Happy Valentine's Day!!

Well, it's here...the day of LOVE!  When I think of Valentine's Day I think back to elementary school and our V parties.  We had to decorate a shoe box to receive our Valentine mail.  Sadly, there was no "equal for everyone" rule in my classes, so some got few and others abundance.  Fortunately, things have changed today.  When I was teaching I always told my students "You don't HAVE to bring in a card for everyone, but if you do bring in cards then you must have one for EVERYONE.  The following photos are from last school year....my last Valentine's Day as a Dunham teacher.

My Valentine for each of my students

Our classroom

our schedule for the day

Whatever your celebration is today, be sure to tell someone you love them! [sigh]

Another fabulous week has passed by which found me working like crazy on my inventory for the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Mkt.  Our dear friend Milena was there on Sunday with her fabulous wares and furnishings and displayed my things as well (but not in these pix because they were taken before she received my paper art).

Anxious to hear if the Californians liked my line...

In the meantime, I also took a wonderful class at MMU and learned how to make this amazing wreath - wrapped in yarn and embellished with hand cut felt flowers!

The model

And this is mine....a work in progress....finished project to be shown at a later date!

Friday came and my dear hubby was home at last, after 5 long days on the road; On Saturday it was a day with Debbie and scavenging the Tucson secondhand and antique stores looking for treasures.

 

Thrift Store ramblings...

Here are some gems I found that begged to be part of my altered paper art

and this fabulous old crate holding my fiber trims

My week ended on Sunday. Mandy and I had lunch at Maynard's. Our first time at Maynard's but we'll definitely be back...I highly recommend the Caesar Salad and Mushroom Pizza! We ended our afternoon  with a matinee performance of Liszt and Ravel by the Tucson Symphony.

Some of you may be giving loved ones gift cards today, so I thought it was appropriate to include this little project in my blog this week.  Even if you're not giving a card today, this might come in handy in the future!

EASY BREEZY NO-GLUE GIFT CARD HOLDER

Materials

decorative paper

scissors or paper trimmer

ruler and pencil if not using a paper trimmer

standard hole punch

ribbon

decorative edge punch/scissors (optional)

bone folder (optional) or scor-pal (optional)

gift card

Procedure

1.  cut your paper so that it is 4 1/2 in. wide by 8 in. long *if your paper has a directional pattern, be sure you are cutting in the direction you want your pattern to follow

2.  Measure 3 in. in on the long side, draw a straight line across the middle and fold; if using scor-pal or paper trimmer use your scoring tool.

This pix shows the paper folded over along the 3 in. line

3.  Continue along the long side and do the same thing at the 6 in. mark

It should begin to look like an envelope

4.  Slip the gift card inside, center it in the envelope, and crease along each side with your nail

5.  TAKE THE CARD OUT  (You don't want to punch through it!).  Mark where you want to punch and punch a hole on each side of the envelope, opposite each other. Lace your ribbon through the holes.

front

back

6.  Slip the gift card back into the envelope.  Tie off the ribbon in a bow.  BEAUTIFUL!!

Of course you can do a lot more with this using glue...some ideas would be to cut out the edge with a decorative edger and glue a contrasting paper underneath....and then there's the whole other universe of brads, buttons, and bling!!!  Have fun with it and Happy Valentine's Day