Believe it or not, I started working on these in mid January.  I was so proud of myself for being so ahead of the game, that I put the *almost* finished design on the back burner for a while.  Now, here it is 2 days before the big day and I just finished the photo shoot for you!  Sheesh!

These printable valentines have a sewing theme (seemed appropriate over here, no?!) and can be made with a variety of candies.

I chose a variety of small flat (ish) candies to use as my buttons.  All candies are adhered using Corn Syrup.  It is very sticky and will hold tight, but most important- it is totally edible.  I just used a Q-tip (you could also use a paint brush) to dab some syrup to the back of the candy and stuck it to the paper.  It is a bit gooey to work with, similar to hot glue- but no burns!

A review of the candies I tried:

• Sprees- they looked good, but were bigger than the guide dots I placed on the valentine cards, so they looked a little off.
• Sweetart Heats- these looked really cute and tasted good!
• Buttons- These were by far the easiest to adhere.  I simple trimmed the paper and stuck it down with Karo, but since the candy is on paper, you could even glue it down.  I also think washi tape would be a good way to stick it down.

I suppose if your children’s school was anti-candy you could add a small sticker sheet.

Download the valentine pdf HERE and Happy Valentines Day!

I am so excited to offer a giveaway-it has been far to long since I have!

I’m kind of a stickler for sending Thank You notes when I’ve received a gift, I even have my kids trained to send Thank You notes.  My son asked me last week when we were going to send them out and I knew I had better get on that!

Some years we send out simple store bought cards and other years I get creative and do hand print cards or photographs of the kids enjoying the gift.  This year I really fell in love with the photo I took of my Grandmother’s mercury glass ornaments and decided it would be the perfect thank you note for Christmas gifts. I sent them to my favorite local print shop and was just tickled with the results!

So tickled that I just had to share with you!  I am going to give away 1 set of 6 cards/envelopes to one lucky reader (international readers welcome!).

I finished out 2012 with 35 books under my belt and have already finished book number one for 2013 (Laurie Notaro’s We Thought You Would Be Prettier-Hilarious!). Just leave a comment and tell me about a book that you read and really enjoyed, I need some 2013 suggestions!  I’ll select a winner on Wednesday Jan 9.  If you blog about it you can come back and leave me a second comment for another entry!

You may not know…but I am a freelance Graphic Designer.    I take jobs for anything from T-shirt design, product packaging, marketing materials to logo creation.  It is one of my favorite creative outlets.

I wanted to start sharing more that side of the creativity here on the blog.  It’s amazing what you can do with a little grooveshark, diet coke and a quiet house (I usually work late at night)!

Earlier this year I got to work with Lauren of Lauren Danielson Photography, as she was starting her business.  She wanted to start branding her business and so I created this sweet and elegant logo for her. She is a local photog for any of you Arizonans!

One of my most recent projects was for a new pool design company here in the Valley.  I love their philosophy of pool design.  They don’t just give you a “stock” pool design from their files.  Pool Design Guy comes to your home and checks out your backyard, talks to you about what you want from your yard and pool; then they design a pool just for you!  When I first met with the client I kept visualizing scenes from Palm Spring in the 1960′s, a classy retro vibe.  As I kept designing the work evolved more into a casual beach feel.

Makes me want to dive into my clear blue pool (did I mention it’s going to be 111 today)!  Later!