love.

celebrating my love and my loved ones today. love to celebrate them everyday, but I think it's fun to have a special day set aside ;) happy valentine's day to you and yours. hug them extra today, tell them you love them and be thankful for those you love :)

Print by eva black design. 

You can download this lovely free print over at her blog.

a valentine for my love

I finished up my Valentine for my hubby this morning and am SO excited to give it to him tomorrow (I had to tell him not to look at my blog today :)). It's a bunch of little goodies put into one card or I guess you could say, a little album. I love it. :)

I cut an 8.5"x11" sheet of Kraft cardstock in half to 5.5"x8.5"and adhered them together (with a 1/2" overlap) so that it was one long sheet of paper. I then scored every 4 inches to create the "pages", and was left with a 1/2" fold to be able to close it up. I attached some baker's twine with an eyelet to also help close it up, and then went to town decorating using different bits and pieces.

I used a paper bag envelope to put a note in, as well as a giftcard. I also put a "book" onto one of the panels and made it a coupon book for different fun things, like cooking or getting carry-out of his fave meal. I perforated each page in the coupon book so he could tear them out to use. 

I of course, had to add some confetti somewhere, so I used a glassine envelope and put in some confetti and a little card.

Valentine Card Roundup

A lovely round-up of handmade Valentine Cards I found on etsy. So if you aren't into making your own, or don't have time, you can still give (and support!) handmade. 

Also, for some freebies, check out my Valentine Board on Pinterest for some links to printable Valentine Cards and coupons.

Je T'aime Letterpress Card by ParrottDesignStudio

 Valentine Card - Tiny Envelopes by LemonDropPapers

 Happy Valentine's Day Card by k8cards

 Nickname Valentine Card by evajuliet

Be My Valentine Card by AshleyPahl

I Love You Valentine Card by RowHouse14

You Are My Cup of Tea by TheWallaroo

new in shop later today: i love you journal

*Edited to add: Wow! :) The kits sold so quickly (thanks for the support!:)), I decided to make a few more and now have a preorder option available in the shop if you are still interested in purchasing a kit :) These will be ready to ship by next Thursday (February 2). 

I put together a few "I Love You" journals kits that will be available for purchase in my shop this morning around 10:30am EST. The journals have 22 pages including decorative papers from My Mind's Eye "Love Me" line, vellum, decorative wax paper, envelopes, glassine and kraft paper bags, glitter embellished cardstock, vintage music and dictionary pages and much more. Also part of this journal is a valentine confetti window (made with heart confetti! yay!), a scrap of red polka dot fabric and a cover that says "I Love You" and is blank- ready for you to decorate!

Included for you to embellish your pages: a sample of 3 washi tapes, a paper doily, 7 assorted buttons, a shipping tag, white ric rac and red ribbon, and 11 paper punches (hearts and starburst). *Edited to add: International shipping is available and is an option in the listing :)

The perfect little book to jot down sentiments, stories and loves notes. A perfect place to paste in pictures and mementos. A perfect gift to give to a loved one this Valentine's Day :)

DIY :: Valentine Garland

So I had no intention of this week becoming "DIY Valentine Goodies Week" - but it is kind of shaping up to be :) I love Valentine's Day. I know, I know, it's way commercialized and can be kind of cheesy, but I guess it's fun to have cheesy-ness every once in awhile ;) And of course what's more fun is that it's great to celebrate a significant other and the family and friends you love :)

It's good to plan ahead if you are going to make decorations and such, right? So you aren't making decorations and gift goodies at the very.last.minute. :) I promise it will not be Valentine-y around here for the next 2.5 weeks :)

Like this garland I made for Christmas, this Valentine garland is fun and simple to make. All you need are hearts and circles punched (or handcut!) from Valentine-y papers (I used light pink, dark pink, red, white, kraft, and vintage dictionary pages (To get the multiple hearts punched on the circle punches, I used this punch first and then punched the 1.5" circle).

I then fed them through my sewing machine in no particular order. I stacked three paper rounds on top of each other every now and then to create a 3-D effect (like in the Holiday Garland). 

The garland is about 10' long and took about 20 minutes start to finish, including punching all of the shapes. A cute and quick Valentine's Day decoration :)

Want a Valentine's Day garland but would rather purchase one? Go here to see one like this in my shop :)

DIY :: Valentine Tags

After being inspired by these super cute tags over at Creature Comforts, I decided to make up some tags for Valentine's Day. I used bits and pieces that I had on hand - some red fabric, paper, washi tape, ribbon and a button, baker's twine and some word stickers. 

I recently purchased this punch (which I'm thinking would make fabulous confetti in this confetti window card, and used that to punch directly onto one of the tags and then placed pink paper behind it. I also used it to punch out confetti in a bunch of different papers and glued the confetti pieces to another tag. I made another tag with 3D hearts - similar to this card I made last year.

These tags are perfect to adorn a small gift, stick in a card (or glue 2 or 3 to the front of a blank card!), or as a quick "I love you" in a loved one's lunch box :)

DIY :: Confetti Valentine Card

A few months ago, I made this card for my dad for his birthday. I loved how it turned out (so did my dad!), and decided to make one for Valentine's Day. They are not too difficult to make, and I will be showing you how to make my confetti windows (which are also available for purchase and customization in my shop).

