"You look so cute from behind!"

I love to be in my craft room late at night. I find the stillness soothing and the cast of shadows beautiful. A chance to finish my Valentine's Garland. Oh how I love the way it turned out.

PREPARATION:
Remove all decoration from a vintage plastic Christmas garland (Etsy) and THREAD WITH FISHING LINE to support weight, (or use plastic chain from hardware store). The figure eight links allow items to hang in front or behind each other creating movement instead of straight in a line. Hot glue floral decoration at intervals.

REPETITIVE FOCAL POINTS:
MAIN FOCAL POINT: Divide garland into equal visual sections. There should be one main focal point for each section. Mine are large paper Valentines I have made featuring the faces of the children.

  
SECONDARY FOCAL POINT:
I have hung one school Valentine from the same line in each section. This cute little rabbit is from Hallmark. They each feature a distinctive large red heart.

SOMETHING RED:
In each section I have hung the sweetest little playing cards that are both red and CUTE with their Dutch figures.

CUTE FROM BEHIND:
I love the backs of Valentines almost as much as the front! There are the most wonderfully printed images in RED that absolutely make me giddy with joy. I have backed them with red card stock. My husband will say to me, "Don't you think we have enough RED in this house?" to which my reply is, "You can NEVER have too much RED!"

MORE RED:
I found shiny red cupids to hang at JoAnn Fabrics, small sized Christmas ornaments from my crafting stash; and I hung back on my garland red reindeer that came with the garland. This is after all a Side by Side Holiday!

SOMETHING SMALL:
I have cut from Valentines from the 1940's called A-meri-Cards, (or letters cAc) the sweet little children that can be found. Their faces are very distinctive. They are my very favorite Valentines of all! Straight hangers created from wire instead of rings are used to allow them to hang at varying lengths to fill in spots where needed.

Yes, it took me awhile to purchase, make, and gather together the elements for this garland, but it is one I will love to use for years to come.  And because you might not recognize which Valentines to purchase that will be Cute from Behind, I have scanned some for you!

 

I Love Valentines!

I think my favorite time of the blogging year, is Valentines Day.

The excuse for a grown woman to play at making what she recalls most fondly from childhood.

The images were all so sweet that long time ago, the anticipation in receiving them just as sweet.

Simply stated, I Love Valentines!

White Christmas

I believe all children look for special moments with a parent to call their own. Everyday strife can be put away easily each time the moment comes again. Such was the case with my mother and me and our favorite movie, White Christmas.

I would wait for the moment when my mother would say, "I use to wear dresses just like those."; and she would wait for me to exclaim, "Oh, I love how he turns a table napkin into a winter wonderland!" When I came across Martha Stewar's skiing diorama, I just knew I had to create a version to recall my own special moment with my Mom, all my own.

Oh how this project reminds me of my mother who was an artist. I felt as though I was painting with paper. I drew upon all the images I have tucked away of the beautiful snow scenes she was noted for.

I learned from my mother that everything is about color. Vintage cards that call to me, do so because of their color and not their subject. Most all boxes of vintage cards will come with red, blue, white, and brown hued cards. I have used all of these to create my letters.

I began this project by pinking quadrangles from the cards. I divided the colors into "snow", "transitioning into sky", and "sky". You can see how the poinsettias provide the perfect transition color by having both red and white in the pieces.

Vintage cards work so beautifully with Mod Podge. Apply a thin coat to area you will place paper piece, apply a thin coat to back of paper, position, apply thin coat over top of paper, smooth with finger tip. Repeat with each piece placed. DO NOT PAINT your cardboard letters as the Mod Podge will pick up the paint and color your images.

I was always so embarrassed when my mother would sing the songs of White Christmas out loud not realizing I would do the same with my own daughter, and she secretly would know all the words as well.

"SNOW IS BLUE!" Countless times my mother would tell her students as they painted their own snowscapes. "Cerulean Blue, a little yellow, a little Allizaron Crimson, and then, only then Titanium White." I remember these names as though they were loved ones. You can see how I have transitioned the white with the use of yellow and pink.

The Neighborhood with the Hills, and my own home nestled at the bottom of the Halfway Woods. I loved how the deep winter snow would turn our streets into sledding hills for days and days. Fathers were so careful not to drive down the center when they came home from work.

Truly, this is such a special project and a very easy one as well. Any cards will do when divided into the three categories. Thinned Tacky Glue was applied to the "snow" and sprinkled with MS shard glitter. The little elves are made from paper clay.

 A Place to Be through the winter months, my White Christmas poster just to the right, my mother's heart now within my own. JOY

Inspiration Frustration?

Perhaps you are someone like me who loves to craft vintage but doesn't have access to all the wonderful chatskies needed to create the look.

My favorite place to find Forever-Keeps is Vintage Street Market. They have assembled everything needed in kits for you to purchase. They provide a to-die-for photograph of the finished project you can already picture in your home, but you haven't any instructions to follow once all the bits and bobs are scattered across your craft desk. Inspiration Frustration?  Never fear! There are a few simple rules you can follow.

