~18~ I Love you, I Love you more

Each night, Jake and I always say goodnight to each other by saying, "I Love You" and the other one saying, "I Love You More". (This being a shortened version of when we say: I love you, I love you more, I love you more than most, I love you most of all")  I love this little ritual and for Christmas this year, I asked for and got a necklace with that phrase engraved over and over on a Mobius Strip (which also appeals to the math nerd in me).  For those who don't know, a Mobius strip is a mathematical concept of a strip that has one single twist in it and then the ends are connected to form a circle-like shape.  The neat thing about it is that you can start at one point, traverse the entire surface (both sides) of the strip, and return to the starting spot. The inside of the strip becomes the outside, and the outside then returns to the inside.  I personally think it's even cooler than an infinity symbol.

While Jake and I celebrate our love everyday, we still like to do something a little extra special together and for each other on Valentine's Day.  This year, with it falling on a Tuesday, it made it a little harder since I usually have obligations after work M-Th.  I didn't need/expect any gifts from my beloved this year, but I knew I wanted to get him something.  After wandering around Scheels for a little bit, I found the perfect gift.  Now it's no surprise here that Jake loves the Vikings, and so a Coach's Vikings jacket was a very appropriate choice.  I was so excited to give it to him along with my "Prince Charming" card that I made!

  

My sweetie wasn't without surprises himself.  I got a call around 4 that day from my school secretary saying that I had a package waiting for me and that it was marked perishable, so I better come get it.  (I hadn't been at my building that day because I was an all-day district meeting).  Excited, I headed over to pick up and found a dozen HUGE chocolate covered strawberries! Do I have an amazing husband or what?!?  Because I had orchestra that night, and Jake wasn't feeling well, we decided to postpone our evening plans and make up for it on the weekend.  Instead, we enjoyed each others company, played a little Jeopardy (along with the contestants on the show) and had some great take out from Jethros.  Honestly, it really doesn't get better than that!

Now, Valentine's Day just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a little crafting, and this year was no exception.  Jake's work was doing a little party and card exchange, so I agreed to create some treats and cards for him to bring.  I've been wanting to continue perfecting my cake pop techniques, so I made heart shaped ones from Strawberry cake and various colored candy coating-resembling the conversation hearts candy we all know and love.  To make the heart shapes, I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter.  First I rolled the cake "dough" into a large ball and then flattened it out until it was about 3/4"-1" thick, then cut it with the cookie cutter.  Initially, this proved to be harder and more frustrating than the football cake pops I made a couple weeks ago.  The hearts were a lot more top heavy, so when I went to dip them, the weight of the heart along with the candy coating caused them to fall apart.  I had to throw away quite a few of them.  I soon enough realized that instead of dipping them, if I tilted the coffee mug full of melted candy coating on it's side, I could hold the cake pop horizontally to dip and then flip it to the other side to coat it completely instead of dipping it vertically.  Worked like a charm and I ended up with 40 beautiful hearts! Unfortunately, the Wilton edible writers totally STINK!  They did not work at all.  I was pretty disappointed because it prevented me from fully carrying out my creative vision.  However, I still think that they turned out pretty darn cute.

To package them, I put about 1/2 in the same styrofoam block I used for the football ones, except covered it in red paper this time, for Jake to take to work with him.  The other 1/2 I put into small cellophane bags in bunches of 3 and tied them with a silver twist tie for me to bring to work.  Cake pop batch #2=success.

Finally, I made 12 Valentine's Day cards for Jake to bring for his co-workers and ended with some that I really liked.  These were my favorites.

This Sunday, my Valentine and I are planning on going to dinner at Red Lobster (I've never been!) using some gift cards we got as a wedding gift-Thanks Uncle Johnny!-and then going to see the movie, "The Vow."  Should be a great way to end our weekend!

