Happy Valentines Day

I've been so busy this year making Valentine's for other people, but I did manage to set aside a bit of time to make a few things for the special people in my life. My kids are at the age now when they really enjoy getting cards from their loved ones. I found two vintage images that reminded me of my daughter and son to use on their cards this year.

 

After Christmas I decided to take a candy break--we had so much in the house around the holidays it seemed like my kids were surviving on a sugar only diet! Although my kids weren't as enthusastic about the idea as Mom--they actually went along with it without throwing any major temper tantrums, and my son even caught himself when asking for candy with a "oh right, no candy until Valentine's day." So since they did such a super job and since they are awesome all around kids I put together a bag of their favorite candy's for them so that they can indulge a bit on Feb. 14th!

 

When I found the cutest pastel mail boxes in the dollar section of Target I knew I had to have them. With a bit of embelishment they make the perfect containers for the kids Valentines candy.

 I guess I've been kind of on a postal kick this year in my Valentine's crafting. Some of my favorite vintage die cut images are of cute little mail carriers in their spiffy blue uniforms. I sure hope they are going to be stopping by my house this year with one of those cute heart adorned envelopes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Create Your Own Love Story

Just a few more days till the 14th. I'm finally wrapping up my holiday crafting, I just need to make a few cards for my closest loved ones and I'll be ready to make one very special guy and two amazing kids feel extra loved this Valentine's day.

Echo Park Paper has become one of my go to designer paper companies in the last few years. This year I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 6x6 pack of EP's lovely Love Story collection. It was perfect for making a few special valentines.

I hope you enjoy!

Vintage Design Challenge

I am so happy to have found the vintage and shabby chic design challenge at the Sugar Creek Hallow blog. I just love design challenges, but sometimes I feel that my style of card making is not really what they are looking for--I do love stamping, but when it comes to my focal point of my design I'm all about vintage. I love searching for vintage images in the public domain, finding one that speaks to me and then designing my card around it.

This weeks design challenge is called "Romantic Love", which was no problem for me since I've been all about making Valentine's cards right now.

This image of the romantic couple perched on the moon had stood out to my because of the colors-I love her pink dress set against the darkening blue sky. I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to the next challenge!

Cute As A Button: Design Challenge

Design challenges are so much fun! I used to do so many a few years ago, but sadly have felt I haven't had time for them in the last few years.

I hope no one minds that I decided to play along with The Shabby Tea Room's latest design challenge. I always love their fun and inspiring challenges, even if I seldomly play along. I couldn't resist this one though since it featured one of my favorite color combos of blue, red, white and what looks like a hint of aqua--and buttons, I've always been partial to buttons! Well, I was compelled to join in the fun!

Shabby Tea Room's Design Inspiration

I just love this card, especially the little crafty girl in her blue dress laced with darling red heart. She is certainly one of my favorite little vintage ladies. I also loved the glittered red buttons against the aqua seam binding. My favorite shop for crinkled seam binding is Prairie Bird Boutique on Etsy--she carries a lovely product, the colors are especially vibrant and their is just enough crinkle in the ribbon. I glittered the buttons by covering them with versa mark and then heating a coat of Stampin' Up's Irridescent Ice embossing powder.

The Art of Pinspiration

Like so many others I am in love with Pinterest. For any eye candy junkie it is a visual banquet. A visual search engine, who knew the world was missing it until one arrived--put in your search, find the picture and it leads you to the information you desire!



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 I've been cruising pinterest for my latest obsession, my favorite color combination of red, blue, aqua and pink.



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Fellow crafters have been turning to this color combo to different degrees for quite a while now. It's also popular in the baking world and fashion. I've been seeing it more and more in design magazines too, recently in a BHG special issue Big Style, Smart Ideas for Small Spaces.



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One of my favorite guilty pleasures is to take an hour or two of my precious free time, when I can get it, to sneak off to Barnes & Noble's for a coffee and some magazine perusing. This particular issue of BHG had a number of lovely red, blue & aqua interiors featured. You could imagine my excitment, especially since I've been lately enraptured with those colors for some of my latest card creations.

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When I couldn't track down any of these jaw dropping rooms on the BHG website, I knew Pinterest wouldn't let me down.

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I hope you enjoy them too!

Color Inspiration

Love is certainly in the air- I see it everywhere I look. Red hearts are popping up in all the stores and their are tons of love inspired crafts and treats gracing the boards I follow in Pinterest. And how inspiring is love! I've actually discovered a new love recently- one that has been inspiring a lot of my card creations and craft projects as of late- my new love is for a color combination.

I just can't get enough of red and blue, with a possible splash of aqua and pink thrown in!! I even see those colors dancing together when I close my eyes at night- they are truly perfect together!

I do love my patterned paper and I have loved the heck out of one collection in particular these last few weeks- Lucky In Love by My Mind's Eye- and how appropriately named it is!

The color combinations and trendy patterns have just put me in swoon and I just can't get enough- I have made about a dozen cards with it, and pairing up Lucky in Love with some of my favorite vintage Valentine Die cuts has been so much fun. I have to say, I am particularly proud how this set of cards have turned out.

It's funny how we can find the greatest inspiration in the most unlikely of places- but then again love is powerful!

Life Certainly is a Balancing Act

Lately I've been trying to find meaning in my life, I think everyone needs a sign once in awhile to remind them that they are doing OK. My family and I finally made it to church on Sunday after a long, long lapse. Of course, church was a bit more filled--filled by people like me who have decided to make yet another resolution. I suppose the Minister is used to this January surge in the congregation and I suppose, although I'm not sure,  everyone there feels very similar at this time of the year--so probably most people were nodding their head in agreement throughout the sermon. The Minister,who is very modern and likes to use video clips to enhance his sermons, chose one that struck a deep cord in me.  It basically was an analogy for our hectic everyday lives, of a man who was balancing plates and trying to keep each of his plates from slipping and crashing to the floor. There was a plate for his family, job, parents, exercising, etc. By the end of the video the poor guy was sprawled out on the floor in exhaustion after trying to keep his complicated life in balance. Needless to say, I can relate.

 I know I'm not the only one who can become completely overwhelmed by their life--by this complex balancing act of family life, spiritual life, creative life, etc that we have created for ourselves. I'm starting to think that maybe the real secret is to embrace that craziness- instead of trying to find a solution to it- because that is life after all and is so much better than the alternative. So from this day forward throughout the year of 2013 I plan to Carpe Diem the heck out of everyday! Ok-life may be crazy but there is no sense standing around complaining about that, instead I'm going to use that time to live my life!

Something I've been spending my time doing is putting some paper crafts together to celebrate Valentine's day and I will be listing them in my brand new Etsy store sometime before the end of January! It's something I've been playing around with for a long time but have always managed to convince myself that I just don't have time for it--well, now I am going to make time for it and embrace the craziness that will come along with that decision!