To My Valentine

I love the new poem up at Scrap That Poetry!  It's called "Ah, Yes! Love" by Clarence B. Campbell.

Again, I broke into my Vintage Plum Stash!

What a beautiful kit!

Sorry for the glare in this photo but I am not going to take another photo just to have one without the glare...I figured you ladies wouldn't mind.

The journaling reads (it's part of the poem):

"Ah, yes! Love

The transparency I used is to blame for all that glare (which I was able to correct pretty well with my Photoshop Elements).  I figure out how to do some cool things by trial and error while working on this layout.  I put on some of this ink, intending to color the inside of this heart a beautiful blue.  But I found out that it would NOT dry onto the transparency (duh)!  Luckily, as I placed my elbow over that area and discovered it was wet, I DID NOT smear it all over my beautiful page!!!  I then placed another transparency over it to blot it and got this cool look.  Now....to seal it....I added some of that clear-drying glue/craft laquer (Stampin' Up! calls it Crystal Effects) but they do sell another brand at Michaels.

I used lots of Liquid Pearls and Stickles for all that added zing!  I had another photo that wouldn't upload...but you get the idea of how they look, right?  If not, I'm sure if you click on the full layout you get a big gigantic photo.  For a supply list check HERE.

Well, that's it!  I'm loving this layout!  I think I'll frame it and give it to Luke for Valentines...along with something else he might like such as golf-related stuff.

Hope your week has been great!  Thanks for visiting!  What are you doing this weekend?  I'm skiing on a GIRLS ONLY trip!  Woohooo!

Hugs,

Mo

Is bubbles and beauty and lantern light,

Music and madness and dizzy height,

Tender words,

And a star-filled night!"

This verse went PERFECTLY with my photo taken around Valentine's Day one year (Hubby and I argue if it's 2005 or 2006..I think he's right but I didn't tell him that...wink wink).  So contrary to what I thought, this was taken in '06 NOT '05.  Anyway, my POINT IS....we saw this dinner show at a place in Seattle called "Teatro Zinzanni" where you have dinner while they perform all around you.  There's music, singing, acting, comedy, lots of costumes and make-up, and even acrobats!  Oh, it is sooooooo amazing! Oh!  AND FACE PAINTING! (See how it talks about that in the poem????)  I hoped to go this year, but Hubs was too late on booking the tickets (ahem....Mo was actually too late in reminding him)!

 Side note...I've figured that I have to help romance along by sending links to what I want for special occasions and telling him what I want for Anniversaries and Valentines Day...etc.  I started last Christmas and have been VERY VERY VERY HAPPY.  I didn't think I could be... at first...because my gifts would not be HIS idea but MINE.  Then, I realized IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME...cuz I get what I want and I'm not moping around when other people talk about what THEY got!  Sorry, it's not the thought that counts with him...because when he's stressed...he doesn't think clearly...he he!  Examples (clothes purchased online that don't fit...not even close (SMALL UNISEX is NOT SMALL!!!), ANOTHER gift certificate to a place for which he's already given me 3 previous ones, a framed piece of artwork that SUCKED (not my style at all...and he payed WAY TOO MUCH for it), and the most INFAMOUS present....BIG FAT NOTHING...not even a card...or flowers).  Yep, I remember stomping upstairs that day after yelling and slamming the door behind me.  It was not a good year for us that year.  Sigh.

So we will be celebrating our 8 year anniversary this May...yep...it took me THAT LONG...to figure out I needed to SPELL OUT WHAT I WANT!  It's a win-win situation!  With those I love, I'm not great at compromise....I want what I want...yes, I know I'm spoiled....I'm a brat.  But they never tell me...that's why when I realized this a few years a go...I shocked myself...heh heh!  More on that another time.  I stumbled across some cool techniques while working on this layout!

Valentine's Day Treat Bag!

Love You Much Stamp Set Item #113756

(image copyright Stampin' Up!)

Hi Everyone! I know this might be a little late for ideas for Valentine's Day...but it's a quick project you could do...and you could apply the idea to a birthday party, Christmas treat bag, or party favors! I wanted to create a treat bag that my daughter could give away to her classmates on Valentine's Day. We did a mini 3x3 card last year...but wanted to do CANDY this time!


The bags had about 4 pieces of candy each: mini M&M's, Nerds, Laffy Taffy, and my ALL TIME favorite candy Bottle Caps! If you wanted to put less candy or smaller pieces in the bag, just fold the top flap in half!
I actually used some old neon paper I had (I'm not a fan of neon colors at all so jumped at this chance to use them up!). I used regular printer type paper...not cardstock. Other options would be to use construction paper or scrap pieces of cardstock.

