It's almost Valentine's Day!

Hi all!  I'm happy to have you visit.  Well, I'm over winter now and I'm so happy that it's the first week of February.   To me that means that March is that much closer!  And, happy day, my crocuses and daffodils are showing their green!!  Crocuses are my favorite flowers because they are the first ones I see in the late winter and early spring.  Of course, February also means Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  I've been thinking of what I'm going to make for dinner that night and what yummy heart shaped dessert I'll serve.  I always have made a special dinner and dessert for my family on Valentine's Day.  I spend the beginning of February planning and making things to celebrate this pretty bright day in the middle of a dull winter.  This year, there are still cards to be made and dinner to be planned but I took some time to make a Valentine card to put on the table in the family room.  Since the Frilly and Funkie blog has as their challenge theme "Be My Valen-twine"for the next few days I thought I would enter it in the challenge too. The "twine" is the requirement to use twine in whatever you make.  Here is what it looks like.

 I started with a piece of kraft card stock and used Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste and a new Memory Box stencil to make the background.  I tried a new-to-me technique I found on the very talented Astrid's blog.  While the embossing paste was still wet I sprinkled some of it with gold embossing powder and the rest with red glitter embossing powder and heated them.  I love the way the embossing paste bubbled and puffed.  I let the gold spill onto the red so I had a two toned embossing.   I cut a piece of red CS with the TH trellis die and used my finger to rub some gold Gilders' Paste on it.  I also rubbed Gilders Paste on the edge of the CS. I had the vintage Valentine clown image in my stash.  I wrapped the card with gold wrapped bakers' twine.  I glued the kraft CS to a striped paper that I had distressed and rubbed with Vintage Photo DI on the edge.  That was glued to a piece of red embossed CS which I rubbed with Gilders Paste.  Here are some details.

 

 

 



 So, there is my first Valentine for this year!  It looks great on the table. 

I have continued on with the #28patterns challenge which I talked about in this post. 

Here are two of the Zentangles I've posted the last couple of days.  

My initial done in Joanne Fink's Zenspirations style.

 

 

 

 

 

So, that's what I've been doing the last few days.  I think the Muse is beginning to wake up!  Must be seeing those crocus and daffodil leaves!!

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful and creative day!





It's been a while!

Hi to all of my wonderful visitors!  It's been a long time since I last posted.  But, there have been reasons.  The first one is that after the rush of the holidays my mojo went into storage along with all the decorations.  That sometime happens to me after the hustle and bustle of Fall and Christmas. My muse needs a rest I suppose!  Then I caught a horrible cold.  It wasn't the flu, just a plain old head cold but it lasted for a long time and I felt I lost about 10 days because I really didn't have much energy.  I'm happy that it's gone!  I'm not sure my mojo is back but I feel like it's beginning to come out of hibernation. 

I saw on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog a challenge she's sponsoring on Instagram called #28Patterns.  Now, I have to say I'm not a hashtag kind of person!  I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, I have enough to occupy my time, I don't need any other time drains.  Sorry if I've offended anyone by calling them that but that is how I think of them.  But, I do post pictures to Instagram, usually of  my projects or flowers from my garden.  Not very interesting stuff but I do have some friends who enjoy seeing them. Anyway, I thought this might encourage the muse to return.  The idea is to get down on paper a pattern a day for the month of February.  It can be any medium.  So, I'm giving it a try.  I'm not really good at keeping up with things like this but I thought this could work because I can always practice Zentangle.  And, even if I don't do a pattern a day, I'll do some days!!!

I resisted getting involve with Zentangles for a long time.  Patti Euler, my friend who owns the wonderful local  paper arts store, The Queen's Ink, is a Certified Zentangle Teacher and she gives classes from beginner on to more advanced instruction.  Her work is beautiful and I've been drawn to the clean black and white patterning even though I'm a color fanatic.  Finally, last summer my daughter and I signed up for the beginner class.  I've enjoyed it immensely and we've taken other classes since then.  I've been trying to keep up with doing it regularly so the idea of 28Patterns was appealing.  I could always do a Zentangle.  Yesterday was the first day of this challenge so this is what I did.

 

 

There isn't much to tell you about it.  Tangles are like doodling.  When color is added to the black and white they are considered Zentangle inspired art.  Since it's February and Valentine's Day is right around the corner I'm in full heart mode!!  I love Valentine's Day, and have since I was  a child, because it's a bright spot in the midst of a gray, dull winter!  So, I've been doing a lot of heart Zentangles and this is my latest!

 

 

I probably won't post these 28 patterns, or whatever I make, everyday, but you'll probably see some of them.  At least you'll be hearing from me more often :)! 

 

For now though, thank you for visiting with me today and reading all this!  Not much eye candy today and lots of words so I'll end for now.  Have a wonderful day, I hope it's a sunny day where you are!