Valentine Gifts

In addition to the Valentine’s Day cards for the kids at my son’s daycare, I wanted to make some little gifts to give to the girls that care for my son…he loves them so much and they are so wonderful to him! I have seen all over in blogging land, the Target $1 mailboxes that are out for Valentine’s Day. So I headed over and picked up a bunch and also hit Jo-Ann’s to find some Valentine’s Day patterned paper.

The mailboxes are really cute and very easy to cover. I used a 4” x 12” strip of patterned paper to cover the main body of the mailbox and I adhered it using sticky tape. My only tricky part was to punch a hole for the flag…I read before that a ½” circle punch works great for that, but alas I do not have one. So I used a ¼” circle punch and just tried to “make” a ½” circle. Not the prettiest, but I think it worked with out being noticeable. Then just traced the lids of the mailbox onto another sheet of patterned paper and adhered that using Modge Podge…although I think the Tombow Liquid Metal or Multi-purpose Adhesive would work better (but I don’t have any) because the paper could be easily peeled from the lid…just hoping it isn’t handled too much! Then I just decorated the edges of the lids with ribbon again adhered with sticky tape. The little bows were created via inspiration from Nichole Heady’s blog and her instructions here. It makes a nice clean inline bow for a strip of ribbon. I added a little extra decoration with some of the images from the Happy Heart Day stamp set, but I didn’t want to overwhelm the mailbox so I kept it simple.


Then, the best part…I filled it with chocolate and a matching little card. I used the mini note cards from Stampin’ Up! that I realized fit perfectly in the little mailbox. The image in the card is again from the Happy Heart Day set and I paper pieced the heart using the striped paper. Colored the shirt of the mouse and the flower on the heart with Rose red and Chocolate Chip markers. A little Rhinestone sticker (Icons Stickers by Me & My Big Ideas available at Jo-Anns) finished it off! Again kept them simple, but I thought it turned out cute. I hope they like them!

I made a second set with a little bit less girly colors to give to my husband and son. Similar matching card to finish it off...with candy of course!









The Engineering Details
Stamps – Happy Heart Day; Ink – Chocolate Chip, Rose Red Marker, Chocolate Chip Marker; Cardstock – Pink Striped (DCWV From Jo-Anns), Pink Swirl (Sandylion Sticker Designs From Jo-Anns), Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Accessories – Scallop circle punch, 1-3/8” circle punch, white ¼” grosgrain ribbon, Target $1 Spot mailbox; Supplies – sticky tape, Modge Podge, scissors

Stamping on the Walls

So as you know I am expecting a second child in June. My husband and I decided that we would give our son a new room (all boy style) and leave the original gender neutral current room for the baby. It is funny though how my son’s current room, even though before he was born it felt fine for a girl or a boy, has taken on a boy feel to it…guess because he has been in there for almost 3 years now! Anyway, my little man is very into transportation vehicles of any kind and at one time he told me he wanted a blue room…although that changed on the day you asked. So I went about trying to figure what I wanted to do in there and found some great foam stamps at Michael’s. There was a bus, car, pickup truck, train, cement truck, and an airplane. My mom, the sewing goddess, and I set out to pick out material for a quilt that she would make incorporating these great shapes. I then took the colors from the quilt to get the colors for the room. So what do you think??

Oh and the cool “All Boy Blvd” sign on the wall is technically a rub-on (gotta love those rub-ons!) from Uppercase Living. My sister had a party and this is what I got…just fits perfectly in his room! It was super easy to put on the wall…I will admit though I was very nervous!!

Here are some close-ups of the stamping that I did. The stamping went really well. The images came out a little splotchy due to the slight texture on the wall. I wanted a slightly more solid look to the images though, so I had to fill in some patches by hand…the most time consuming part!

And finally, here is a preview of the beautiful quilt my wonderful mother is working on! I am still amazed at how great the vehicles turned out…cant wait to see the finished project!!

Now we just have to move my son’s bed and stuff in there and he has a brand spanking new “All Boy” room!