I will be posting a video on my YouTube Channel. If you subscribe to this blog, you get ideas more often than subscribing to my YouTube videos only....I blog way more than I make videos!!!!

This project would be awesome to do with children. My daughter Isabel LOVED it!!!! She got to color, put candy in bags, glue on hearts, use a stapler....she did most of the work! Here's what it looked like:
Now, since we had to make a total of 23, the use of punches REALLY allowed us to make them VERY QUICKLY! Here are all the items we used:

1) 4x4 pieces of paper or cardstock.

2) Scallop Circle Punch (Stampin' Up!)

3) Heart to Heart Punch (Stampin' Up!)

4) craft glue

5) 1/16" Handheld Punch (Stampin' Up!)

6) Stapler

7) Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

8) Blender Pen

9) Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad

10) 4 x 6 inch Plastic Baggie (got it at Mitchael's in the candy making section)

11) Love You Much Stamp Set by Stampin' Up!

(Photos of some of these items can be found at the end of this post. Those photos are copyright Stampin' Up!)


My 6 year old did the stamping and coloring (as you can see from the image...he he)...she did such a great job.....SHE'S SO CRAFTY! I punched out the circle scallops and hearts since her hands are so small...they couldn't manage the punches as easily. Maybe if we chose a less complicated shape to punch out, she would have done fine on her own.

I folded the 4x4 pieces in half, placed it at the top of the bag, then stapled it. You then glue on the scallop circle OVER the staple so that you can't see it! If you have the time, add pop dots or foam adhesive to give some dimension to the scallops and the hearts!!!! We had to go quickly to allow enough time in the day to do some "girl time" stuff at the mall and run errands! We had TONS of fun by the way!! Here's a side note....if you like bread pudding.....ya gotta stop over at the Nordstrom Bistro (in Lynnwood Nordstrom) and try their bread pudding.......YUMMMMMMMMMMM!




Let's get back on track.....On the back of bag, I had her put "from Isabel". Since they would be passing SO MANY of these out, I thought it easiest to NOT put her classmates names on them.
At the end of the day, Isabel said she had SO MUCH FUN making these Valentine's Day Treat Bags and spending time with her Mommy on our little "Girls Only Day" together. We're gonna make this "Girls Only Day" a monthly thing!!!!! NO BOYS ALLOWED!!!!
HAPPY HEARTS DAY!!!!

Scallop Circle Punch

Heart to Heart Punch

1/16" Handheld Punch

Valentine Scrapbooking Post #1: An Engagement

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh. A Valentine's Day Wedding!

I've been trying to figure out a way to scrapbook these engagement photos of my brother-in-law Chay and his fiancee Jackie. What makes all these photos even more special is that they were taken by the Groom's brother, Cham (ckaophotogrphy.com).

So, I took the theme of Valentine's Day and used it to come up with the colors for the project: red, pink, white, black, and gray. I also decided to use quotes about Love for each page. I thought the quotes would do well to unite all the pages and become a scrapbook of photos with quotations.

I will be presenting this scrapbook to the bride and groom on their wedding day. The size of the scrapbook pages are 8.5" x 8.5". I'd like to share some of the pages I created.

I needed some inspiration, so I made a trip down to Lasting Memories in Lynnwood, Washington to find some coordinating products. I work fastest and easiest with coordinating papers and embellishments. Then I don't have to look around my scrap room to find specific things. This keeps me focused on the project and gives me direction. I used mostly Making Memories products.......LOVE THEM!
I scrapbooked a combination of color photos and black and white photos. As long as I used either all color photos or all black and white photos on a 2 page spread, the pages worked well together.

Here's the first page of the scrapbook:

I used lots of buttons to add personality and texture to the page. For the first time I used lace cardstock......SO MUCH FUN!!! It was a 12" x 12" page which needed to be trimmed down so that I could use pieces of it on several pages. Here I placed the lace behind the photo. For some reason, I don't use a lot of photo mats...I always end up placing scrap pieces behind the photos. I just love that sort of look.

I placed the photo corners in a spot where one of the curls from the lace cardstock curled over onto the photo corner......I loved the way that looked.

I used LOTS of Love Notes Die-Cut Tags by Making Memories.

The white lace cardstock is by K I Memories called Bloom Frost Lace Cardstock. I can't find a link to this specific item on the K I Memories website (it's probably discontinued).....but I did purchase the lace cardstock at Lasting Memories in Lynnwood, Washington.

I love how the flowers seem to frame this photo! I was drawn to this patterned paper in the store, but wasn't sure how it was going to work with the photos....but I bought it anyway. I think it worked! I thought handwriting the quotes added something personal....a part of me and my love. Isn't it amazing how you can literally wrap up a gift in your love???????

Here's a couple close-up photos of the page.

