Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day friends! Here are two photos of my mama, one when she was pregnant with my older sister Heather, and one of her currently.
My Mom is the reason I love to sew, she let me experiment on all her sewing machines, even when I’d mess up the tension half the time. Always letting me dig through her fabric scraps even if I just wanted them to sew ANOTHER hair scrunchie!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

Valentines



I hope everyone had an enjoyable Valentine’s Day. We don’t go all crazy, but I love an excuse to celebrate (and Tom has off on Thursdays) so it was extra fun this year. We made the kids some little treat buckets. That bottle in the bucket on the left was a funny vintage-looking aftershave I got for Kurtis. But I think it looks a little like I gave him a bottle of alcohol in that photo, haha.

Thomas knows me so well and surprised me with this cutie, AND he ordered me Blythe clothes (isn’t that the sweetest?) He took the time to look through and pick out Blythe clothes for my gals, just so thoughtful!! I’ll do a photo shoot with them soon.

We had a nice lunch out together and then just spent the evening with B since Kurt had a movie date. Now that Valentine’s is over though I am super excited to get out the Easter decorations…one of my favorite holidays for pastel colors and bunnies!!
***the little cutie valentine gals in the photo above I got from here

DIY Paint by number valentine printable

DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
DIY paint by number valentines - mypapercrane.com
Today I wanted to share with you some paint-by-number Valentine printables. My older son Kurt asked me to design a valentine that was not so cute for his friends, so I decided on paint by numbers in heart shapes. Printed on card stock and cut out with pinking shears, I think they are pretty fun…and if strung together could make a cute Valentine garland (and there is still time!) I wanted to share them with you for your own personal use.
just a little reminder (and I hate to have to do this but……)
**Personal use means non-commercial use of the valentines including copies and print outs for yourself, your personal crafts/scrapbooking and to give to friends. The valentines may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The valentines may not be used in advertising, and they may not be resold.*** I want to always be able to share free designs with you guys, but please respect the personal use clause.
Okay, all that said you can find the PDF here. They print our 8 per sheet, and you can then write your personal note of affection on the back.

DIY: valentines for friends

DIY vintage valentines for friends
vintage valentines for friends DIY
vintage valentines for friends DIY
I thought it would be fun this year to give some of my lady friends some special little boxes of chocolate for Valentines day. Of course I had to dress them up a bit, and I thought I’d share the real easy DIY with you in case you’d like to make some for co-workers, friends, or anyone you’d like to give a little something more then a card to on Valentine’s Day.
supplies
Supplies:
-Russell Stover 2oz I purchased a bunch of these little 2oz boxes of chocolate, these are the kind with just 4 pieces inside. Mine arrived in red boxes for Valentines. If you are really ambitious you could make your own chocolates and find little boxes to put them in.
-cardboard circles for the bases: I free hand cut mine from cereal boxes. These do not need to be perfect because your going to cover them up, you just want them to be about the size of your boxes.
-glue: I used a hot glue gun
-decorations: flattened cupcake wrappers, crepe paper streamer (I ruffled some of mine using a ruffler foot on my sewing machine, but you can also gather and glue down by hand) garland (I found red, and red and white garland after xmas on clearance and in thrift shops)
-vintage valentine cut out: I’ve made two pages page one and page two I had mine printed on card stock.
All you need to do for assembly is build up layers on your cardboard circle with glue. I changed each one around a bit sometimes using the garland first, some times a cupcake wrapper. Then I added a few little items to some like buttons, or little heart cupcake picks. Then just write a little note on the bottom of the box of chocolate and you are ready to give them out!
vintage valentine DIYvintage valentine DIY

**Personal use means non-commercial use of the valentines including copies and print outs for yourself, your personal crafts/scrapbooking and to give to friends. The valentines may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The valentines may not be used in advertising, and they may not be resold.***

Beistle Valentines

vintage valentines
vintage valentines
vintage valentines
vintage valentines
vintage valentines

During my visit to the Beistle company in October I did manage to see a few Valentines items in the archives. We started finding the Valentine & Spring stuff near the end of our visit, so sadly I don’t have too much to share. I am hoping in the future to see reproduction Valentine & Easter added to the Vintage Beistle line because they have so many good things!
The last couple of photos were hand drawn mock-ups, which were my favorite things to find inside the archives.
You can take a look back at Halloween here, and here…and Christmas here.