homework: valentines

Showing posts with label valentines. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2013

Celebrations: decoupage heart & arrow

Valentine’s Day seems to be bring out the soft sweet side of me. It’s usually buried somewhere deep down inside and does makes an appearance every now and then.

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Inspiration Board: link party spotlight ~85~

Thank you to everyone who visiting, commented or linked up this week. I so appreciate it and I’m always amazed that you stop by my little corner of the blog world.

We had a cold snap here in Southern California. Now, if you live somewhere where it really gets cold, you’re probably laughing at me right now. The days dipped down to the mid-50’s and the nights got below 40 degrees. Brrrrr. We or at least I am not equipped for cold weather – I don’t have a lot of cold weather clothes, shoes or accessories. Thankfully it’s starting to get back to normal temperatures here – mid 60’s and sunny in the day.

So while I turn up the heat and thaw out, please enjoy these wonderful projects in the spotlight this week.

The most adorable heart in hand gloves by Bliss Bloom {blog}. I need these (see my cold snap commentary above). A great gift idea for the holidays and Valentine’s Day.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Inkling: watercolor valentine cards

I’ve been playing with my watercolors and painted some Valentine cards.

Not a single lesson – can you tell? {ha ha}

My original plan was just plain watercolor cards. I painted them and even took the pictures for this post. I know watercolor is supposed to look “misty” but my cards seemed a little too watered down and plain.

I cut the cards into smaller pieces and played around with different background papers to jazz up the cards a bit. I settled on one of my favorite go-to recycled supplies – security envelopes.

I’ve mentioned before how fascinated I am with the different security envelope patterns. I have quite the stash of these envelopes. I save them from the junk mail and bills and I even have my mom saving them for me. Needless to say, I have quite a few envelopes to choose from.

I love the pink tones of the watercolor against the stark grey and black security envelope paper.

Even if you don’t paint, watercolor is fun and easy. You can water down the color or make them more vibrant by using less water. To make a free form watercolor like the first photo of this post, wet your paper first and them just dab the paint brush onto the paper. The watercolor bleeds onto the wet paper and makes beautiful designs.

Thanks for visiting.

Carolyn

I happily link at the parties listed here and

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Celebrations: valentine fabric tags

I finally had a chance to make good use of some fun Valentine rubber stamps that I have.

I used the stamps on fabric to make some tags or labels for Valentine gifts. Rather than use an ink pad, I used craft paint. For the heart stamp, I used Plaid Folkart in Deep Tomato Red. To apply the paint to the rubber stamp, I used a Martha Stewart foam pouncer and dabbed the paint directly on to the rubber stamp. When using this method, do a few tests on scrap fabric until you’re sure of the right amount of paint to apply.

This pretty red box gets a custom label with a rubber stamped piece of muslin, corrugated cardboard and twine. Now I just need to fill it with homemade fudge, toffee bark or some other yummy treat.

An old mason jar is ready to be filled with “confectionary candy”. This label was created using Martha Stewart Craft Paint in Pink Dahlia.

A bright red composition book is turned into a fun journal or idea book. These would make great teacher or classmate Valentine gifts.

This plain vase is now Valentine ready. Wouldn’t short red roses look pretty in this vase? Maybe I’ll get some for Valentine’s Day.

I love how these turned out and to me, using craft paints is easier than an ink pad.

Thank you for visiting.

Carolyn

Plaid Enterprises supplied some of the products used in this project but I was not compensated in any other way. The opinions expressed in this post are mine.

I happily link at the parties listed here and

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Celebrations: valentine vases {pink & glittery}

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? I usually don’t go all out but a little splash of red or pink is always fun.

I found this bead garland in the Christmas clearance aisle. It was so ridiculously pink and glittery I had to have it for Valentine’s Day.

I unstrung the beads and used them to decorate a few plain vases.

For this vase, I glued the pink matte beads around the rim.

This vase had a rim, so I strung the glitter beads on a piece of wire and wrapped it under the rim.

I have very few flowers in the garden right now but I was able to scrounge up a few pink Camellias and some Jasmine for the small vase.

I still have a lot of beads left, but for now, I think this is enough pink.

Thanks for visiting.

Carolyn

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Inkling: black and white envelope card

Red and pink colors are everywhere with Valentine’s Day coming up. I thought it might be fun to make a non-red or pink card. Something I could give my husband that wasn’t too frilly.

I came up with this black and white envelope card. The cut outs are the address and return address areas filled with tiny white hearts.

To make this card, I used black card stock and cut out the address and return address areas. I used the windows from junk mail window envelopes to make the small packets that hold the hearts. The hearts are made out of white card stock using a micro heart hole punch.

I’ll use a silver or white gel pen to write a sweet note inside.

Or, I may not be able to resist and have to use a pink pen.

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This project is linked to the following:

Suzy's Artsy Crafty Sitcom

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Etceteras: brown bag flowers

Here’s a quick and easy floral project that can be used for several purposes.

I cut down a plain brown paper lunch bag into a miniature lunch bag. The finished size of the bag is about 3” x 4”.

Insert a small piece of styrofoam or oasis and add silk flowers and ribbon. I used a wide piece of gold organza peeking out of the top of the bag.

Make several and use as party favors, place cards or even gift tags. Or, if you want to kick up the wow factor, use fresh flowers, wet the oasis and add a baggie to line the lunch bag.

This brown bag is ready to go... and if you’re hungry you can always trade for someone’s peanut butter and jelly.

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This project is linked at the following:

Monday, January 17, 2011

Etceteras: valentine candle

Here’s a quick and easy way to dress up a plain candle for Valentine’s Day.

I made a miniature garland of hearts and simply wrapped the garland around the red candle.

The hearts were cut out of a translucent vellum envelope that I had on hand. If you don’t have translucent vellum, you can get a similar effect using white tissue paper ironed in between wax paper. Place regular paper on your ironing board, then layer wax paper, tissue paper, wax paper and another layer of regular paper so that the wax doesn’t stick to your board or iron. Cut out your hearts and glue to a piece of string.

Wrap the garland around the candle and add a dab of blue to the beginning and end of the string to secure the garland. As with all decorative candles, use caution when burning.