Valentinepalooza

Hi, friends, Happy Valentine's Day...or as we call it, Matt's birthday. My hubby was born on Valentine's Day awhile ago (shhh! he's 50 this year!) and his mom used to say he was her favorite Valentine. Now he's my favorite Valentine! It's the only birthday I both give and get gifts. He never forgets to get me my favorite candy (Russell Stover...their chocolate buttercream candies rock!) and a present.

Today I've got a digi stamp Valentine card using the February prize for winning at a2z Scrapbooking's It's a Love Thing challenge. The prize is the Hero Arts Words of Love digis. I printed the word, colored and fussy cut the letters. Then I arranged them like the iconic Love Sculpture by Robert Indiana, but I turned the "o" the opposite way.

I wrote the word "you" with Arteza marker and trimmed it out. The sparkly dots are Your Next Stamp's Gumdrops. I super love them. They come in matte as well, and I love those too.

Here's a close-up of the letters.

Here's a little Valentine link so you can get some freebies today. Nothing says I love you like discounts! Check out the deals at Qdoba and TCBY here.

And here's a link to 15 free heart digis you can download and color, including this one, from Shery K Designs.

And here's a no-bake Valentine treat you can make...I'd substitute Valentine M&Ms though, for the heart candies as they are not my faves.

And if you want to work a little harder, you could make these heart meringues. I love meringue cookies--crisp on the outside and chewy inside. Nothing like pie meringue, which is not my favorite.

And that's all I have for today...hope you have a good Valentine's Day!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

My Heart Tics For You

I know Valentine's Day was yesterday, but this little Tic Tac project can be used for any holiday or birthday as a way to dress up a box of Tic Tacs. 

I got the idea online but I didn't use any measurements or anything, basically, I just cut cardstock so I could fold it over a box of candy, scored the width of the box, added patterned paper (hearts in this case, but shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, bunnies for Easter, and other papers are easy to get and use), some ribbon to tie it closed and a felt heart sticker for the topper.

This came together very quickly and I was able to pop it in the mail for a friend. 

Doncha love the internet and Pinterest for ideas? I do!

Hope you have a great President's Day! Although Here's a little video of my daughter's (and the world's apparently) favorite musical right now—Hamilton. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote it and who plays Hamilton, decided to cast multi-ethnic actors so everyone could leave their baggage at the door and just enjoy the story. He also used a lot of hip-hop and rap in his musical to make it more interesting to a different kind of theatre-goer AND he put the music out for free because when he was a kid he couldn't afford to go to a Broadway show and wanted everyone to have access to the music...Brilliant! 

Although Hamilton wasn't a president, turns out he is a fascinating founding father and has a great story and the musical features Washington, King George and of course, Aaron Burr. Check it out!

Happy Monday,
Chark

I Heart You

Went to my favorite lss, The Paper Cottage, and their make n take was a Valentine shaker. I'm still really bad at shakers so I went to try again. I did okay, but the sequins get stuck here and there (I didn't have an anti-static wipe) but I'm okay with it, because I like when there are some sequins stuck in there so the window isn't empty when it's standing.

Here's the card one way (I used some of the elements in the kit, and not others).

Then I was rearranging the cupid and bent his neck, which made it look broken (eek!) so I replaced him with some roses and then added lace. Here's the second version of the card. I'm planning to send it to one of the retired nuns who lives at the Mother House and was important to our family...hi, Sister Agnes!

Hope you have some fun plans for Valentines...this one was pretty fun and easy.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

I Heart You

Today over at the a2z Scrapbooking Blog, I have a project for Valentine's Day posted. I made a set of cork coasters with a fun stamp and embossing. I made a matching card too and I think it'd make a fab masculine gift.

Hope you'll pop over and take a look! If you're interested in getting some of these (or other crafty) goodies, you can use the code CHARK15 to get 15% off your order of $25 or more. Oh, and enter the February contest if you want to try for the $25 gift card. The theme is embossing and Hero Arts.

Check out the sale items too. This Bubble Talk Stamp from my coasters is just $6 for a full card-size cling stamp!

Here's a sneak peek of the project.

And, if you're looking for more chances to win stuff, Paper Smooches is having an anniversary, so hop over here and enter! See my last post for my latest PS project—couldn't love their stamps more! Happy Anniversary, Paper Smooches and Kim!

Happy Monday!
Chark