WHOOOSH!

Did any one see January go by? I sure didn't. And here it is February 12th and Valentines is 2 days away and I am still in the process of making cards for the family. I do have several done, but have several more to do. I am hoping to get them mailed by the big LOVE DAY! , but probably isn't going to happen.

I will include a couple of pictures of the cards so you can see my latest art endeavors. The frog and kitty Valentines are my design and the plaid card stock is homemade. I could not find a plaid with those colors in any store so made it with markers. I was able to attend a Valentine class at Archivers last Sat and it was a great experience. I so enjoy learning and trying new techniques. We did one card that was acetate and had a big sparkling heart with cut-outs. I learned that it is hard to stamp on acetate but not impossible. We used a lot of sheer tulle in 12"x3"pieces as the ribbon and it really was cool tied in a bow. We did 6 cards in 2 1/2 hours and I will include a couple of them for you. The heart card doesn't show the 5 little jewels in the left corner because of lighting but I punched 5 holes in the top and stuck the pink jewels on the inside to show through. It was such a fun class, : )

We were able to have the two grand daughters all day Tuesday, Feb 1oth and I helped them make 40 Valentines for their day-care class. I bought some white and red paper 3" doilies and I had a big glue stick for each of them and they glued them onto red, pink, or white 4" card stock hearts. They got a little energetic with the glue but were able to get them done. Then they picked out 3 Valentine stickers to stick on the front of each. We stamped "Be Mine" on the back. They also made some real cards with white card stock and they picked out stamps of mine to stamp in red or pink washable ink. Emma really liked the penguin with the heart tummy. She also liked the two little hearts over lapping for the back ground. Matti picked her choices and liked the frog with hearts on its body as well as those Emma used. I let them put the images where they wanted for the most part and they did pretty good for their ages, (almost) 3 and 4. I think I may have a couple of stampers in the family as they seemed to enjoy what they did. : ) Unfortunately I was so busy with them I didn't get a picture of the event. But we will do it again!

We still need to finish up our gingerbread house that we baked over the holidays in Dec. I bought candies in reds and pinks and whites to make it a Valentine house now. I just wanted them to have the experience of doing it and then next year we will do another with them doing more of the actual work. They did help roll and cut out the pieces of the house and crush the Life Saver cadies to make the stained glass windows. I may be able to get the house together this Sat. The girls will be spending the night with us Sat so Bill and Jodi can have a Valentine evening. We are getting the girls used to "sleepovers" with us in the event we need to do it at a later date. They love coming over and usually are not ready to leave when it is time. I am happy they enjoy their time with us and doing what we can do with them. May they remember us fondly all of their lives.