A Soul's Heartbeat: January 2017

Friday, January 20, 2017

Operation Valentines 2017

Melissa Beatrice Adler, Mel to those of us in the Crafty world, has organized a collaboration among crafters called Operation Valentines 2017. It's a group effort to provide children in local hospitals (in the Portland Oregon area) with Valentines. Many of these kids are fighting daily struggles and this kind act will give them a sense of normalcy. Crafters from all over are making sets of six Valentines and mailing them off to Mel. She and her sister will deliver them to Doernbechers Children's Hospital early in February. This is the second year they've done that and the response has been outstanding. If you really hustle you could get cards made and mailed in time to reach the deadline. Checkout Mel's Facebook page Operation Valentines 2017 and her YouTube video which explains it all.

Here's a look at what I made using the Valentine Combo pack from Authentique and an old Bo Bunny line called Head Over Heals.

I used a lot of Stickles on the cards so that there wouldn't be any loose glitter falling off in the Children's rooms. There are a list of do's and don't, nothing drastic, just things that wouldn't be appropriate for children in this type of hospital setting.

The heart balloons were die cut from an older Marianne Design Creatables called Heart Balloon (PP1401). I used them on all the cards and envelopes.

The cards are very simple but I'm sure they are going to bring lots of smiles to some boys and girls.

All card bases were cut with white to an A2 size 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Inside I cut another heart this time from an oldie but goodie from Spellbinders called Nested Hearts a Shapeabilities die (S4-296) The heart originally cut with a little knob at the top but I simply snipped it off and made the heart a more traditional look. The stamped sentiment is a Paper Source die that had been gifted to me.

Thanks everyone for stopping by, I do have a short video to share the cards. Please check out Mel's links and if you're too late to make cards for this year mark your calendars so you'll be all ready for 2018 because I'm sure she'll be doing it again. And lastly a HUGE thank you to Mel for taking this on, she will brighten the lives of so many young people with her generosity and compassion.

Supplies

Valentine Combo by Authentique

Artisan Cardstock - White

Bo Bunny Head Over Heels

Art Glitter Glue

Stickles

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist -

Valentine Pink

Iridescent Silver

Tattered Angels Plain Jane - Red Rose

Stickles

Glossy Accents

Pearls

Please check out the Facebook Page Operation Valentines 2017 for all the information

Mel Adler's YouTube Video which explains the whole Operation Valentines 2017

Visit me at A Soul's Heartbeat on

Blogger - http://asoulsheartbeat.blogspot.com/

Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/zbph36l

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/nwlady1949

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/northwestlady/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nwlady/

Thursday, January 12, 2017

My Valentine Mailbox

a Country Craft Creations design team project

Right around the corner Valentine's Day will be popping up. It's such a fun Holiday and this year I wanted to create some sort of centerpiece and came up with this Mailbox. Sometimes I've got to tell you creating is just plain fun! This was one of those times.

At least 5, maybe 6, years ago I bought an oversized Valentine paper pad from Tuesday Morning. The inside covers had templates for cards and various projects. The mailbox was one of them. Doing this for Tammy Merrill's Design Team I wanted to be able to offer a similar template to viewers so they could make their own. Today, in this techy world, it's just an amazing time to find just about anything you're hunting for. I searched Pinterest and the Net for a 'Valentine Mailbox' and came up with a share from Brenda Quintana, it was on her Blogspt Qbee's Quest. I'll link to it at the bottom of this post. Brenda's is very similar to the one I had on my paper pad and really I used a combination of both to create my mailbox. It's such a simple quick project with such fun results.

The mailbox door is trimmed with lace and ribbon from my stash and accented with Double Dot Think Pink Jewels from Bo Bunny. I added a heart button to the top threading my narrow pink ribbon from the back to the outside so I can tie it to the top. (The top ribbon is again run through an inside glued button, I added an eyelet on the outside so the ribbon wouldn't tear the paper).

There's a template for the flag in the instructions, I simply covered both sides with paper from the collection. To dress it up I stacked a miniature red paper doily, a cut out Valentine word heart from the paper and a fussy cut piece of white paper (I used stamp scissors on the white paper to cut the heart mat so it would stand out from the words).

To hide the seam from where the back and sides of the pieces meet I took a piece of lace, a piece of pink ribbon and flat back pearls. Since the pearls were cream I used a blue Copic marker to switch them up to a blue that matches the paper. Whenever I can I always buy white and cream in embellishments and ribbon, you can then change it up to the color you're needing.