Supplies:

+ a pre-made white 4.25"x 5.5" folded notecard (you could make your own from cardstock, I already had this on hand)

+ red, white, and pink papers, and/or vintage-y book pages

+ 2 sheets of transparency material, big enough to cover the heart you will cut out on the card (you could also use page protector material)

+ white sheet (text weight, not cardstock) of paper, cut to 5" x 8"

+ xacto blade

+ hole punch

+ rolling adhesive

+ sewing machine and thread (if you don't have a sewing machine, you could probably just use rolling adhesive... not sure, as I've never tried it ;))

Begin by tracing a heart onto the inside left of the card (so you won't see your pencil marks on the finished card). Cut out with your xacto blade- be careful! :)

 The front of the card after you cut the heart out.

 Punch out a bunch of confetti from the pink, red, white and vintagey book papers.

Cut down the transparency material (or page protector) to large enough to cover the heart window (and to not be able to see your sewing once it is glued on).

Sew a little pocket, leaving one side open. Pour in your confetti pieces.

 Sew up the open side.

Run the rolling adhesive along the edges of the confetti window so you can adhere it on the inside of the card. Be careful that the adhesive does not come through the window (it'd be all sticky on the front).

Now take the 5" x 8" sheet of white paper and put adhesive around the edges. I also added a strip of adhesive to the fold of the inside of the card. Carefully place the sheet onto the card and smooth out any wrinkles.

 Voila! A Confetti Valentine Card. I chose to leave the front blank, but you could easily write on "Happy Valentine's Day" or "I love you" or whatever :)

gathering inspiration: valentine's day

Finding all sorts of cute ideas for Valentine's Day on pinterest. Paper crafts, food, garlands, all sorts of goodies! Check out my Valentine's Day board here :)

Working On: Valentine Pillow

I shared this pillow cover a looooonnng time ago. So long ago I couldn't even find it in my archives after a quick search ;) Unfortunately, I never finished it and just found it recently at the bottom of my fabric stash. Whoops ;) So I began working on it the other day and am determined to finish it. 

After sewing a red or pink border and white backing fabric, this will be a simple envelope-type enclosure pillow case. No zippers, no buttons (mostly because I still don't know how to sew in a zipper ;)). Just tuck it in and call it done.

Basically, all I did was use a water soluble marker and hand write "love" (which I then stitched with red embroidery floss), and then drew two hearts. One is filled with sewn-on buttons, the other has a patchwork of pink and lovely fabrics sewn on. I will share the finished product in the next couple weeks before Valentine's Day :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Some fun links from last year to DIY crafts and ideas for today :)
+ Valentine Ornament Tutorial
+ Valentine Roundup
+ Valentine Goodies Tutorials
+ DIY 3D Heart Card

DIY 3-D Heart Valentine Card

I have a bunch of Valentine-y paper in my stash and decided to create a 3-D heart card for Valentine's Day. I bought a Martha Stewart heart shaped paper punch since I knew I could use it with future projects, but you could easily cut out a bunch of hearts, either free-hand or by tracing and cutting. I'm super pleased with how it turned out- it's cute and (fairly) simple to make - perfect for Valentine's Day, or for any time of the year when you want to tell someone you love and appreciate them.

Supplies:
- Valentine-y paper (or use magazine scraps that are red or pertinent to a color scheme you would like to use) - I used cardstock in this tutorial
- Blank white cardstock card (and envelope to put it in!) - I used a 4.25"x6" card
- Blank piece of cardstock to line the inside of the card and cover up the sewing - I used a red 4.25"x6" piece to line the card (this gave it a .25" white border on the inside- see picture below)
- Permanent adhesive
- Heart punch
- Scissors
- Sewing machine

Begin by punching (or cutting) out hearts from your paper- punch two of each design- I had 12 different patterns (my paper was double sided), and punched 2 of each. (*If you are cutting out hearts, you will need to decide how big they need to be depending on the size of your blank cardstock card.)

Arrange the hearts on the front of your card to your liking (I used a simple grid). These will be the "background" hearts and will be directly adhered onto the card. Adhere the "background" hearts with the permanent adhesive. Once you finish this step, you could even leave the card as-is like this and call it finished! :)

Next, take the matching heart, lay it on top of the already adhered "background" heart and sew a quick stitch and then a reverse stitch. Repeat with each heart.

Once that is complete, trim off the excess thread.

Now, take the liner sheet of cardstock and adhere it to the inside of the card. This will help keep the stitches in place and keep from unraveling, as well as cover up the stitching. I also rolled some extra adhesive over top of the stitches.

Now you have a lovely lined inside of your card with a nice .25" white border. Back to the front of the card-- gently fold up the top heart you just sewed down to create the 3-D effect.
Voilà! A cute 3-D Valentine card. Perfect to give to your significant other, or perfect to send to a loved one or family member! Just write a message, seal it in the envelope and you're done :)