Vintagey Valentine's Cards

I love sending Valentine’s to family and friends. Consistent with my paper addiction, Valentine’s Day was just the excuse reason I needed to pick up another  Recollections paper pack at Michaels called “Union Square”. It’s full of vintage papers in muted shades of red, black and neutral, with lots of damask overlays on text and assorted other patterns.

A few of the cards were made using a digital image of “Alice’s Rabbit” found here : Free Vintage Digital Stamps.

I downloaded, sized and printed on white cardstock, then colored in the rabbit with alcohol markers and colored pencils. I decided to only color in spots of his vest etc.

I trimmed one of the images to use as a mask , laid it on top of the other images and then “spounced” around the exposed edges with a brush and “Antique Linen” distress ink.  Trimmed and mounted my rabbit panels on black panels embossed using a fleur-de-lis embossing folder by Cricut.

The cards are 5x7 ( I used blank cards I had on hand) and I covered the front with torn pieces of papers from the pack. Embellished with coordinating washi tape, hearts punched from scraps, Prima flowers, rhinestones, and some ticket stickers from my stash.

 

For some of the other cards, I tore a panel from a page that already had LOVE written out in glitter, along with other washi tapes and embellishments.

or stamped the word LOVE onto a book page and then mounted with coordinating papers. My gold heart there is made from loops of mizuhiki cord I found at the Japanese dollar store chain Daiso.

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BFF Open House Link Party Wrap Up and Features: Valentine-a-palooza

So many cute ideas shared at Friday's party. Clearly people are in LOVE with Valentine's Day and are well prepared to celebrate it this week. Let's have a look:

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Tonna from USS Crafty shared this adorable Valentine's wreath made from Dollar Tree and Michael's supplies. Low cost, high impact. 

Teri from A Creative Princess shared how she not only embellished washers ( cute on their own) but grouped them together to make a heart shaped washer necklace. LOVE!

Denyse from Glitter Glue and Paint raided her scraps and whipped up these sweet Valentine's candles. 

Sarah, from Sarah's SaturDIY share here "Owl-entine's " bunting along with her adorable Valentine's vignette. 

And Caroline from cw frosting shared how to easily transform your throw pillows into Valentine's decor with an easy no-sew technique. 

Of course, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without chocolate. Here are some delicious chocolate ideas you could whip up for your someone special. 

Karyn at Pint Sized Baker shared these yummy chocolate strawberry hearts. You might pop over to check out her giveaway too!

Your family will love you ( even more than they do already ) if you whip up a batch of these Reeses's Brownies from Jovana at Taste of August.

You could start Jovana's brownies with these homemade Peanut Butter Cups from Shauna at The Best Blog Recipes, or you could just make some of these to give your sweetheart.  And to round out the trifecta of Peanut Butter chocolatey goodness:

Peanutbutter and Chocolate Pretzels from Amy at Ameroonie Designs. I am in love with that sweet paper rose in her picture too!

Happy Valentine's Week sweet readers. 

Key To My Heart Wall Art

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I love it when a plan you didn’t have comes together! But first...if you're looking for the BFF Open House link party, it's still going on right here . Great ideas to check out and link up your own.

So. I had this big antique metal key in my stash and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it and then I was going through my stamp stash and ba-da-bing.

The stamp has the sentiment that brought everything together but more on that later.

I had this fantastic black and white glass heart in my Blue Moon Beads design team materials. LOVED it from moment I saw it but wanted to save it for just the right thing.

I pulled it out along with some antique gold chain, findings, and this metal tassel pendant. All by Blue Moon.

I attached pieces of a toggle clasp from the findings package to two lengths of chain and glued them to the back of my key.

While that was setting, I worked on my focal point. Using the glass heart, metal pendant, another key from my stash, some ribbons and an antique book ring ( 7 Gypsies) I just kind of played around until I liked the result. This involved more findings from the same package.

I tied my focal to the book ring and then the book ring to the chain and finished up with some strips of leftover drop cloth. And now we’re back to the tag using the stamp that started it all.