~11~ Love is in the air

Today, I spent a good amount of time playing around with my new Cricut cartridges, "Celebrate with Flourish" and "Lacy Labels".  With Valentine's Day just a little over 2 weeks away, I figured that would be the perfect project for this week's post.  Tonight's project also made me think about how Valenetine's Day is often known as the "Hallmark" holiday and is thought to have become more of a mass marketing extravaganza, instead of a day to acknowledge your loved ones and tell them just how much they mean to you.  Cue the alternate alias, "Singles Awareness Day". However, I don't think that Valentine's Day has to be thought of this way.

Love comes in so many forms and doesn't just have to be about romantic love.  We all have varying levels of love: love for our family, love for our spouses/significant others, love for our family-parents/children, love for our friends, even love for our pets.  So, why not use Valentines day to celebrate all of those loves, letting one of those ways be through a card? Even though cards are just a piece of folded paper, that often get thrown after a while, at the time of giving, they can mean so much.   When I create cards I really think about what type of person I envision the recipient being like-and work to match my design to that vision.  Each card I create is a labor of love-I put so much of my energy and heart into every card that I make, hoping that the person who receives it will feel that love the moment they open it.  (P.S. I also want to add that thanks to my Cricut, I have been able to spread love through cards, sans Hallmark, for over a year now!)

Tonight, I made 3 Valentine's Cards.  My first 2 cards I used just the "Lacy Labels" cartridge, and the 3rd card used a combination of several cartridges.  Even though my new cartridges are from the 'Lite' line of Cricut products, there are still a remarkable amount of images, and great layering options.  The first image that I was instantly drawn to was the heart, which I used as the focus on my card. The background papers are from my favorite cardstock pack, "The Whimsy Stack".  To add some separation between the 2 patterns, I used red ribbon with white stitching.  All items, including the heart were cut at 3".  (*Make sure that the real dial option is OFF to ensure that all items line up correctly) The final touch to this card was a "love you" stamp on the left side of the heart in black ink.

The second card I made was actually inspired by a heart I had cut out for my first card that I had accidentally cut too big.  Wanting to use my "Lacy Labels" cartridge again, I chose the 'You & Me' design.  I sometimes find it hard creating Valentines cards in a color scheme that is appealing to the eye, so to add a little contrast to the red, I used a light purple and shimmering silver cardstocks.  After I had all of my die-cuts in place, I felt that I needed something else to give my card some zing, and decided to use some adhesive rhinestones. Voila! My card was finished!

The last card that I made tonight, was also the most laborious.  I had seen a tutorial a while back about making a tri-fold shutter card, and wanted to give it a try.  I started with a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of marigold cardstock and scored it along the long edge using a bone folder at 2", 4", 8", and 10".  Marking 1 1/2" from the edge, I made a cut from the 2" score to the 10" score.  I did the same on the other edge.  Once my base was ready, I cut each panel design that I wanted to the correct measurements so that it would fit correctly in each section.
For the front panel, I used the same polka dot paper that I used in my "You & Me" card with a white edge between the yellow base and the patterned paper.  The design was the 'LOVE' image.  For the design look that I was wanting, I turned the base of the image a 1/4 turn and added the letters to the center.  (*Note I had to cut the letters a bit smaller to make them fit).


For the center a mixture of 2 images from "Lacy Labels".  I used the base image from 'thanks' and the word from 'sweet'.  The background paper is from the "All Dressed Up" stack.  The word IS was printed from my "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge in deep purple.  For each of the smaller corners in the center panel, I used images from "Wild Cards", and "Sweet Treats".

The last panel was from "Celebrate with Flourish".  This one took me a while to get just right.  Because of all the intricate and small cuts, it was hard to get this one to cut cleanly.  I determined that I needed decrease the speed, but increase the pressure and blade depth so that the edges came out cleaner.  While this card took A LOT longer than I thought it would, the end product, I think, looks amazing and I am so proud of how it came out.  Even though some of my cards take a long time from start to finish, the result and sense of accomplishment I feel when it's all done, makes it so worth it!

 

May love of all forms be in the air for you!

Until next time,