Valentine's Day

Three years ago today, I sat on the edge of my Mom's bed in Montreal as Dave held out a diamond ring and asked me if I would marry him.

I said "duh!"

And the rest is history.

I'm a lucky lady.

Thing a Day 2012, tiny envelopes

I love the excuse to hang out and make stuff. I think if I didn't have a job and laundry to worry about, I'd waste a ton of time on crafty things, because it's fun and the results are usually worth it. And if they're not, they're at least something to learn from for the next time.

Thanks to the popular time-sucking website, Pinterest, I have a whole pile of crafts I want to try, and one of them was making tiny gift-card envelopes out of pretty paper. This one did not necessitate a trip to Michael's, because I have some wrapping paper and scrapbook paper, and plenty of glue, making this a very cheap activity!

While I was able to find free envelope templates online, my printer refused to print, so I was stuck making my own by tracing a gift card and trying to copy the template off my computer screen. Here's my result:

I traced it onto cardboard to make it easier to use, and then I cut my shape out of a page of pretty scrapbook paper, folded it up, and stuck it together after swiping a glue stick across the essential parts.

I tested it with a gift card, and it's a little tight - I can get the card in, but can barely get it back out, so the recipient will need to rip the envelope. That's fine with me, since it's not meant to be a keepsake or anything, but I'll probably remake my template and give it a little more space before I try making any more. I don't want people to have to wrestle with their presents!

Thing a Day 2012, Valentine's Day Card

Last year, I made a Valentine's Day card for my 96-year-old grandmother as one of my Thing-A-Day crafts. She's now my 97-year-old grandmother, and still loves getting cards, so I did it again.

It's a plain card from Michael's, with some cutouts from scrapbook paper. Inside, I glued a fuzzy purple heart and stamped "love you". I'm planning on writing her a long letter to go with this card, and I'll also send her my origami sea creatures, because I think she'd get a kick out of them. I'll have to send this card to my mom, who will bring it to Grandmaman, because she's in a hospital room these days and doesn't really have a mailing address. It's complicated, but it'll get there.

Thing a Day 2012, Origami things

I'm getting a slow start compared to some of my online friends who are really talented artists, but my first things for Thing-A-Day 2012 are some origami sea creatures.

I remember, back in Grade 5, having to make hundreds of paper cranes to decorate the stage for our Christmas pageant, because our theme was "peace" and we'd just read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in English class. I got so good at it I could make them with my eyes closed, and every now and then when I come across a square of paper, I start folding it into a crane. Sadly, cranes are all I know how to make.

Luckily for me, there are hundreds of websites with detailed origami diagrams - some even have videos - and with their help I was able to make some things that are definitely not cranes. I don't know these new folds by heart yet, but they were both pretty easy.