This very beautiful patterned cardstock is made by S.E.I. It's called Jolie Chocolat "praline". I cut out the section with the flowers and used it on this page. I tried to search shopsei.com for this paper, but couldn't find it so here is another link to a site called Crafty Tart which will show you just how cute this patterned paper is!

The flowers are mostly felt and paper from Making Memories: Blossoms & Buttons "In Bloom". It comes with red, white, and orange felt flowers, some white paper flowers with polka dots, and red, blue and orange buttons.
The white with red polka-dot ribbon is by American Crafts.

The chipboard embellishments are also from Making Memories called "jigsaw shapes".

Here's a close up so you can see the detail of the flowers and the quote.

Here's another page featuring the S.E.I. paper it's actually another part of the same piece of patterned paper. I used a craft knife to trim out one of the butterfly wings so that it would overlap the photo. TIP: Be sure to use a glass mat to trim, a self healing mat will not glide very well and will result in paper tears.



Once again, I used the Making Memories jigsaw shapes and Love Notes Die-Cut Tags (link above). I really love the softness that the pink adds. Very feminine. Very lovey dovey!
Here I used more lace cadstock by K I Memories but used red instead. This page didn't really need much. I think the beautiful photo and quote say enough. The tag is more of the Making Memories Die-Cuts. I used a white Signo Gel Pen to write the quote.
Again, the photos and quote is all I needed to create the feel I wanted for this page.....love, unity in the intertwined fingers.....romance. The quote reads: "The spaces between your fingers were created so that anther's could fill them in." (Sigh).

A close up of the photo of the bride-to-be. I hope this scrapbook I create can express all the love I want it to. I'm so very happy these two found one another.....and I can't wait for some nieces or nephew to run around.....REAL SOON! I still have a few more pages to create. I will share them when they are done!!!!! Enjoy!

HaraJuku Lovers Perfume......LOVE......and a card!

Okay, so I'm a perfume FREAK....meaning, when I go to the store and wander into the perfume section.....and smell a new fragrance....then FALL IN LOVE with it......it's all over! So, I try to stay away and only wander there....when I have money to spend. Now, in the last few years I have done much better....but that's because I have 2 kids now and lots more responsibilites. The funny thing is, since I've been married (going on 7 years), I really haven't bought a bottle of perfume.....but I wear perfume just about every day. AND I still have at least 3 or 4 full bottles of some sort of perfume I haven't started using yet......yes, I have THAT MANY BOTTLES. I took a Macy's gift certificate I had (been sitting in my wallet for nearly 1 year) and excitedly floated through the pefume section. If I had a stop clock to see how long it took me to gravitate towards this bottle......it had to be less than 1 minute!
This bottle is called "Love"....and it comes from a line called HaraJuku Lovers by Gwen Stefani. (Check out the cool website link.....and the super cute video). This specific sent is said to be a "sensuous floral". There are five different scents....(what a great strategy to get you to buy!)! Anyway, the bottles resemble Gwen Stefani and her HaraJuku girls. The website talks about the different fragrances....check it out. It's like collection of little dolls!!!!!! What is HaraJuku? It's the name of the fashion or style.....from Harajuku, Japan. Very cool, VERY different.....and CUTE CUTE CUTE!

So what is the whole point of this?????? I just wanted to say that my adorable bottle of perfume inspired a card creation that I wanted to share!!!!!! Not my usual cardmaking style....which was great! It's hard for me to get out of my crafting comfort zone and doing something different. It was so much fun!

I knew I HAD to bring in the laces from the shoes.....and of course the pink hearts! I didn't have any of the light blue cardstock.....:C so I used the gray instead. I placed 6 black eyelets so I could lace the thin red ribbon through it. I then had to place Stampin' Dimensionals behind it (foam) because I couldn't just glue it down (the eyelets made it impossible for the black cardstock to lay flat...so I popped it up). I wanted stripes in there somewhere, so I had to cut 1/4" strips of gray cardstock and glue it onto the blue cardstock.

I used the Love You Much stamp set once again......colored the heart red and cut it out so I could place some foam behind it and place it on top of the same stamped image. I also punched out a scallop circle and glued it to the back of the image so that it would show through the holes (see below). I added more foam to the back and popped up the whole scallop circle!


I stamped the hearts with Versamark then added white opaque embossing powder and heated it up to get the embossed effect. I then took my coordinating heart punch and punched the hearts out. I couldn't stop using the Stampin' Dimensionals....so these hearts are popped up too!

Here is my cute little HaraJuku girl next to my fun card! I think I will be on the prowl for new perfume bottles to inspire my cardmaking! I'm on a mission! I would LOVE to see other creations inspired by this post!!!!! Just email me or leave a comment with a link to your post/photo!!!!!