Some Handmade Valentines

A few weeks ago, Amy Lee and I decided it was time for a glitter fest again. This time we decided to glitter bomb my house and make some valentines. Actually, through some contact at her work she had heard about a program that was distributing handmade valentines to the kiddos in Children's Mercy Hospital. And not that we needed a cause to glitterbomb one of our houses in a crafting frenzy... but we thought this sounded like a GREAT cause. So we invited a few friends, busted out the construction paper, glitter glue and heart stickers, and got together for a Sunday Crafternoon.

Dude, check out the MESS of papers on that table. We were into it. (Also Winston cameoed in this picture... it's like Where's Waldo? Can you find him?)
Here are the Valentines I made... I guess I thought I had taken pictures of everyone's? But my camera ate those or something? So here are mine:

Most of those cards are stacked several deep, I know it doesn't look like a a ton... but we each churned out around 20 valentines. I was trying my hardest to make some Male and gender nuetral valentines-- as valentines with their red and pick and hearts can get rather effeminate fast. Hence the dinosaur and dump trucks.

 Actually, the dump trucks were totally my fav. I hand cut all the pieces which made them a smidge time-consuming, but if you were mass-producing them (Say for a whole class of kiddos?) You could easily use a truck shape on a cricut or silhouette type cutter and it would go pretty fast. Topped them off with some sparkly hearts... and I think they are adorable and fun for boys and girls!
Meanwhile, Melissa was using a circle punch and making adorable 'leggo' valentines (I'll never 'leggo' of you, Valentine!) and cute cute elephants with big floppy heart ears, (You're unforgettable!). And Amy was churning out every animal on the planet... but the favorite were her alligator valentines. Maybe one of them has pictures I can share? Ladies?
Anyhow... we had a fun afternoon putting these together, and I think we sent more than 50 valentines to give to kiddos. So I hope they make some kiddos smile on Valentine's day.
Have you made any valentines or gifts this year? I'd love to see what you put together!

Thanks!

Oh, paper crafting.
We have a love/hate relationship. Meaning... I would love to be that kind of crafty... but I really just hate doing it. Scrapbooking? Stamping? Cardmaking? UGH. I am quite poor at all of it, and get little enjoyment. (I DO really enjoy gift wrapping though... does that count as paper crafts?)
But my friends recently threw me a baby shower with all these lovely handmade details, and the whole thing was just perfection-- perfection I knew could not be followed with a store bought thank you. So I sucked it up and got over my 'tude about paper-crafts and set out to make charming thank you notes for my guests.
I saw this idea on the interwebs sometime pre-pinterest... and I cannot tell you where to save my life. Not that it's particularly stunning or difficult or original I just try to credit my inspiration. So If you thought of it first-- let me know. :)
Anyway, I busted out my machine and fabric scraps, as well as some leftover blank cards from wedding stuff. and... made these:

Amy Lee was over and she cut fabric triangles which I free-hand sewed into drapey pennants on thank you notes. Added a little blue thank you stamp... and called it a card. Actually, I'm happy with how it turned out. They are cute, but still quite simple. That's how I like it. Nice is simple.
Now the trick is... writing (and actually sending!!!) thank you notes for all the lovely gifts we received. I have a two week goal on those... I'll let you know how that turns out. ;)

Paper Crafter

My friend Erin is super crafty and really into scrapbooking and cardmaking and all those paper crafts that have terrified me for years. Paper crafting-- I don't know what it is about it, I am just not patient or skilled enough to complete a project. So I don't. Erin laughs at me each time I express my fear of paper crafting.

Reeeewind about a month to Christmas. Santa was extra nice to me. He put a Silhouette under my tree. Yay fun. I was expressing to my friends once again that I was not a paper crafter and Erin said-- well you've got a silhouette now, so you are about to be. 

And I have to be honest with you, while I was BEYOND tickled about my new crafty gadget... it sat untouched for about four weeks, because I was still pretty intimidated by it. And you know... there's that paper thing...

Anyway. I finally busted it out about a week or so ago, and OMG I will never go back. I have barely scratched the surface of what this thing can do, and I am so loving it. Yay.

The first thing I made was a Happy Birthday cupcake topper for my niece. Not really ambitious or exciting, but it turned out cute and I was happy. (didn't take a picture...)

Z was impressed and asked me if I would make him a bookmark. I was like yeah, sure... and put it at the end of my to do list. Then he asked about four more times that same day, so I relented, and designed him a bookmark. 

(I had to put the thing together with fabric glue because I had no regular glue... Not a paper crafter, remember???) He was very impressed. We went to the store to get appropriate glue. As I type this he is requesting 2 more bookmarks. Husbands are silly.

At the beginning of the year there was this little thing going around on facebook where people who responded to a status post would get a handmade gift in 2011... and I decided to play along. My gifts are done, and I was trying to decide how to wrap them and I thought of those little pillow box things... and wouldn't you know... My Silhouette can make one of those. Easy peasy. 

But it couldn't be easy peasy, could it? It needed to be pretty and personalized... and well...

It needed to have intricate paper flowers on it. 

I did have a lot of fun designing and putting these flowers together after my spiffy machine cut them all out. All these shapes are ones that come with the software already, so that's pretty awesome too!

And I figured out how to weld all my text together so I could easily personalize them without a million tiny pieces to glue down.

And they are just colorful and make me happy. Oh, and if you happen to be someone owed a gift, and you see your name on one of these boxes... well, your gift is ready!