The First Valentines

I have been working on Valentine projects for weeks now. I was involved in two swaps, the first

 I've written about here and the second one we were asked not to post until Valentines Day.

There have also been Valentines to make for family and friends near and far.

Two weeks ago I had an appointment with my dental hygienist, Mindy,  for a cleaning (twice a year...like clockwork!) and I decided to bake some brownies for her. I wrapped them up and then thought I should make a tag. I had an image, from a digital collage sheet, of a woman that I had been wanting to use for a long time. I came up with this design using  a copy of a ledger sheet as a background and some stamped red hearts. The Valentine phrase, "Be my Valentine...or else!", just fit the picture somehow, don't you think?

 I was pleased with the concept but of course had to tweak it a bit and ended up with this finished product which became the Valentine card I sent to friends. I digitally added a cupid and stamped a flourish for Miss Kissy Face to stand on and I changed out the red heart stamp. Miss KF is mounted with dimensional dots.

I wanted to make Valentines for all of my workmates, 11 of them, but knew it would take me forever to do all that layering so I decided to scan the orignal card and then resize and print them out as digital cards.

They are the size of an ATC or playing card. I then made goodie bags for each of them

 with some sweets and added  the card. Unfortunately, the snow kept me home from work this week

 so they won't actually get these until next Tuesday when I go back to the office.

The people who know me well, know that I will always choose a funny, silly card

 over a sentimental one. I always go for the laughs! It's who I am.

On the other hand, this year I decided to go for a more tender card for my husband, David.

I wanted to use the two little children featured in my blog header. After playing around

with the image for a while, I decided to use the blog header itself.

I sized it, added just 2 words and cut it out and

 mounted it on a kraft cardstock 6X6-inch card.

Did you make Valentine cards this year? I used to be one of Hallmark cards best

customers. Now they send me coupons all the time for free stuff...I think they miss me!

I have two more Valentine collages to show you but

 I want to make sure they have reached their destinations first.

I'll be back soon.

xoxo

New Stamps

PaperTrey Ink is one of my favorite stamp companies. Two weeks ago I bought this stamp set...

It is so cute. OK, I admit it....I also had to have the add-on set........Seriously, aren't they the most clever stamps? I chair-ish your friendship....that cracks me up!

I have been cleaning and reorganizing my scrapbook room/craft space/studio all week. (I have too much stuff!) Today, I needed to make an Anniversary card for my sister and brother-in-law. I put down the duster and vacuum cleaner and whipped this card out. Ahhhhhhhhh! It felt good to create something! (If you want to see amazingly cute cards made with this set go to the PaperTrey Ink website and look in the gallery.)

Now ,the On My Couch set has the cutest phrases and images but none for an Anniversary so I had to print my own phrase for the inside of the card...
If you need some cute stamps......run over to PaperTrey Ink! I have to get back to my cleaning!
Oh, but first, one more thing since we're talking about decorating (you know, couches?...) a new magazine is coming next Spring

WOOHOO! The co-editors are Matthew Mead and Ki Nassauer. WOOHOO! Until it comes out in print, we can follow along on their new blog
OK, I'm finished now.....until next time!