Valentine Boxes Part II

 I wanted to share the box I made and sent to Laurie my partner in the Valentine Box Swap. She told me that she liked soft colors, very vintage and I knew she loves buttons.  

I chose some vintage style papers along with some flowers in soft colors and a cupid cut from the cover of a book. I also tucked in some little pieces of lace.

This is a shot of the side. I painted all the edges and then layered on some punched paper and some lace. I can't remember exactly where I got it....I don't think it's vintage by definition, but it is older. I didn't take interior shots of the box because I was not happy with how they turned out. At least it is on the inside. 

We were to make something to put inside our box. I decorated a spool and then it wouldn't fit in the box! This is the first "spoolie" I've made. I saw some pretty examples at Lynn's blog and wanted to try my hand at one. I chose a birdcage die cut and attempted to make it 3D. 

I also altered a spoon for Laurie with a piece of silverplate from my collection. 

It's really difficult to see, but the handle in monogrammed. I can't make it all out, but the first letter I'm pretty sure is an L.  

I packaged each of these separately in a kraft bag that I decorated on the outside but forgot to take pictures of them. 

This is the box all packed up. 

I included some of my favorite laces and little bits of flowers and such for decorating items. The pink velvet ribbon is off a vintage roll and tucked underneath is a really pretty vintage look napkin that I just love. I also included some of the brown crepe paper that I used on the spoolie.

I picked up a monogram stamp that I thought Laurie could use on artwork that she sells in her etsy shop along with an old bottle to alter and a pretty vintage dish. I was saddened to hear that it didn't arrive in one piece. I also found a pretty vintage postcard and included a modern bookmark with a vintage look.

Laurie is a Button Floozie so I included 2 packs of buttons in her box. These pretties were sealed up in a little organza bag. Some of my favorite buttons are in this set: the pink plastic pierced one, the cream with the rhinestone center and the big square pink one. It has a bit of sparkle in it. I don't know if it's very old, but I think it's pretty fun! The charm attached to the ribbon is an extra I had from another swap about a year and a half ago. In the center is a very shabby button. It's not in great shape, but I think it's so pretty. I hope Laurie likes it to either admire or use in a project. The chain on the left is a zipper pull; it has the logo of a local department store here that was the place to shop for many years. It closed in the 90s finally and many years after that I found a full box of these at an estate sale. They must have been some sort of promotional item.

I added a bit of book page and a vintage style ticket (you can get the free printable here) to this bag full of buttons and other assorted items.

A mix of vintage buttons and modern embellishments. I always like to order a few things at swap times and then spread them out over several swaps. I picked out some vintage french sequins, a plastic heart button with a rhinestone and some carved buttons  . The thick pink ones I found locally in a little button jar; they have a shape I don't see very often that I really liked. There were also two angel wings in this pack but they are very translucent and hard to see.

This was a little bag I made to hold some ephemera and vintage inspired images. The main focal piece is from one of the decorative napkins that I mentioned earlier. 

I included some printable images and a few of my favorite ephemera pieces: a game card, some tea packets and a royal mail stamp. 

A printed vintage valentine and a carved antique button. You can also see a silverplate spoon I included in case Laurie wanted to alter one. 

Another napkin, some printed banner pieces, and a Valentine from the 1930s. I found it and the carved button at my favorite antique store here. I can't remember the exact year she told me - but it was mid to late 30s. She had several beautiful pieces for sale! The rolled up paper is some paintable wallpaper I picked up back when I first started stamping at a hardware store that was going out of business.

I hope Laurie enjoyed opening up each item and that she has a few new treasures to enjoy and create with. 

My Heart Twinkles

Hi girls!! Are you having a great Tuesday so far? Ours has been wonderful so far! I have my card for this week's Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays sketch challenge. And, oh, what a challenge it was. I've been putting it off ever since I got home Sunday afternoon. This week is very exciting as we have our first Temporary Twinkie this week. Heather is one of the DT gals and her daughter Piper created this week's sketch for us. Check it out!

