Valentine's Day* wrap up*

No pun intended! However, I did have a lot of fun coming up with fun ways to celebrate Valentine's Day this year and get everyone checked off my list! My husband said,"Isn't Valentine's Day supposed to be a romantic holiday and not so much a "friend" holiday?" to which I replied,"It is both!". I love Valentine's Day way too much not to do fun things for everyone.

It is my tradition to make chocolate dipped strawberries to deliver to friends and family on Valentine's Day and this year was no exception.I also package them the same year after year, the only difference from year to year is the tag. This year I chose to go with the doily theme as I did on my banner a few posts down. I mean, come on, Valentine's Day is the doily holiday. Every year I go to "Dollar Tree" and purchase the faux silver trays (they really are metal, though; not the plastic ones). The strawberries look a little fancier but I don't have to spend an arm and a leg in the process. I used the "Heart Prints" stamp set from PTI for the tags. Simple stamping, but I love how they turned out. I made quite a few different variations using different papers and sentiments, but I didn't have a chance to get them all photographed. In fact, forgive my photography for all of these projects.

I also whipped up a batch of yummy raspberry caramels to give to Emma's dance teacher and a few friends from church. The best thing about these caramels is that I made them pink!! They were so cute! You can't see very well from the photo, but maybe if you squint really hard at the bottom you can see one peeking through the cellophane. It is hard to see from the photo, but for the packaging, I simply used a cellophane bag with a sheet of patterned paper slipped down into the back. Then I attached a doily/label embellishment using sticky strip, tied it up with coordinating ribbon and called it good. I mean, who needs fancy packaging when there are pink caramels inside? Just kidding; you always need fancy packaging. That is my motto. Well...except if you are giving said caramels to small children who would tear said packaging apart in two seconds! LOL!

Speaking of children; Emma's dance class always does a Valentine's exchange and this year I thought I would do something fun. The girls have to have their hair pulled up for class, of course, so I decided to make some fun bows for them to wear. I have purchased a few elastic/bows like this for Emma and every time I use it in her hair I think how easy they would be to make. I chose pink and black for the theme since their dance attire is pink and black.

When you purchase them at the store, they are on a card to hang on the rack so I thought I would make my own. I used a nestabilities die for the tag and "Heart Prints" for the sentiments. I also used one of the label stamp sets from PTI for the border, but I can't think of the name right now. Sorry.

It was fun to see some of the girls wearing their new bows at dance class this week. I also made some coordinating tissue cozies. I had seen this idea with the joke last year, but I saw it after Valentine's Day so I couldn't wait to make some this year.Emma asked if I would make one for her, too, so she could put it into her backpack. I thought the fabric looked cute with the hair bows. I packaged everything up int heart shaped dollar spot baskets with some candy in the bottom. Emma was so excited to take them to dance class for all of her friends. I hope that even though Valentine's Day has passed, you can find some inspiration that you can incorporate somewhere else, or maybe save for next year. I was thrilled that I got so much done for all of the "Valentines" in my life. Thanks for fluttering by!

*Lucky* to count you as a friend

I have been sick ever since last Wednesday. I could feel it coming on in the middle of the night and the dread set in. Moms shouldn't be able to get sick. We should get some type of waiver for the duration of motherhood; well....at least while they are little. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Not only am I sick, but Rowan has got it as well as Rhys. So...with that being said, not only do I feel awful, but so do the babies.

My dear, sweet friend offered to bring me dinner and as much as I wanted to protest, I really needed it. She brought some super yummy chicken noodle soup, rolls and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies; just what the doctor ordered. I need to return her dishes, so I thought I would make a card to go along with it to thank her.

This is an absolute first.... but I made the card in my bed! LOL! I had to get up to gather my supplies, but for the most part I laid on my bed and glued, cut and fiddled. I think I may have found my new craft space! LOL! Can you imagine? It is never good to be thinking that way, especially when I had the new episode of "Hoarding; buried alive" playing while I was crafting. Maybe I could become a craft hoarder who only crafts in bed with her supplies piling up around her! LOL!

Anyway, I will quit rambling about nonsense and get onto the card. I had some scraps of paper left over from another project, so I decided to use them. They are all from Hobby Lobby, which is becoming the only place to buy paper around here anyway. The colors inspired me to pull out my "St. Patrick's Day" stamps, which is fitting for the season. I still have my Valentine's Day stuff up, but St. Patty's stuff will be going up soon. Most of the images are from PTI, but the circle "mar. 17" image is from a dollar set I got last year. I got a little "die-cut" happy and used my PTI dies for the focal image, the felt ric-rac and tickets. It is so nice to be able to make your own embellishments, especially when you are limited on space. The trim at the top, is just the extra piece from die-cutting the felt ric-rac. I glued it along the inside flap. It isn't going in an envelope, so I didn't mind adding the extra length to the card. If you do add things like this, just remember to grab a bigger envelope. I added a little bit of gold stickles to the shamrock to give it another touch of St. Patty's day charm and called it good. I really would have liked to have added some sewing, but I didn't think sewing in bed would be very easy! LOL! Making this card has made me want to make another St. Patrick's Day banner; surprise, surprise! I love the one I made last year, but I really like these papers, too.

Also, I still have my Valentine's Day projects to show you. I was down to the wire, but I got everything done that I wanted to get done; except for my Valentine's Day countdown calendar. Maybe next year........ Thanks for fluttering by!

*Valentine* Banner

Last year I made this banner for Valentine's Day. I still really like it, but I wanted to make a new one so that I could put last year's in my kitchen and put the new one in my entry way. This one used more letters than most of my other banners so it hangs a little lower, but it fits perfectly. One more letter and I would have run into trouble. In fact, I shouldn't admit it, but I did run into some trouble. I use a ton of the letter "e" when I am making my banners and I had completely run out. I had to get creative and turn a c into a letter e....it is the last one on the banner. So....if you ever get in a crunch, look and see what letters you can trim, cut or glue back together to make something else! LOL!

All of the papers are "Lost and Found" and they are perfect for the feel I was going for. I used paper doilies for the medallions on the v, e and i and then decided that I needed one under every single accordion medallion as well. This banner is super thick and super heavy, but I really like how it turned out.

I stamped the crown images and punched them out using one of my Martha Stewart punches. I placed them in-between each of the rosettes on the top. The rosettes are from Prima and I love them. They are perfect! The tickets are from Tim Holtz. I die cut the ric-rac using the PTI die and black felt. I only used two pieces since the banner was starting to get very heavy and I worried it might look a little "over embellished" by the time I was done. As much as I like heavy embellishment, sometimes more is just more!

Of course I had to add a little bit of sewing. I chose to use a black thread to really make it pop. I was hoping that what ever was in my sewing machine would work, but it was light pink and I thought it would get lost. I need black thread in my machine for my next project anyway. I will share that with you soon, too. I distressed all of the edges using Walnut Stain distress ink by Tim Holtz. It is one of my favorites and while it is super dark, it worked nicely with all of the dark papers. Thanks for fluttering by! ETA* I realized that my watermark on the banner photos gives the image copyright to Papertrey Ink which is not correct.