Happy Valentine's Day!

Miss Prescott Had Once Been in Love

I've been saving this project for last because I made it as a Valentine's Day gift for my husband. I don't think he reads my blog, but you never know and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. It's been a hard secret to keep!

This collage was inspired by a kit designed by Jenni Bowlin, a well-known scrapbook artist. I have always loved to collect bits and pieces of ephemera. If you look closely you'll see, among other things, an old ledger, vintage sheet music, postage stamps, a whiskey label and a cigar band. I found the portrait of the young woman at a flea market last summer. When I brought it home, Richard commented that she looked like me! Something about the round face and the glasses, I think.

I loved the process of assembling the collage and was so pleased with the way it turned out that I e-mailed a photo of it to Jenni. I was thrilled when I received a reply asking if it could be featured on her blog! So, now I've been published! I hope you'll check it out there. My friend, Christy G., took some cool photos while I was working on the collage at the SSNA retreat a couple of weeks ago and they are included in the feature.

I've been dreaming up all kinds of variations of this project and can't wait to make some more!

I hope you're all having a happy Valentine's Day spending time with the people you love the most!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Your Lucky Day Thirteen

I know I've missed a couple of days in the countdown. It's hard to blog every day! But, I have something big planned for tomorrow and today I'm going to share a little embellishment that I really love.

Crumpled paper flowers!

For these examples, I used CTMH paper from Notebook and Veranda for the top two flowers and a page from an old book for the one on the bottom.

Now, for those of you who know me and know that I used to be a librarian -- don't worry. No first editions or valuable texts were harmed in the making of this flower! The page came from one of my childhood Bobbsey Twin books! If you don't have one handy, you can easily find inexpensive books with nicely aged pages at flea markets and thrift stores.

Here's how to make the flowers. Use a scalloped circle punch to punch five circles out of lightweight, double-sided printed paper. Stack them up and pierce through the center of all five at once with your piercing tool. Use a small brad (any color--it won't show) to hold the five circles together. Now, beginning with the top circle, crumple it up so that it folds in on itself. Crumple it up good! Don't be afraid. Crumple the second circle in the same way. Do the same with the third and fourth circles, crumpling them up around each other. Leave the bottom circle flat so that the flower will be easy to attach to your artwork. Choose a button to complement the paper. (I have a collection of vintage buttons that I love to use for projects like this. Close to My Heart also has a nice variety of buttons that match our paper packs.) Unfurl the flower petals and attach the button to the center of the flower with a piece of foam tape. Push it down firmly and crumple the flower petals back up around the button a little. That's it! I love them!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Eleven

A Valentine's Day edition of Thursday Thirteen. My 13 favorite love songs from my I-pod:

1. Al Green -- Here I Am (Come and Take Me)

2. Bonnie Raitt -- Something to Talk About

3. Buddy & Julie Miller -- You Make My Heart Beat Too Fast

4. Counting Crows -- Accidentally in Love

5. Dixie Chicks -- I Can Love You Better

6. Faith Hill -- This Kiss

7. James Taylor -- How Sweet it Is

8. Kasey Chambers -- If I Were You

9. Lucinda Williams -- Still I Long for Your Kiss

10. Lucy Kaplansky -- Don't Mind Me

11. Marvin Gaye -- Distant Lover

12. Mary Chapin Carpenter -- Shut Up and Kiss Me

13. Nanci Griffith -- This Heart

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Days 8 and 9

Missed yesterday! Sorry about that. To catch up, here are two Valentine's Day cards I made with a sort of shabby-chic vintage style. I love collecting ephemera and old photos to use in my projects.

Inside the baby card I stamped "Be Mine".

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Seven

This scrapbook page doesn't have a Valentine theme, but it does include a photo of someone I love very much -- my daughter!

All of the papers used here are Close to My Heart, as are the butterflies and the felt crown.

I created this layout as an assignment for a class I'm taking over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It's called "Point of View" and is being taught by Nic Howard. After you've been scrapbooking for a while like I have (15 years, I think!), sometimes things get dull and your photos all start to look the same. This class is designed to help you look beyond the obvious and find something different and fun in your photos. I'm looking forward to the fresh inspiration!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Six

I found this little wooden word in the clearance bin at Michael's right after Christmas. I roughed it up a bit with sandpaper and attached some vintage elements from my collection.
Cheap, quick and a little bit rough! It might be just the thing for your Valentine!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Five

More chocolate! These little nugget tins are easy and fun to make.

Each Hershey's nugget is wrapped in a strip of paper that is 3 1/4" long x 1" wide. Build the piece that wraps around the box by layering 10" long strips in varying widths. Mine are 2 1/4", 1 1/4" and 1/2". Use any paper you have. Add ribbon, tags and embellishments as your heart desires.

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Four

You can't have Valentine's Day without chocolate, so here is a delicious and decadent recipe from Nigella Lawson's book How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

Molten Chocolate Babycakes

scant 1/4cup soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
12 ounces best bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

6 individual 6-ounce custard cups, buttered
baking parchment

Unless you are making these up in advance, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, putting in baking sheet at the same time. Lay 3 of the custard cups on a sheet of doubled baking parchment. Draw round them, remove and then cut out the discs as marked. Press them all into the base of the cups.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. Now add the flour, and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.

Divide the batter between the 6 custard cups, quickly whip the baking sheet out of the oven, arrange the little cups on it and replace in the oven. Cook for 10 - 12 minutes (the extra 2 minutes will be needed if the puddings are refrigerator-cold when you start) and as soon as you take them out of the oven, tip out these luscious babycakes onto small plates or shallow bowls.

Or............hop in the car and drive over to Trader Joe's. Check the freezer section for Chocolate Lava Cakes. Purchase. Bake as directed on the package.

In either case, serve with whipped cream, custard or ice cream. YUM!!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Three

Another card! It will be hard for you to re-create this one exactly because the stamp and the embellishments are no longer available. But, that's the beauty of a card sketch like the ones in our how-to books. Use the same sketch with your own stamps, paper and embellishments to create a unique card.



Card measurements
Card Base: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
Piece A: 5 1/4" x 4"
Piece B: 5" x 3 3/4"
Piece C: 3"circle
Piece D: 2" circle
Piece E: 1" circle

I'd love to see what you create with this sketch.
Leave me a link to your blog in the comments or e-mail me with a photo.

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day Two

Here's another easy card for Valentine's Day. This one features our chipboard Dimensional Elements. The newest episode of Art & Soul covers a variety of ways to use them. The little bee stamp is one of our Petite Perks -- an exclusive gift for my customers!

I also used a little bit of black textured cardstock on this card and I love the touch of sophistication it adds. This month CTMH Textured Cardstock Combo Packs are buy one, get one free with $2 from each purchase donated to Operation Smile's Haiti relief fund. Visit the Operation Smile blog for information about their on-the-ground response.
Stock up on every color combination and help this important and urgent cause!

Countdown to Valentine's Day: Day One

I'm joining CTMH consultant, Paige Dolecki, in counting down the days to Valentine's Day. I'll post a card, layout or project each day to help get you in the mood for love! Here's one of the cards we'll be making at my Valentine's Day workshops scheduled for Thursday, February 4 and Sunday, February 7. Let me know if you'd like to join us!

This card features the stamp set Love Birds. I used markers and the waterbrush to add a little color and some Liquid Glass on the heart. The Xs and Os are our new Lots of Dots alphabet stickers. They look white when you start out, but when you ink them up the polka-dot design shows through!

Simple but sweet.