If I remember correctly, she is 6!! Incredible huh? She loves to watch her mom make cards and particularly loved the off-set corner roundings so we were asked to please be sure to not change that little element. I started going through a box of stamps, just grabbing ones to see if I could be inspired. Most of them were too big but this little one caught my eye. It's just a Studio G stamp I picked up at Michael's for $1. I figured it would be the perfect size and it would be fun to use a journaling stamp on a card instead of a scrapbook page.

Yep. Still on the "{heart} you" phase. Here is the rest of my card. I kept it pretty flat, only popping up the center image as I'm going to mail this to my Grandma.

Kinda an untraditional color scheme but at first I thought it might be my little man's Valentine. Either way I think my Grandma will enjoy it!

Please be sure to stop by and see all the other creations the Twinkle Team put together for this week. I'm off to check them out myself real quick! You can find the official blog with the sketch and this week's featured Twinkie! Upload your creation there too so we can all see it. If you upload to SCS or PCP please use the keyword: MTTSC9. And here's the rest of the team:

Bonnie
Christi
Danni
Debbie
Heather Definitely visit her and leave a little note for Piper!!
Jacquie
Jami
Janna
Jen
Jessica
Kim
Kimmie
Rebecca
Sandra
Taylor

That's it for me today! I'm off to check out the rest of the team and then I have to go create my ATC's for my local stamp club tonight. The theme is the Elements: Earth, Fire, Water or Wind. Totally stumped on what to do. If I come up with something great I'll share it here with you later in the week. Come back tomorrow as it's Wednesday and you know that's Triple Post Day!

{heart} YOU banner

Hi girls! How are you?? I've missed ya'll the last few days. I know I've been MIA - not only here but in visiting you too. Hope to rectify that in the next few days. But oh, have I been busy!! Most of what I've been working on I can't share yet. However, one of my projects has been posted.
Here's a little peak:

This is part of the garland/banner that I created for the Cuttlebug Challenge LUV BUG Event. What a weekend: fun, prizes and the most A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. projects and inspirations ever! My mind is spinning!! I do hope you'll take a little trip over there and see it! I just love looking at it every time I head down my hallway! I'd love to know what you think!

I will have my card up for Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday tomorrow - although probably in the afternoon so be sure to stop back by!!

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 16: Distressing

Happy Wednesday Girls!! I hope today finds you healthy, happy and warm!! Today is another Be Inspired challenge over at the Cuttlebug Challenge blog. We were asked to make a distressed card! Well, those of you who read me regularly know I've been on a real "distressing" kick lately!!

I decided to make a card for my hubby for Valentine's Day next week. I'm so ahead of the game - yea me!! I also wanted to do something other than distress my edges. So I took an empty oatmeal box and painted it with some red metallic acrylic paint. After it dried, I ran it through my cuttlebug with the Heart Blocks embossing folder. I've never been a huge fan of hearts, but have really been digging them more and more lately! Then I took a sanding block and lightly sanded, to remove the paint on the raised portions; love how some of the kraft shows through in parts and how the paint loses it's metallic finish in others. I did distress the edges but decided I liked the crisp, clean sides better so I cut all that off. the hammer (Museum of Modern Rubber) is stamped in Chocolate Chip on my Kraft paper and trimmed out. I just hand wrote the sentiment, trimmed it and used a corner punch for the end. The hammer and the heart panel are popped up on dimensionals. This card is done. I think my hubby will get a kick out of it!

Now, be sure to stop by the rest of the girls blogs and see what they came up with! This team is full of the most amazing girls who do the most incredible things!! Follow the blog or add it to your reader - do something because you DO NOT want to miss a single post!



Mark you calendars for the Luv Bug weekend! You do not want to miss it!
We have the most exciting projects planned and a really fun blog hop too! Tons of inspiration plus some prizes!! It's the place to be this weekend!!



I'm so glad you stopped by today! I can't wait to see how you add distressing to your card this week. Be sure to link it up over at Cuttlebug Challenge so I can check it out! I'll have another post for today as well so don't hop away too far!!