There is always a main focal point to any craft. Here it is the adorable reproduction snowman positioned very close to the center fold of cone. "Greetings" cut from the included vintage card will become my secondary focal point. I have stuffed the cone at this point to help with perspective.

My favorite rule in crafting is ZIG ZAG. Whether horizontal or vertical, your eye should flow from one element to another without "dropping". It should zig zag! From the top of the snowman's hat to the "S" and "G", your eye moves along without a break.

Focal points in place, it's time to embellish them. My favorite part!  Following the zig zag rule again, add items that are pleasing to you where the eye stops to rest. It's at the top of the zig, the bottom of the zag!

Another crafting tip is to look at embellishments not only for what they actually are, but for the color or texture they may add. A horrible dime store bow at first seems headed for the throw away pile, but it's velvety brightness peeking from behind the snowman adds height in the direction of the zig zag.

Is it Christmas in June? No, but it is a quite day here at Creative Breathing, crafting with friends, a favorite way to spend the day.

A Christmasy Monday

The sun is streaming through my craft room window here in the Heart of Ohio as I happily spend time creating Christmas tags with wonderful vintage images.

If you have yet to give a go at making tags, I am here to tell you they are the most fun ever.

There is just something magical about watching a scene come to life before your eyes with each cut of the scissor and dab of glue..

There are so many things to make with vintage greeting cards such as these scenery spools. Oh my gosh do I love to make these! They absolutely recall to mind hand crafts made during World War II when every inch of string and wrapping paper was kept to use for making ornaments for the tree.

A secret I will share when purchasing vintage greeting cards is to look for ones with doors or outdoor scenes on the front. The true treasure always waits inside where smaller versions are perfectly perfect for making shadowboxes or spool scenes such as these.

Sigh, I love paper art, and I love the coming of the holidays.

DOLLY DINGLE VALENTINES

IT'S FINALLY HERE! The day I get to reveal the wonderful Valentines sent to me. Without further ado:

Allison, Busy Family of Five

Paula, Palace of Altered Art

Meri, Imagi Meri

Debbie, Heart to Art

Nancy, My Crafty Little Page

Diane, Saturday F inds

Janelle, Sweet Bee Cottage

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing all of the glorious Valentines from our community of very talented women. It has been such a privilege for me to receive the art from so many, I can't thank you enough for making this a most special swap.

Thank you, Elizabeth

Valentine Candy Box Album

Do you ever pick up a craft book at the store, and even though clear instructions are given, wonder how on earth you could possibly make what your eyes are seeing. This was the case with Delight in the Details held in hand at JoAnn's for more than a year. I absolutely fell in love with the project entitled Candy Box Album Cover. This year I have enough learned skills to give the project a go.

A heart cut from chipboard (a cereal box will do) is traced on the back side of card stock. Scallop cut around drawn line.

Using chipboard heart as a pattern, cut a second heart from cardboard, a third from printed paper. Glue stick all layers together for a nice sturdy base. I call this the "Sandwich Method". Glue Sandwich to chipboard heart.

Backside of album is covered with printed paper cut slightly larger than drawn line. Don't forget to punch  hole with each sheet of paper added for jump ring.

Spread thin layer of Tacky Glue with a few drops of water added to thin slightly to outer edge of first one half of heart including scallop, apply glitter,  and then other half, apply glitter; set aside to dry.

View Image, Print 8x10 sheet of paper, or Print Preview, choose Percentage right for you.

PAPER CRAFT TIP: To create a smaller sized pattern of the original heart shape and maintain same shape, trace half of template onto folded paper, create smaller size needed by keeping pencil line same distance from original drawn line.

Project: Cut from cardboard one small heart, cut one printed paper heart. Glue stick together.

Six layers of alternating red and white crepe paper length of circumference of heart  is sewn slightly off the center line of width of crepe. (You can sew again a scissors width away from first sewn line to be able to use both halves of crepe) Cut 1/8" slits up to sewn line length of crepe.  BEFORE SEPARATING CUT CREPE hot glue sewn edge to edge of small heart. Separate crepe.

Hot glue smaller heart to scalloped base.

Cut (4) 3" strips of  white satin ribbon 5/8" wide, 3" strips gold ribbon 1/4" wide, layer gold over white and staple ends together.

 Hot glue two ribbon pieces together twice to be placed underneath rosette created. Lightly twist length of 1 1/2" wide wired ribbon.

Hot glue a first turn of the ribbon to create a center. (Back shown) Twisted ribbon is then circled around center, hot glue last turn underneath rosette created. Hot glue to ribbon loops, hot glue to crepe.

Valentine's Day was the very first holiday I celebrated with my husband who gave me a heart shaped box of chocolates such as this. I slept with that box on my nightstand for months to come and kept small mementos of our dates together inside.  In the days to follow I will be creating the pages of my album to recall the wonderful crafts I have made to celebrate Valentine's Day this year.