Small manila tag, dusted and swiped with Distress Ink ( antique linen) with a scrap of leftover paper and a piece of washi tape. I  debated about saving this to give Mr. C. for Valentine’s Day but decided I wanted to look at it now. It’s hanging in our bedroom where we both can see it. From the moment I got this key he’s claimed it as his. Well who knew he was right? ‘Cause he does hold the key to my heart.

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BFF Open House Link Party #91

Is it Friday eve again already? Indeed it is. Is it also one week from national chocoholic's day I mean Valentine's Day? Indeed that too. Yikes. Let's get right to it and see what everyone's been up to this week.

Valentine's Photo Props and Treats

I knew I wanted to send College Boy some goodies for Valentine’s Day and when I saw these lips and mustache photo props by Amy at Living Locurto , I knew exactly what to do. 

I started by downloading the files for the photo props here. Then cut them out and adhered them to  bamboo skewers. These were great but I thought they needed a holder.

I grabbed an empty tea tin and covered it with scrapbook paper and coordinating washi tape.

I had some film strip rub-ons in my stash so I applied those and then used up some alphabet stickers I had on hand to spell out “Photo Props”

Finished it up with some metal self adhesive brads.

I figured he and his friends could have some fun posing for silly pictures. This is exactly the kind of thing he and his friens like to do and they mostly hang out as a group. But that was only part of the treats for the goodie box .

I picked up some chevron print paper bags and had some heart themed washi tape from when I couldn’t resist a “buy all” option at Pick Your Plum when they had washi tape on special.  In keeping with the mustache theme, I made an image in PicMonkey that I sized to 2.5 x 2.5 and put on each of the bags.

If you don’t get my brand of humor, it translates to : “I mustache you to”.... Feel free to use if you like.

Of course the bags are filled with assorted chocolate hearts, Reeses, Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger ( I didn’t even eat any!) Laffy Taffy, and some Valentine’s themed temporary tattoos.

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Valentine's Decor: Easy Vinyl Embellished Charger

Still in stash busting mode and sharing a project I made last month for the Expressions Vinyl blog.  After Christmas 2011 (yes, that’s right 2011) I picked up a couple of vinyl chargers for next to nothing on clearance at Michaels. I thought I might use them this Christmas. Didn’t. But I did use one to make a quick Valentine’s project.

 I downloaded a few Valentine’s themed images and phrases from the Silhouette online store. I have had my Cameo for a year now and am still learning everything you can do with it. For this project I used the group function to well, group, all the images I used together enabling me to then re-size one thing vs multiple.

It’s the same principle as any graphics or digital scrapbooking software. I positioned and sized each image individually then did “Edit, Select All” and then “Object, Group” from the menu in the Silhouette software.
I sometimes use transfer paper and sometimes don’t. This time I did because I was trying to make sure it was centered. I cut my grouped image using a brushed metallic silver vinyl ( Expressions ) and even added the little center heart cutout.

I don’t do a lot of decorating for Valentine’s but this was a quick and easy way to add a little.

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BFF Open House Link Party #90 Wrap Up and Features

Thanks everyone for linking up to Friday's Open House. Since Mr. Groundhog says we're in for an early Spring, I guess that makes me feel less anxious about seeing Easter stuff in the stores before Valentine's Day. OK a little.

So let's see a few of the great ideas that were shared shall we?

I love, love, LOVE , altered bottles and this one from Artsy VaVa doesn't disappoint. Buzz on over to see how she did it. 

And what would go great with this? These adorable treat boxes from Sarah at Alderberry Hill for one. 

If you're looking for a candy alternative to Valentine's treats, then check out this idea from Tasya from My House and Home:

But if you are looking to share some sweet love for Valentine's day, you'll want to check out this week's chocolate feature from Jessica at My World Made by Hand. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Bites! Oh yeah. 

Thanks again for choosing to make The Answer Is Chocolate part of your weekly party stop. Make it a creative week and hope to see everyone again on Friday.