Valentine's Treats for College Kids

I used to love doing treats for class parties etc. when my son was in Elementary school.

Middle and High School provided fewer opportunities but surprisingly, College has brought them back!

I think it’s because he and a lot of his dorm group are away from home and it’s fun to receive things in the mail, but also now that they’re actually older, they don’t have to pretend like this stuff is just too “kiddie” for them.

I decided to go with a turquoise and red color combo. Still not totally traditional for Valentine’s Day and incorporates a current color combo trend.

The tags for the goodie bags were made from a printable I created using My Memories Suite digital software. I resized the image and then trimmed the corners into a tag shape.

I bought several different candies…Nerds, Smarties, Reeses Hearts, Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses etc. Oh darn...there may be extras!

I changed the printable size and used it on a card I made for my son, and also made him a special grab bag. I thought I had some bigger clear bags ( I can be a little OCD about everything coordinating!) but didn’t, so improvised with a brown paper lunch bag:

Embellised with misc. stickers from my stash and tied all of the bags with red and turquoise bakers twine ( Twinery).

Sharing the printable here :

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My Sunny (Yellow) Valentine

One of the most popular trends right now is the color combination of gray and yellow. I know neither of these colors is normally associated with Valentine’s Day but I decided, why shouldn’t they be?!

I have the DCWV Lemon Flower Stack ( LOVE this paper!)  and chose a couple of complementary patterns to use on these cards. Cut panels from the black and gray sheets and then used scraps of one with the other, and finished off the panels with silver glittered ribbon.

For the focal point of the card, I used a G Studio $1 clear “LOVE” stamp (Michaels)  and Fresh Ink pigment ink in mango. Layered that on a scrap of the DCWV paper, and then on a scrap of silver glitter paper.

I stamped the swirl heart (from Inkadinkado’s Hearts collection #97637) and cut out. Added a couple of hearts punched from more silver glitter scraps.

I love Stickles and the patterns on this paper gave me an excuse to dot iridescent Stickles everywhere!

By now, friends and family who receive cards from me understand they never know what they’re going to get. Sometimes very traditional colors; other times…..

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Valentine's In Gray and White

For the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed making non-traditional color Valentine’s cards. I went through this phase with Christmas décor so I guess my muse just moved ahead on the calendar!

This year I am playing with a palette of gray and white with accents of black and silver. Maybe it has something to do with being covered in snow and ice right now!

I used white cardstock for the card and Core’dinations textured paper (Stormy Gray), dry embossed using Tim Holtz “Floral and Fancy Frames” texture fade embossing folders.  The patterned strip on the bottom is Deja Views Sweet Romance Gray Damask.

The “LOVE” focal was computer generated using My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software, sized (2.5 x 3 ) and then mounted on black and glittered silver cardstock. Finished with hearts punched from more of the damask paper, black and white baker’s twine, a silver heart brad, adhesive rhinestones and pearls.

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Banner Love

Or, Love Banner…po-tay-to po-tah-to. In keeping with my chocolate Valentine’s theme, I made a new banner to go on my fireplace :

I  started with a chipboard book that I picked up after Christmas at Michaels for $.60. Yep. That’s right $.60. OK it started out at $1 from the dollar bin, but still…$.60:

I covered four of the hearts with scrapbook paper :

and added a torn strip of a coordinating paper down the middle. Then I cut out medallions in coordinating papers using my Cricut Expression and ran the larger solid one through the Cuttlebug for texture:

Cut the letters LOVE using the Jasmine alphabet cart and put those in the center of each heart. Never content to leave things simple , I added silver foil stickers (I’ve used Magenta peel offs before but these are from Elizabeth Craft Designs…I found these at Ben Franklin) and of course I had to add some bling so I added some rhinestone and pearlized self adhesive strips.

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Chocolate Valentines

I’d been debating what color(s) to use for Valentine’s cards this year…traditional reds,whites, pinks, or some years I’ve added black and gold into the mix. But I also love neutrals…creams and browns especially deep rich chocolatey browns. So I finally decided and went with the neutrals / browns. I mean Valentine’s Day is one of the chocolatiest days of the year right?!
Of course just as soon as I made up my mind, I kept seeing all these really gorgeous deep red and burgundy papers…I love paper almost as much as chocolate!
I’ve also been playing some more with graphics and digital stuff. I downloaded a great French postcard from Stampington & Co through signing up for one of their newsletters, and “negativized” it in my PrintShop program ( several other graphics programs have similar options). Then I aged it, colored the background, added a vintage heart which I changed the color to match my theme, a fleur-de-lis,  some scrollwork, and the word “LOVE” .

I printed this out on white cardstock, trimmed and mounted on brown cardstock to use as the focal for my cards.  I used various combinations of cream and brown papers to make a few cards, running metallic brown paper through my Cuttlebug, using a Textile folder. This is what the pattern looks like:

I then used the papers for the cards:

Cuttlebug embossed paper, adhesive rhinestone strip, scraps of paper charm borders accented with individual adhesive rhinestones.

Brown diamond pattern paper, Cuttlebug embossed paper, pearl and rhinestone adhesive strips and individual adhesive rhinestones.

Cuttlebug embossed paper corners,pearl and rhinestone adhesive strips, individual adhesive rhinestones.

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