lot of fun coloring this little ballerina. This is the card that I will probably give to Samantha for Valentine's Day. I know she will love this little mouse. Not, sure if you can see it or not, but the white piece of paper went through a paper crimper and has little hearts on it. Tuesday Morning had them one day for like $1.97 so I got this one and one with stars on it. My paper is from DCWV, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the little heart brads were a gift from my friend Angela and I think they came from JoAnn's.

Thanks for your patience and your comments while I have been having computer problems. I appreciate all your comments especially the ones with the blurry pictures! I have a crazy busy week at work this week and will be back as soon as possible. I am working on a home organization notebook and hopefully I will get it finished tonight. I got the idea from Erica  and as soon as I saw hers, I knew my house could benefit from something like that too. Have a great night!