Here is a cute idea for a pin for a little girl for Valentines Day. I did not want to buy a "valentine outfit" so I made my girls a pin and hair clip out of a piece of pink glitter foam. I cut out a butterfly and some flowers out of paper and hot glued on and added a few jewels. I glued a pin onto the back. These were super quick to make.

 

Here is a picture of the hair clip I made to match the pin. I used the pink glitter foam cut out into a heart. I cut out a couple of flowers and layered in the center. I only glued the center of the flower so I could bend the petals and added some Stickles glitter glue to the center. I covered a hair clip in pink ribbon and glued the heart to it. Easy, quick and fun to make Valentines Day a little special.

 

Can you believe it - two blog posts in one day. These boxes were so fun to make as a family. Really - who does not love to paint. We used paper mache heart boxes that I purchased from a craft store and covered them in acrylic paint. Even my husband had a great time painting with all of us. Of course, his is the camo one. We made these last year and it was so fun to write love notes to everyone throughout the month. The kids checked their boxes for notes and everyone had a great time writing notes. I especially loved notes like - mom u r good coocr and I like you - I love you too. Alexa wrote the most notes and she loves to make notes, but everyone had to write at least one note to everyone. The kids liked doing surprises for each other and leaving notes in each others boxes. They did others chores, made beds, cleaned the loft, etc. It was so fun. Hope you enjoy celebrating love at your home. Natelen

 

Last Valentines my sister came over and had me help her daughter make a valentine box for school. We chose to use a bag that was left over from a quilt shop purchase and cover it in some cute old Valentine paper. I used some paper from Three Bugs in a Rug that is really old, but so cute still. We were finished with her bag in 20 minutes and we did not go to the store for one thing. Just a quick idea to use your old paper that you might not want to scrap with anymore and make a fun valentine bag for classmates to put valentines in.

 

I have so been wishing for some white snow to cover the ground a bit. The sunshine is nice, but we have yet to build a good snowman this winter. I pulled some pics from a couple years back to complete this fun snow layout. I loved this picture of my girls with their snowman. Alexa is sticking her tongue out trying to catch a snowflake while looking up at her snowman and Maylee was busy making more snowballs and watching them splat on the ground and of course laughing. I used the Three Bugs in a Rug Deck the Halls Collection of paper. I love love the purple polka. I used a grid style format for my pictures. I embossed a piece of creme paper with a cuttlebug snowlfake embossing folder and added some clear stick on jewels to the center of the snowflakes. I used my Spellbinders Eyelet Circle to make the green frame for the snowman. I used a circle punch to cut out the center. I added some diamond dust to the snowman and the snowflakes. I cut a snowman using the Spellbinders Eyelet Circle to peak out of the creme strip. I love the Spellbinders dies and especially worked out great because I could see exactly where it would cut on the snowman. I used some of the stickers from the Deck the Halls collection for the sayings on this page. A couple strips of scallop paper and solid strips add to the edge of the paper. Cut some strips of creme for journaling to complete the layout. This was very simple to put together and lots of fun. Hope you enjoy your day.

 

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I know I am always a little bit late, but I thought I would share our family's neighbor gift adventure with you. We made these fun composition notebooks into Christmas journals for neighbors, teachers, coworkers, etc. It was a really fun project to do as a family. All of my children helped ink, watercolor, cut, glue and my husband even applied glitter glue to most of the pinecones. If you get a chance to find some paper for a good deal these are really cheap to make especially if you look for the notebooks when it comes time for the back to school sales around August. We used the Three Bugs in a Rug Deck the Halls collection for our paper. I love these papers especially the red and creme holly background paper. We cut these papers by measuring the notebook and adding just a bit for trimming when finished. We used Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Seasons Silhouettes stamp for the words. We used Jet Black Archival ink and stamped on some creme cardstock from Archivers that is a bit bumpy and then sprinkled with embossing powder and embossed. We then trimmed the cardstock to desired size and rubbed frayed burlap distress ink across the entire stamped image with a bit more around the edges. We then sprayed with some perfect pearls mist we made from some gold perfect pearls and some water in a mini mister. Then my children did the watercolor over the words and left the 25 without any color. Once the watercolor dried they applied some green stickles glitter glue on the JOY. We backed this on a piece of black cardstock and then onto the Three Bugs in a Rug bluish-gray paper. We used a scallop punch to make a border strip in creme and then the yellow polka cut to size for the bottom of the book. We had a lot of fun making pinecones using the Sizzix Vagabond cutting the tattered pinecone die which we used for the pinecones and the pine sprigs. We used some stickles crystal glitter glue to apply glitter to the pinecones and the sprigs. We finished it off with a piece of glittery tulle with a bell hanging from the middle and a red jewel on the center of the pinecone to fill in the little gap between the two. I thought they turned out really pretty. We made 30 of these notebooks and as my husband says you better get started on next years project in January (I am thinking not quite so soon). Hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

 

Here is a Christmas card I made for my husband for Christmas. I followed the sketch over at My Minds Eye. I used some of the Holly Jolly and Lost and Found Christmas collections. I was able to get a Sizzix Vagabond for free using my customer points at Roberts since they are going out of business and had the machine on for $150.00 to begin with. I had to make a tree on my new machine. It was really fun. I love the brads on the tree and all the fun glittery accents done on my cricut using the Joys of the Season cartridge. I gathered the paper to make the grayish blue strip on the bottom and layered some tulle underneath it. A bow and bell finished it off. I am really happy with the way my card turned out. Have a Merry Christmas!

 

Here is a card I made for the MME November challenge. The sketch is on their blog and you had to use brown somewhere on your card. I used a technique for the yellowish background that I saw on Tammy Tutterow's blog. I used some different kinds of ink, but it turned out so pretty. I used mustard seed distress ink, frayed burlap distress ink, and sand Tattered Angel's glimmer mist. I put a light bit of mustard seed on with my blending tool and then sprayed with glimmer mist. I blended in some frayed burlap distress ink while it was still wet and let dry and then added a tiny bit more mustard seed in a few spots. I then debossed it in my cuttlebug using a sizzix embossing template. Then the cool part is adding some clear rock candy crackle paint and scraping it off the top as much as possible with a piece of cardstock. The crackle paint stays down in the debossed part of the design. This is the first time I tried it and it was so FUN! I also used a flower punch I just bought the other day to make the flower which was fun too. I then used some of MME's lace to finish off the middle of the flower. The butterflies I made on my Cricut using the Give a Hoot cartridge on 1/2" and 3/4". I sprayed them with wheatfields glimmer mist and finished the tops with Tattered Rose Distress Ink. This was a really fun card to make and I like the way it turned out. Thanks for stopping by. I have a wreath tutorial coming your way that is really fun so check back soon. Natelen