Cathy's Treasured Heirlooms Amour Valentine Swap Reveal

For Valentine's Day, I participated in Treasured Heirlooms, Cathy Scalise's Amour Valentine swap.  This was Cathy's first "gig" as a swap hostess and she had an amazing turnout of over 60 participants. My Partner was Lisa Hogan of Lisa's Craftique Boutique. (side note: I love to go there to listen to Michael Buble!!!) Our assignment was to fill a heart-shaped box with goodies our partner would enjoy and if you couldn't find a heart-shaped box, you could substitute another shape box. I couldn't find the heart boxes this year so I used a rectangle box and Lisa did the same. My gifts from Lisa,including the box, are the following...

Bits and bobs for crafting, a sweet teddy bear, notecards and a pen, candies, a candle, vintage handkercheif and a vintage card. The box was glittery and sparkley and was decorated with cute valentines. Thanks  Lisa, for all of the lovely gifts!  hope this was as much fun for you as it was for me!

My gifts to Lisa included a decorated candle in pinks, some truffles, some ephemera for crafting and a doily, a heart doorhanger (handmade but not by me). Everything was given in the painted and decoupaged box altred with some ephemera, vintage seam binding, crocheted doily and beautiful Anna Griffin scrapbook paper that looks for all the world like vintage wallpaper.There are additional pictures on my Flickr photostream here.

Thank you Cathy, for hosting this beautifully themed and fun swap! I'm sure you are exhausted after all of the matching and follow-up! Put your feet up and enjoy some chocolate!

xoxo

Two more Collages....sent with love

For my sweet, inspiring, creative friend Elizabeth, with love...

You bring so much joy to my life with your art and your writing. You have challenged me to be a better crafter and blogger....thank you for all of your inspiration E! Love you!

This for my loving, supportive and wildly creative friend Dee

 (luluathome on Flickr)...no blog yet but I'm working on her!

You are loved Dee!

If you love this little angel girl...she could be yours, too, if you just go to Sandy's (Sandy's Creations)

Etsy Shoppe; Blog Banner Queen, here.

I have been dying to use this little girl..I just love the way her hands are covering her mouth.

 Sandy-these images were a dream to work with! Thanks so much!

 Can't wait to see what you come up with for Easter!

I'm so glad my friends received their Valentines before tomorrow.

With the snow this week, there was no telling when they'd arrive!

Still more Valentine stuff to come...

xoxo

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

More Snow????

We are supposed to get 8-10 inches of additional snow this afternoon and tonight, on top of the 26 inches we got last Friday. The roads around here are still not very good from the last snow. Because the Washington, DC area might be getting 12-18 inches more, Eric, Jane and Sweet little Charlie will probably have to postpone their visit at the end of the week.. That makes us sad. We really miss them.
The only good thing about being snowed in is that I got a bunch of drawers and a closet cleaned out and reorganized. It's amazing what I found.

I have also gotten a good bit of Valentine crafting done. Cards for friends, goodie bags for co-workers and collages for some special people. Supplies for cards and collages were assembled....

I took a trip to the post office this morning to get my cards and packages in the mail. Here is one of the collages...can't tell you who it's for...it's a surprise!

I enjoy doing hybrid paper crafting. Some of the paper is vintage and some is digitally produced and printed out. Don't you love the tape measure? It was from a digital kit...

it looks very real and adds an interesting touch I think. I hope my friend likes it.

Are you making any Valentines?

xoxo

Show and Tell...Swap and Snow

There is so much going on right now....
Swap packages have been sent and received. The pictures from the Amour Swao can not be shown until Valentine's Day.
Lots of different Valentine projects...some I can show and some I can't show yet!
Five friends and family members have birthdays in the first 15 days of February so I've been hurrying to get things in the mail.
We had 26-inches of snow last night and the city of Pittsburgh is pretty much closed down...it is beautiful here though, because the sun is shining.
With all of that said...here are the pictures...
A Swap for All Seasons is my favorite swap group. It is always reliable...it is always fun...it is always beautiful. Linda Smith was my partner and this is what I sent her...

A garland made using glassine bags, vintage Valentine images, punched hearts and stamped lettering

 Cream painted mini clothespins kept the bags attached to the pink polka dot ribbon. After Valentine's Day, Linda can replace the images with photographs of her own if she'd like.

some little bags had Valentines and some had envelope images

You know how much I love little bottles with pearls and flowers!

Provisions for crafting, a candy box of buttons, a vintage Valentine and a wonderful mini paper shredder!

My package from Linda included these wonderful items...once I was able to rip into the beautiful wrapping..

An assortment of Vintage, handmade and sweets...

The most beautiful altered cigar box!

the inside was as lovely as the outside...

and this is what I found inside...a necklace and matching earrings made by Linda...

the picture doesn't begin to do these pieces justice!

Linda's (and Susie's) famous Chai Tea mix....perfect for today...

A beautiful red and white hankie wrapped around some Vintage Valentines and a cupid stamp..

Everything was placed in this beautiful box....

I am so lucky to have been matched with the Hostess Supreme herself, and she spoiled me completely!

This is another garland I made for a friend using the same concept of glassine bags and vintage images...this time using red heart-shaped paper clips to attach the bags to the red and white checked ribbon...

Some gifts for my friend, Mimi's birthday. Three of us got together here for a very casual lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We had lots of fun ..Mimi wrote about it here.

A decorated chipboard box...lid painted pink and aged with ink and bottom covered in paper...

Paper flowers tea-stained and arranged with vintage seam binding and lace..

Inside a little Love garland (no glassine bags for this one)

I said I love Valentine crafting.....

Even my little muse...Tiny Elizabeth had a fun time at the party...

I'm sure you're tired of reading and looking at my paper art projects...

so I'll leave you with these images for now. This is what our 26 inches of snow looks like.

If you're in the Eastern part of the country, you can identify with these pictures

...if you live in Arizona...feel lucky, very, very, lucky!

Valentine Blog Love

I was reading blogs this morning (what a surprise!) and came across some things I simply HAD to share with all of you. Shannan Martin of Flower Patch Farm Girl, has a delightful blog about decorating and food and crafting and just common sense living. When I saw this project, my eyes almost came right out of their sockets!

She is so kind to share the direction here. I already have the punch and a bunch of old books...

think I'll try this one for sure!

If you're needing a little shot of inspiration for a project, then take a hop over to A Creative Mint.

I've just recently started to follow her and when I open her blog, I often just sit and stare with my mouth hanging open....so simple, yet so beautiful! For instance....

This makes me want to pull out my vintage buttons, baker's twine and ledger sheets and create!

My Country Cottage Garden is another blog I follow and Anita is also a Flickr contact. Spend some time seeing what she creates and don't forget to look at her studio. It's dreamy! She is having a giveaway to win one of these hearts!!!

 Here is a photo from her latest post...

There is lots of inspiration out there in Blogland. I've only shown you several examples of where to find it.

I do want to mention a wonderful giveaway that is going on right now at Dianne Knott's Musings blog.

Diane is an out-of-this-world designer of many things and she often does tutorials on her blog which I love!

You could win this beautiful array of items by just leaving a comment on this post but do take time to look around at Diane's art! You won't be sorry.

I'm hoping that my Swap partners will be getting their packages today or tomorrow and as soon as they do, I'll be able to show you the rest of the photos of what I sent!