It made me extremely happy to use this heart on the inside of my mailbox door. Manuela (Bunny Bow) gifted me with several happy mails of laces she's made. They come all the way from Switzerland to my doorstep and I hoard them all! I have got to quit and start sharing, but it's hard I get them out and look at them, sigh, oooh and ahhh and then carefully put them back. This time I took out 3 hearts she'd made and used the one here. I love it, now my mailbox is extra special.

The base is 3 stacked and glued cores from packing tape that I saved from our move (well I saved about two dozen cores but who's counting????). I then wrapped them in the ombre pink from the paper and used another piece of ribbon for the bottom. I attached two strips of heavy duty Velcro to the top of the base and the bottom of the mailbox. By having it removable it will be easier to store and if I decided I want to just place the mailbox on the table without the base it's easy peasy.

I'll link to the store supplies below the video as well as links to Country Craft Creations and my own site, A Soul's Heartbeat. Please come and share a little more of your time with me on video and I'll share the process and lots more hints and ideas of why I did what. I so appreciate you spending your time with me!!!

Supplies from Country Craft Creations

Authentique Valention Combo Paper Pad - http://tinyurl.com/hc25zxh

Medium Weight Chipboard - http://tinyurl.com/zfc7wxj

Bo Bunny Double Dot Jewels - http://tinyurl.com/jfc3tcd

Art Glitter Glue - http://tinyurl.com/h2dc7jy

Scor Tape - http://tinyurl.com/hd2zxnu

Artisan Cardstock - http://tinyurl.com/jpsgegh

Special Thank you to Brenda Quintana for her Mailbox Template - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/450969

Please visit Country Craft Creations here -

Country Craft Creations shoppe - http://countrycraftcreations.com/

YouTube - http://tinyurl.com/jkw6ptz

Pinterest - http://tinyurl.com/z49ueuc

Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/zbj7eu8

you can also join the Facebook group

Scrapbookers of Country Craft Creations here - http://tinyurl.com/zhess6s

Visit me at A Soul's Heartbeat on

Blogger - http://asoulsheartbeat.blogspot.com/

Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/zbph36l

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/nwlady1949

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/northwestlady/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nwlady/

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Authentique's Durable Collection transformed into Masculine Cards

a Country Crafts Creations design team project

I was chatting with Tammy Merrill, owner of Country Craft Creations, a few months backing and expressing how hard it is to find a Masculine paper collection and that's when she told me about Authentique's Durable collection. It wasn't long after that she sent it to me to play with. Well with family, friends and Holidays it took a back seat for a bit. Today I'm here to share a dozen masculine cards made with it. I love how grungy and manly they look, I hope you do as well.

There are all sorts of masculine images available in this paper line, it comes with 24 sheets of double sided 12" x 12" paper. More than enough to make several dozen cards!

I also pulled out some packaging material, like the corrugated paper. If you don't want to fuss with making your own from a discarded box you can buy it from various manufactures but I like the rough look of the bits I torn apart. I used leftover scraps of chipboard to pop up any of the pieces I wanted to give dimension to and tucked in bits of burlap and dyed twine here and there. I also applied Glossy Accents in several places for effects. I also used Distress inks on all torn or cut edges. I just don't like to see the white edges show, but that's purely a personal choice of what appeals to you.

Another thing I incorporated on almost all the cards were Creative Embellishments arrows and gears. Any of you that follow my channels will remember I won a huge amount of their products before Christmas. This was my first chance to use them and it couldn't have been with a better project. I thought they added a lot to the cards. It's always fun to have something new you've won or been given to play with. These elements were sprayed liberally with Tattered Angels Glimmer mists, I'll share this on video as well.

Today's video will walk you start to finish for the making of one card, that's at real time speed with me talking and give you ideas as I go along. I will also be making 7 other cards on camera but in order to not have you nodding off due to the length I sped the video up so you'll see me moving in hyper speed but still be able to see how things were put together. Off camera I used bits and pieces to finish the inside of the cards. You'll see as you watch the video that I used several Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists to spray the card bases, oh wow that gives them such a glisten and makes the Kraft card base take on the color elements of the paper line.

You can see from the cards they all resemble one another because the same paper line and added elements are used throughout. The change comes by how the elements, papers and greetings are placed and intermingled. My hope is that this will give you lots of food for thought as you make your own set of masculine cards. Links to the supplies and store will be directly below the video.