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.

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the holidays in crisp, cold but sunny Calgary with my sister's family. We had a great time and enjoyed fabulous food, especially Donna's home baking! This is a card my niece Erica made for me. She knows i love blue and birds. We had some fun doing some art projects. I'll have to get them to send me some pictures. We did cards and some paper quilt style collage.

I am late posting some pics of my Christmas decorations. I have over 20 rubbermaid totes filled with ornaments, all but one are in storage back in Novato. We moved down to Pasadena with just one box - my latest theme - birds and robin's egg blue.

We just bought a small tree, about 4 1/2 feet, at Fresh and Easy for $14.99. It sits on top of a small table covered with a plush pale blue tree skirt. I only used aqua blue tinsel, birds and glass icicles.
Here is my mantel - usually it just has my collection of white things, but i added some black and white or silvery christmas cards saved from past years. Then i added some mercury glass balls in robin's egg blue and some organza ribbon with blue and silver spots.
Here is the whole effect. Those are twinkly christmas lights on the log in the fire box.

Here is a fabulous winter banner from my dear friend and kindred spirit Aileen from Outside the Margins. She wrote about this banner on her blog - and so i was very excited to see that she sent it to me! Here is her tutorial.

Today is new year's eve. Later this evening, the flower covered floats for the Pasadena Rose Bowl parade will start lining up along Orange Grove blvd, right outside our door. I'll have some fun pics to post tomorrow. Hope you have a fun and festive day and ring in the new year with some tasty bubbly!