Paper Hearts

 I decided to make some Valentine cards for my ladies group. 

You know how when you go to Michaels and you have a 40% off coupon

 and you don't know what to buy?  Well i bought a heart shaped paper punch! 

I punched out over a 100 hearts from assorted papers in pinks and blues. 

 I sewed them together on a sewing maching and made 10 strings with 14 hearts each. 

You know, like for the FOURTEENTH of February?

 For the cards i used nice Fabriano water colour paper postcards.

 I splatter painted them with pink spray paint my friend K made from a simple recipe.

 I glued silver hears to the cards using a glue runner.  And no i did not cut those out! - they were purchased at Paper Source.

 I sewed a little loop to the top of each string of hearts, made out of pastel pink vintage seam binding.  Oh you know i love you if i use my vintage seam binding on your card!

 I punched a hole in the top of the card and slipped the loop through. 

That way the string of hearts can be easily removed and hung somewhere

where it can catch the breeze and flitter about. I added a little bit of bling with a pink stone, but kept it pretty simple.  I wrote my sentiment on the back.

Look how cute the hearts look all packed inside the envelope! 

It is like getting a little bundle of love in the mail. 

I used my pretty new address stamp on the envelopes.  Not to get all sappy, but after i lost my husband, it was a big step to order an address stamp with just my name on it.  I chose something pretty with the square shape and the cherry blossom design.

This one got a glitter "stamp" heart, since i hand delivered it.

The rest got one of these.  Thanks USPS for an interesting graphic design.

  I hope the ladies in my grief group, who all lost a close relative this year,

appreciate my little gift of 14 hearts and hugs delivered to their homes.

Cathe Holden's Valentine Workshop

My friends and I took a workshop last weekend with Cathe Holden, at her amazing studio barn in Petaluma . Some said it was like being in Disneyland. I said it was like being over the rainbow, or you know at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Either way - it was magical!  Her vintage displays of craft supplies and findings are over the top.

Our class was to create three wood collaged and embellished valentine ornaments, decorated with cigar box graphics.  Everything was packaged so nicely.  We did not have to bring a single thing - it was so relaxing to just arrive and have everything taken care of.  She even brought in a delicious deli lunch.

We sat at one long table and great access to tools and supplies. 

It's like you just want to move in and be creative all day long - it is teeming with eye candy everywhere you look.

Here are some samples of my fellow students' work in progress:

 

 

 These are my finished items.

 Although we all had the same shapes - we could choose our own vintage fabric from the pile shown above and decorate how we wanted.

Here are Cathe's originals.

Here is the 4 of us after the class in the "library" of the studio.

And here is one of Cathe's family's sheep!  Petaluma has some beautiful rolling landscapes outside the center of the charming town.  It is about an hours drive north of San Francisco.  We would all love to go back to visit with Cathe and learn some more of her techniques.  Please check out her website to see what classes she has upcoming!
and HERE are more pictures of the event we attended.

Karen's Cloth Collage

 

I wanted to show everyone K's finished fabric collage.  Isn't it beautiful!  She started with a piece of natural canvas, added an ecru lace overlay and then played with an assortment of fabric patches and words stamped on bleached muslin.  Then she added some nice contrast with black felt hearts and checkerboard.  and finally some BLING! 
See more from our play date HERE.

Mega Heart Swap

Last month i saw a pretty heart sampler on Rebecca Sower's blog you can see HERE.  I shared it with my artsy friends and we all agreed we would like to try it.  We started with the instructions to create two different styles of hearts, 6 of each.  One to keep and 5 to swap.  Well, we all went crazy creating hearts and did not stop until we had each made over 50!

This is how it played out....

First Z layed out all her hearts on the table - we eached picked one or two of each type.  There were fabric, and paper machier, and cute paint chip hearts with love-y dove-y paint chip names like Karen's Kiss!

Here are the 7 i picked for myself.  She did some embossing of metal packaging - love the limonata heart!

Next my hearts were strewn on the table and everyone could choose one of each type.  There were dominoes, resin paper, mini collages with faces, plaster, flash cards and so much more.

Here are more i made with vintage trading stamps, and old envelopes with european stamps.

Queen of hearts, glitter hearts on dominoes and some handmade paper.

Seriously - we could not stop!  There are weathered copper mesh and vintage wallpaper with mini wooden birds. 

 WHOA!  Here are all the hearts K brought to swap with us.  We went around the table taking turns choosing.  It was absolutly like kids in a candy store - just look at those luscious hearts!

 Here are some of D's hearts.  She did some sewing on bubble wrap with googly eyes, copper backed faces, layered playing cards and some compass spinner hearts.

 Here's a closeup!

Here is more from D - colourful collage with faux stitching, saints with beads dangling.

Here is another look at K's clay hearts.

 Here are some of the beautiful hearts that L sent us from Washington state!  collages, beeswax, stitching, buttons - so much fun!

 Here are some of S's hearts for swapping.  The dark ones are lace and beautiful in person.  She had silver foil aned embellished copper.

 More of S's hearts - assorted textures and colours.

 Here are the hearts from S which i picked out.

Here are all the hearts we will be sending to our art buddy in Port Townsend!

Here is how all my swapped hearts look layed out on the canvas i prepared at home.  I attached most of them with tacky glue and some with 3d glue dots.

D is waiting for her canvas to dry - and went with a dark background.

S is creating a small book for all her hearts - she'll had phrases to each page.

Z is creating a frame and wire structure to hang her hearts and some family photos.

So K was the only one with a finished project for me to photograph.  She created a richly hued canvas background and chose to use only the hearts with pink and copper-y colours.  How beautiful!

Thanks again to Rebecca Sower for the original inspiration!

Little Felt Hearts

I found these felt hearts in a bag of felt balls I came across while emptying tote bags of previous projects. In my brave attempt to finally PUT THINGS AWAY!
Since we will be joining three couples on valentines for dinner and a show I thought why not make each of the ladies a little gift?

The felt hearts were red, pink and fuchsia - perfect valentine colours.  I looked at my bead assortment to find some coordinating colours.
For all three necklaces i used micro cord in dark grey.  For the red heart i chose some red beads and some silver toned findings.  I have a special "self healing" needle for working with felt projects.  Starting in the middle of the cord, with a little bead and then worked my way "UP" the necklace - through the heart, more beads and then the closure.

The closure allows you to adjust the length of the necklace - using two adjacent knots which slide back and forth. A little bead adds a nice detail.

For the light pink heart i used some yellow glass beads with pink swirls, some solid lavender beads and copper findings. Same sliding knot system!

For the fuchsia heart i used glass beads and a large crystal drop.  It was a real challenge getting the cord through the beads - so i used a dental floss threader.

Here is another felt necklace i made over the Christmas holidays  -  using pre-made felt balls and flowers.

 I got the idea from this kit i purchased.  It included the "self healing" needle.