Valentine Day Card Tutorial, My Bead Soup, and Handmade Fabric Mini Albums

Hello everybody!!!  How are you?  Doing well I hope!  I have been under the weather and it was NO fun.  No fun at all.  Woo, I must say, camping out in the bathroom for eons is no fun.  I was so tired too, it seems like it took forever to get my energy back.  Soooooooooooo glad I am feeling better.  It seems like everyone has been sick this year, and with a variety of things.  I had a flu shot too, my word.  OK, enough about that yuck stuff.  On to fun topics.  First, I want to show you several Valentine Day cards I made, and tell you how I did so with a little tutorial.  As you know, I love to upcycle things and repurpose things.

First, let's talk about the cards I made for my cutie grandbabies.  I ended up making one extra, I was on a roll.  :)  I have some old valentines that I picked up at an antique store a few years ago.  I made copies on white cardstock.  I love taking old images and using them in projects, or finding free clipart online.  

After I selected a few images I thought would make cute valentines, I pulled out some cardstock bases, and cut some felt to fit, using my pinking shears.  I then pinned the felt to the cardstock base.

 I did the remaining cards, and stitched the felt to the bases.  

Next I laid out my supplies to see if I still liked how things looked.  

So far so good.  I stitched my crepe and lace down, and then stitched my cardstock images on top.  I inked the cardstock with chalkboard ink before I stitched things down.

Last, I stickled a bit of accent on each card ~

Little bow for good measure ~

Done!

Now it is time to make some felted heart cards.  First, I felted some old sweaters so they were nice and thick.  

I decided to use the red sweater, and cut our some hearts from one of the sleeves, then added some trim ~

I took a large tag and added some scraps of purple cardstock (edge punched) and marblish pink cardstock and inked everything up ~

Next I stitched the heart to my tag ~

then I got out my little label maker and punched out love you valentine and added it to my tag, along with some stickles ~

I decided I wanted a wee bit more embellishment on the top of my tag, so I punched a little scalloped circle, inked it up, added it to the tag, then used a silver eyelet and added some various pink and red ribbon.  All done! 

I still had one heart left, with stitched pink crepe paper.  I cut and edge punched some purple cardstock scrap, added a wee bit of satin ribbon and lace to the base of my card, and stitched things together ~

Then I stitched my felted sweater heart and trim to the base ~

Time for the label maker punched sentiment, and a bit of stickles.  All done!

I am ready for Valentine's Day now!  

I have assembled my bead soup, and it is alllllll ready for mailing.  I can't wait to send it to my partner, I hope she likes it.  I peeked at her blog, and she does some super fun steampunk jewelry items.  For the bead soup challenge we were paired by Lori Anderson, who did TONS of work on this party.  She pairs people with a partner of different styles.  I hope my partner likes what I am sending to her!  :)  Here is a mystery picture of my bead soup ~ 

I can't share more until Grace receives it.  I can't wait to see what she does with it!!!  Check out some of her cool steampunk jewelry on her website.  We definitely have different styles, but I think her work is beautiful.  

Last thing from me today.  My next class, Handmade Fabric Mini Albums, will be available at The Art Studio beginning next Saturday (it won't be listed until next week, check about midweek and look under Mixed Media Classes).  I love love LOVE making these fabric books, and can't wait to show you how to do so ~  

Well, that is it for me this week.  I need to skeedaddle and get back to a few tasks before the work week is here.  I hope you all have a joyful and creative week ~ Pam