Our Valentines Day

 I love to surprise my girls with some treats for Valentines Day. Mostly a few candies but this year I found some Target dollar section goodies they would love. One thing I loved is all the cute SVG files I found at Lettering Delights. To be honest I had lots of options with some stuff from SVGcuts.com as well but settled on these "conversation heart boxes" and some graphics files for a super quick card for two of my girls. My littlest has found a cute movie from Netflix called Disco worm so when I saw the worm card form on the Lettering Delights store I knew I had to make it. My oldest has a thing, against pirates so I had to get the Valentines set and then my G loves her ipod touch and music so it was lucky that I had the  file too. I used the print and cut feature and made super quick Valentines. After spending a lot of time on the projects below....

 I made about 40 of these Conversation Heart lollipop covers. I used the basic set to create my own file but somehow I am not sure it was enough bang for the buck. I print and cut a sentiment on the back so that the girls could just sign them and hand them out...they usually do more to help but since this was a late night project.

My littlest one had her first ever Valentines Day party at preschool so we went all out with these treat boxes. Yes they are mini bug boxes! How cute is that? The file and kit are at..wait for it...Lettering Delights. B saw these cute bugs and decided against the kitty cat Valentines we originally planned, the ones I liked from the SVGcuts.com site....but this wasn't a very difficult project and I didn't mind the switch. The front sentiment was a print and cut, and I printed a sentiment on the back for B to sign. We found some really cute conversation heart candies to put in the back. It makes the girls feel so good to give out something a bit more fun.

January Challenge Layouts

Not sure how everyone else stays motivated, but for me a challenge really sparks my energy and creates excitement for a project. A friend of mine in California has issued a challenge for one of my online groups...a layout a month with two sketches to choose from. I've been feeling distracted with other paper crafting projects and very behind in my scrapbooks. So, since she was so generous to offer to select and post a set of sketches, I just had to try! And if I put January on my blog everyone will hold me accountable for each month now right ;)

This was the original we worked from

This was a seriously simple layout since my focus was on DONE.... My goal for my daughters is to have albums that capture their lives for them. I do love to create beautiful artwork but frankly some times you just have to get it down on paper. I am pretty sure that this took me less than 45 mins total. I kow, you can tell, LOL. But it literally fit into scraps of time here and there! I was so grateful to my friend for posting that challenge and encouraging us to get back to where we started. I'd also like to thank the artists who posted the sketches originally for generously sharing their efforts with us.

This is the original for the double page layout

                           

So, for the second part of the challenge I wasn't sure if  I'd be done in time. Unfortunately it was a sick little one at home that gave me more quiet time than usual. I decided to try this double page and just made the deadline. The final bits of this LO went on just as my girls were heading up for bed and it took me more time to put the pieces together than to plan out. There are plenty of things I would change for on this one but again, my focus was on done. Also, my photo doesn't do these wonderful papers justice(Dreamin from Close to My Heart) since it was taken at midnight and you may know about my lighting issues. ;)

Thanks for stopping by....