Showing posts with label valentine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentine. Show all posts

Friday, January 20, 2012

A Bright and Shiny New Year

The birds blend two shades of glitter and the
 wings and heart are in different colors
New Year’s comes around more than once a year for me—I like fresh starts in January, in August for the school year, and again in October for my birthday. The January new year is my sparkling one.

As a Christmas gift to myself I got a set of 24 amazing fine glitters from Martha Stewart. These glitters had been in my radar for over six months. Of course I had a couple dozen glitters already in my inventory, but there were only three of the very fine variety. (Go ahead, you can smirk now).

The glitters
I set up the glitters in my studio and just looked at them for almost two weeks. I am mesmerized by sparkling things. I did some Internet research on projects and found awesome wall art that I want to do for my upcoming home purchase. The project was designed by Kari Tarr for a contest Martha hosted on the show. The video tutorial is way cool for this.

I have some fun ideas for glitter cards that play on this idea from the wall art, but for some reason I couldn’t even start with that…I broke open the package for Valentine cards. Two techniques are featured for these cards:

1. Covering an entire punched paper piece with glitter after running it through Xyron™ adhesive. (see birds above)


Stamped Image highlighted with glue pen and then glitter.
2. Use a glue pen to outline spots on a stamp image and filling them in with glue. (see heart on right)

Not exactly extravagant starting points, but I did enough to get glitter on my face. Tips from my in-studio session with fine glitters:

1. Use coffee filters to catch excess glitter and return to bottles. My non-stick craft sheets would have worked if they were clean—but seriously, they haven’t been clean in years. Same goes for my cute pink tidy tray for glitter.


2. Mix the colors on a punched object for depth and dimension.


3. Layer pieces of different colors on top of each other.

Design Notes--Valentine Flash Cards


Here's the full view of the cards shown in detail. I used K & Co. double sided print papers (on sale of course) to create these and the others shown below.


The first four cards done with double sided print paper and fine glitters.

A second set of cards with glitter and shiny hearts made from reclaimed note cards--more on that later.

Hat tipped to Michael’s Arts and Crafts for their great marketing over the holiday. They ran daily specials on one item and sent them out by email and phone alerts. The glitters were a one day only special that got me into the store and the phone alerts allow the cashier to scan a bar code on your phone and zip away with your purchase.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Love is in the Air...

Happy Valentine's Day! Love is in the air. My God-daughter Brittany and her boyfriend Michael came to visit for the weekend and HE PROPOSED to her as a surprise while they were here....It was all so romantic. Henry and I were honored and inspired by all this.

I think I remembered how to post video again, so here is her big moment. We were at Oceanside Farmer's market where Brittany had been on a treasure hunt through the vendors for love notes from Michael. With each note she got a gift from that vendor--everything from ceramic pieces to Girl Scout Cookies and flowers. The last vendor, What a Cookie, did a custom set of conversation hearts designed by Michael for Brittany.

Our final stop on the walk through the market was at a demonstration by BAGSTERS of hand painted tote bags. They showed one that said Valentine's Day 2009 Brittany and Michael. Then, she flipped it over and the other side said "Will you marry me? Michael" The video picks up right there.....

Our Dream Wedding friends from Channel 12 were there to capture the moment and it aired three times yesterday! We have captured that video too and will upload as soon as Sir Henry gets something or other that he needs to make the transfer. He's at the store now.

Sir Henry played our wedding video again for me for Valentine's Day and we all got teared up AGAIN. I realized this one had never gone up on the blog so I put that one and this one and one longer one of the engagement on You Tube today too.

TV Footage of the engagement on You Tube: http://www.oceanside-farmersmarket.com/

You Tube to Brittany's interview --I've got to find a new camera woman though... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NAudZ0jA5E

You tube to Our final Dream Wedding broadcast--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhh3wYXIbr8

Special thanks to: Oceanside Farmers Market in Lake Worth with Peter Robinson, manager and Lady Godiva, the sweetest Greyhound this side of heaven.

Bagsters-Handmade tote bags at the market every Saturday--tell Leslie and Dianne we sent you!

What A Cookie-Incredible custom designed cookies for every occasion at the market on Saturdays and available for online ordering. http://www.whatacookie.biz/ Tell Leah we said a sweet hello and pet Winston if he's around.