I love you pallet sign - February Blog Hop

 Welcome to this months Blog Hop... so glad you could join us! There are lots of fantastic Valentine ideas today which I hope you will enjoy.  Can't wait to share mine.....

Here is the order of the hop.....

Lori Whitlock 
Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Natalie Graham  **** you are here****
Traci Penrod 
Chrissy Guido
Ashley Cook
Lorrie Nunemaker 
Smitha Katti
Stephanie Chavers
Mary Moseley 

I love signs, LOVE them, love to make them, love them for every holiday.... just ask any of my neighbors, who has to see them on my front porch.... or my husband, who is always willing to make them for me... this one is not an exception.  This one however was made from scraps, so its a cute little one.... My husband was making me a giant flag for the summer, and I sat and watched as he was gathering up the scraps to throw away, and I couldn't bear it.... wait, lets make a little one...  For what he said?  I don't know, but I will know when it when I see it.  So when I saw these quotes in Lori's shop, I knew that  this little pallet sign was destined to be a Valentine sign.... so this is what I came up with.

And so you can see what size and where it's new home is.... here it is in my living room sitting by my mantel by the giant chalkboard sign I made last year.... I told you I liked signs....

I painted this ombre style, started at the bottom with full strength pink, then added more white each plank going up til I got to the top, which was mostly white.  I then cut the saying from vinyl, and using the negative space for stencil, painted it gold.  (the gold was a fun choice, however it is a little harder to read... i still like it, though) After it dried, I lightly sanded it and then sprayed it with a coat of glitter blast, because everything at Valentines should be a little sparkly?

I got the quote from this set here, found in Lori's shop.  She has some super cute things right now, just in time for Valentines.  And of course because of the blog hop, they are on sale!  So make sure to stop by and grab some...

She also has a give away! So grab that as well.....

And for one of my lucky readers, I will give you a $10 gift certificate to her shop!! Whaaooo!!!  Leave a comment, and tell me what your favorite Valentine treat is, and if we share the same you win! Unless there is a whole slew of you that share the same treat as me, and in that case, I'll pick a random winner!!!  Contest ends at midnight...  Make sure to leave your contact info!

Thanks for stopping by.... next stop....  Traci Penrod 

Valentine Chalkboard

As Valentines Day gets close, I get more and more in the mood to make hearts, cookies and just fun stuff.  The other day I went to Home Depot, looking for "something" to make a Valentine sign for my front porch, but, came back with a giant chalkboard.  They had pre-made chalkboard and even dry erase boards that I knew needed to come home with me.  So this project was born.

Since I didn't have to cut wood or paint, this came together really fast.  I just picked some of my favorite Valentine files from Lori's shop, and cut them out of hot pink, light pink and white vinyl.    This thing is big, 2 feet by 4 feet actually.  So my vinyl shapes were big too... I took out the you from the phrase file, and added a little heart to the O.  It turned out so cute, and my kids loved it when they saw it, and lots of little pictures and words have already been drawn all over it.  I plan on changing it once a day until Valentines.  I've already been asked numerous times when it's their turn to be on the board!  Happy Valentines!

All the files I used were from Lori Whitlock's store:

I love you because phrase found here
Valentine borders 2 found here
3 Banner set found here
11 Hearts found here

A sweet treat!

Here's a treat for you today!  I decided to make a little treat for some of my littles ones friends.  I made some homemade suckers.  And man are they good!

They were really not hard at all.

Here is the recipe so you can make some too!

Homemade Lollipops/Suckers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• ¼ cup water
• 1-1/2 tsp extract of your choice (vanilla, mint, cinnamon, coconut, etc) 
• **i used raspberry and pomegranate
• Food coloring (optional)
• Lollipop molds and sticks

Preparation:

1. Prepare your molds by spraying them with nonstick cooking spray and inserting lollipop sticks into the molds.

2. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Once boiling, insert a candy thermometer.

3. Allow to boil, without stirring, until candy reaches 295 degrees Fahrenheit (146 C).

4. Once the candy reaches 295 F, remove it from heat. Allow it to sit until it stops bubbling completely. Stir in the extract of your choice, and, if desired, food coloring.

5. Spoon the candy into the mold cavities, making sure to cover the back of the stick.

6. Allow to cool completely and remove once hardened.

7. Store Lollipops individually wrapped, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to a month.

Once wrapped, I cut out the sucker tag. My kids added stickers and signed their names, and well, of course I didn't get a picture of that!  What a fun little treat!


I used Lori's valentine sucker file found here



Happy Valentines, and enjoy your week!

Love Notes

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I have a little project for you today that will sweeten anyones day!  On Valentines Day, we always like to make a special dinner for the kids.  We make chocolate waffles with raspberry syrup.  It's something my kids look forward to every year.  And lets face it, who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?

I made these little pockets last year for our Valentines dinner, which I slipped a little note to tell them all the reasons I loved them.  But this year, I am going to put them out early so I can fill them with notes all  month long.  After I made them, I tied them to the backs of their chairs a the table.  They made my table look so festive, and how fun is it to get love notes every day!

I used
Echo Parks Be Mine collection found here
Lori's heart pocket file found here
added some bakers twine to tie them to the chair

Welcome to the Valentines Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Lori Whitlock Valentine Blog Hop!

Just in case you are lost, this is the order of the blog hop!  You can find all the other cute ideas here:

Lori
Carolyn 
Joy
Natalie - YOU ARE HERE!!!
Corri
Krissy

I have a couple of things to share with you today! First of is a cute and easy set of valentine cards.  They come all in one set which is great!  I cut them out with Echo Park's Be Mine Collection, and put them together, added a couple of stickers, buttons and twine.  Easy Peasy! Right!  Well since I am giving these away to a sweet neighbor who has been helped me out while we had a giant snowstorm and my husband was out of town, I made her a cute tag from this tag set, added a couple stickers and a thank you sentiment and tied them with a bow in a cellophane bag.  Cute gift to give away....

Products used:

Valentine Card Set found here
Tag Set found here
Echo Park's Be Mine Collection found here
Buttons
twine
Ribbon
Cellophane bag

OK, so I have one more quick idea that just came to me this morning... So it was a quickie, but still cute non the less.  My husband was cleaning out the garage last night and brought in a whole bunch of boards I was saving for "future" projects - well we are in the process of selling our house and relocating back to Utah, so he looked at me and said, you can't move these boards... so he placed them in the wood pile by our fireplace.  So as I am getting the fire going this morning, I was placing these in the fireplace and thought, how sad, these would make a cute valentines board, so I slyly took one from the pile, and went to town.  Here is the finished product - just think, this would have been ash later on today if I hadn't saved it!!!

Products used:

Wood board painted white and then a top coat of glitter paint
Do all things with love saying found here
Heart cut out found here
Pink and red Vinyl
an eyelet and bakers twine

Hope you enjoyed your stop here.  Don't forget to stop by Lori's site to grab your free shape each day of the sale and check out all the other talented gals blogs to see what they have to share!  And Lori is having a sale today til Sunday - so happy shopping!

Happy Valentines!

Valentine boxes

Wow - it's been a while - vacation, winter blahs and getting ready to sell our house and move - only a couple things on my plate, but there is always time to make something fun!  So getting in the Valentine mood - I made these cute boxes from files of Lori's.

Now who wouldn't love one of these - a sweetheart, a child, maybe a teacher?  It looks a little intimidating, but it was a quick project.

I used Lori's 6 candy box found here and her heart shapes found here.  And thanks for a fantastic store called the Bulk Barn - filling it with coordinating treats made it a breeze!

Have fun!