Valentines for seniors

It’s been a couple of years since I made valentines for my local Meals on Wheels chapter. But this year I made a group of cards for a different organization — one that supports senior citizens throughout Minnesota. I wanted to share them before Valentine’s Day, but better late than never.

With everything going on in the world, our country, and particularly in my state, I wanted to make valentines that had a little more meaning. I started with the scratch papers I used to clean off my grayer during previous gel print sessions. I cut free-hand hearts from the papers (a total of 20 hearts) and used a variety of Posca acrylic markers to add a stitched border around each heart.

For the sentiment I started by finding scraps of card stock that coordinated with each heart. Well, coordinate might not be the best word. I tried to find a color in each heart that I could pull out with the sentiment strips. It was satisfying to use up some of the small bits of card stock I always seem to save.

Anyway, once I had chosen the colors, I used a stamp set with a labeler-style alphabet to spell out the phrase “Do small things with great love.” I didn’t worry about lining up each letter perfectly; obviously I was going for an imperfect style with these cards. After all the words were stamped, I cut out each word, leaving a narrow border of colored card stock. 

I decided to use sheet music for the background, so I paged through an old songbook I have (I think it’s from the early 1900s) to find some pages that were visually appealing. I also scanned the lyrics to make sure they weren’t religious or offensive. Then I tore the pages (gasp!) into background panels for the cards.

For the card bases, I chose a card stock color that I thought looked nice with each heart; some “match,” and some don’t. I had planned to make all the cards in a landscape layout, but a few of the hearts were too tall. (These are A2 cards, which are 4-1/4” x 5-1/2”.) For the landscape cards, I tore the sheet music into a rough rectangle, leaving about 1/4” of the card base visible on all sides. For the cards with a portrait layout, I used the same size piece of music but glued it across the middle of the card and trimmed off the extra on the sides.

I glued down each heart in the middle of the card base and then added the words for the sentiment on the heart. Normally I would’ve used foam tape to adhere the words, but the organization requests non-bulky cards so I went with liquid glue. I also wanted to add some little embellishment so I pulled out a sheet of finely detailed gold stickers that I’ve had for ages. They were a fun little accent, and I managed to use the whole sheet. Yippee!

I was pleased with how these cards turned out (though I do sometimes wonder if cards like this don’t look “nice” enough). I also made a few valentines for friends and family, but those will be for my next post.

Thanks for stopping by!

January Christmas cards: Merry snowflakes

It’s been very challenging to feel merry with all of the “immigration enforcement” activities and the resulting chaos that is happening in Minnesota. (I use that phrase loosely as that doesn’t seem to be the government’s goal anymore.) People, regardless of their immigration status, shouldn’t be afraid to leave their homes to go to work, school, or even the grocery store. People shouldn’t be stopped or detained based on the color of their skin. It’s all stressful and overwhelming, so I haven’t done much crafting at all this month. I did, though, manage to make some January Christmas cards a few weeks ago, and I figured I should post them before the month ends. I made two different designs with snowflakes and the phrase “be merry.”

For the first design I used some wrapping paper from a Christmas gift I received. I usually try to remove wrapping paper carefully so I can reuse it. But I loved the colors and style of the snowflakes on this paper, so I decided to use it to make some cards. I used a stitched rectangle die to cut out background panels for six cards and then glued the panels to light gray card bases.

I had a hard time choosing a color for the die-cut sentiment — nothing seemed quite right. Then I remembered I had some holographic card stock, and that seemed perfect. For each card I die cut “be merry” (Lawn Fawn) out of the holographic card stock and out of the same light gray as the card bases. I layered the two pieces together and glued them to the card bases. I know the sentiment is a bit hard to read, but I love how it reflects different colors. I finished each card with a few silver sequins.

For the second group of snowflake cards I used the Snowflake Soirée products (The Greetery) — stamps, layering stencils, and dies. I started by using the layering stencils to make a bunch of light blue and mint green snowflakes (some of the images are one color, some are two-tone). I cut them all out with the coordinating dies and then spritzed them with shimmer spray.

I divided up the snowflakes for four cards: two light blue and two mint. I stamped the sentiment “be merry and celebrate the season” in the lower-right quadrant of each card base using coordinating ink. I glued four snowflakes onto the front of each card and stamped smaller snowflakes using white ink and the coordinating stamps. I finished the cards by adding a rhinestone to the middle of each die-cut snowflake.

Wishing us all peace in this chaotic world,

2026 desk calendars

Now that the holidays have passed and everyone has received their 2026 desk calendars, I can share them here. I didn’t start making my calendars until December, so I had to keep the designs fairly simple. I made three different calendar styles: one with ink blending and die cuts, and two versions with patterned card stock as the base.

For the first style, I used masking stencils to ink blend a square near the top of each white panel. I added a bit of splatter then stamped a sentiment and added a die-cut shape. I matted each calendar sheet with coordinating card stock.

For the second design I used a pack of floral patterned card stock and added a layer of vellum to each panel. I added a word die cut from gold card stock near the top of the vellum, glued the calendar sheet underneath, and finished with a few gold sequins.

For the final design, I used a pack of patterned card stock in neutral colors with copper metallic accents. I stamped a sentiment for each page and die cut it with a circle die. I used a variety of embellishments, including buttons, doilies, and punched or die-cut shapes, and matted the calendar sheets with either dark brown or copper card stock.

Thanks for stopping by!

2025 Christmas cards in review

I am woefully behind on getting my Christmas cards out this year. I think it's a little funny that, while I start making holiday cards in January and am usually finished around September, actually sitting down to write and address them seems like such a chore. Next year I'll have to come up with some kind of strategy because trying to do them all less than a week before Christmas is silly.

At any rate, here is a recap of the different Christmas card layouts I made this year. Click on the name of any post for more details about that card design.

January Christmas cards: Northern lights

February Christmas cards: Vintage style

March Christmas cards: Holiday Blocks

April Christmas cards: Vintage ornaments

May Christmas cards: Shaker stickers

June Christmas cards: Forest flora mixed media

July Christmas cards: Joyful Christmas Flora

August Christmas cards: Gel print kit

I also made a variety of winter-themed cards for seniors using patterned paper and ephemera.

Thanks for stopping by!

It’s getting there!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on relocating my craft room to the newly (re)finished basement. The furniture is moved, and I also bought and assembled a few new IKEA shelves, too. Most of my craft supplies are downstairs, although I’ve been sort of throwing things on shelves to just get it put away. I do still have a few boxes and bags of stuff sitting on the basement floor, as well as some supplies upstairs that need to be brought down. I’m planning todo some better organizing after Christmas.

Here’s where the room is right now:

It looks a lot more organized than it is. I keep having trouble finding things that I know are there somewhere.

Yesterday I had my first chance to craft in the new space. Here is my view:

We still have a lot to set up in the other side of the room. We’re planning to use that space for games/puzzles and sewing. My sister and I don’t sew much, but our mom loved to sew, and we have a lot of her old sewing supplies. I think we’re hoping that if we have a space to set things up, then we’ll be more likely to do it. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens.

At any rate, my first priority is to get desk calendars made for Christmas gifts. (How is it December tomorrow?!) I won’t share those until after the new year, so hopefully I’ll be able to make some other cards or projects to post, too.

Thanks for stopping by!