A long time ago when my youngest wast in elementary school I was looking for some original Valentines to take to school and came up with this simple unique idea.

• From fun foam I cut 3inch wide hearts. I used regular scissors and pinking shears.
• I decorated the hearts with fabric paint.  Attached a loop and a small shape in the opposite color foam.
• Then I wrote “Be My Valentine” on the front of the heart and from “the giver’s name” to “the recipient’s name” on the back.

Please excuse the quality of my pictures. It took them before I had a digital camera.

Check out this website devoted solely to Valentine’s Day

06/02 2002

Creating this unusal Valentine’s gift was easy while playing in my graphics program to create the design and then mounting it on a CD.

The text of the design is are the lyrics of the song “the Rose”. The full lyrics are on the back of the CD.

• For version 1 I printed the heart on plain paper without background and then glued hearts from my heart punch around it.
• Version 2 has the design I created in the graphics program glued to the CD
• Version 3 is the same as version 2, but I glued pink bias tape around the outside of the CD.

The Song Lyrics – The Rose

The Rose Lyrics

The Rose

Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed. 
Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower, and you it’s only seed. 
It’s the heart, afraid of breaking, that never learns to dance. 
It’s the dream, afraid of waking, that never takes a chance. 
It’s the one who won’t be taken, who cannot seem to give. 
And the soul, afraid of dyin’, that never learns to live. 
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, 
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, 
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows, 
Lies the seed, that with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes The Rose. 

Artist: Bette Midler 
Words & Lyrics by : Amanda McBroom

first posted on 2005/07/02/07

real inukshuk

Living in Canada where the Inukshuk is a symbol of the North, it was only natural to create a Inukshuk out of something different than the usual rock. Having discovered that I had a whole bunch of video tapes that were ancient I needed something to do with them and the idea of creating an Inukshuk out of them was born.

Here is the definition of an Inukshuk from www.wikipedia.com

An inukshuk (Inuktitut: inuksuk / plural inuksuit ) is a stone landmark used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of theCanadian Arctic. Inuksuit differ from cairns in significance. The Arctic Circle, dominated by permafrost, has few natural landmarks and thus the inukshuk was central to navigation across the barren tundra.

Inuksuit vary in shape and size, and perform a diverse array of tasks. The word inuksuk means something which acts for or performs the function of a human. It is a symbol with deep roots in the Inuit culture, a directional marker that signifies safety, hope and friendship.

This is how I created my video tape Inukshuk

I used 15 video tapes

• Having recently bought a new refridgerator that had lots of strong masking tape on it, it decided this was perfect to stick the video tapes together.
• Once it held its shape I used mesh drywall tape and covered the whole structure. The drywall tape is somewhat self-adhesive and so easy to use.
• Now I covered the whole structure with drywall compound and used a popsicle stick to give it texture
• Once it was totally dry, I went over it again and filled in any spots that I might have missed and let it dry again.

  

• The next step was to paint it and I had no idea what to do with it. So I use white indoor latex semi-gloss paint as a basecoat. Then it sat there for quite some time.
• After asking a number of people who I should paint it, I always got the answer paint it blue, so that is what it did.
• I poured different colors of blue craft paint in a dish and some waterbased varnish in another dish and then used a makeup sponge dipped in varnish and then in paint to give my Inukshuk it’s color.

  

• I was quite happy with the result, but something was missing. Then I got the idea of placing a heart in the center opening of the sculpture.
• I used colored telephone wires to cover a heart made from thicker wire and attached it with fishing line so that it looks like the heart is floating inside the cavity.

  

glasses stand

Now that my husband needs a second pair of classes to use the computer, we had to decide on a safe place for them. Also it was important to create something that could be left out in plain view.

• Just at that time we finished a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol. I cut off the top of the bottle. (A round shampoo bottle would probably work just as well.)
• I covered the lower part with a nice piece of fabric I found lying around. I cut the fabric about twice the length of the container and I glued it on the outside with the bottom of the fabric level with the bottom of the bottle. I pushed the extra length of fabric inside the bottle to protect the glasses from being scratched.
• To finish it all off I Embellished it with a broken hair pin from my daughter.

Now my husband always knows where his second pair of glasses is.

winter boot plant pot

When my daughter’s winter boots ripped where the fabric was attached to the rubber part after only a short time of wear I just couldn’t throw them out. So they sat around for a while until I could think of a great use for them. This happened when my daughter was in elementary school. After almost 20 years the shoes are still plant pots.

• One day inspiration hit and I filled the shoes with earth and planted a small plant in each, and I got a couple of the most unusual plant pots.

The pattern for the welcome sign came from a stained glass design. I had made this with gallery glass for my father-in-law. Now that he was moving to a new apartment where everybody seemed to have some craft item on their front door, I decided that this would make a suitable welcome sign.

In my goodies box I found the legs from some old pair of jeans and deemed them to be the perfect background material.

As the item will not be washed I did not use fabric paints but craft paints. To give the design some dimension I outlined it with dimensional fabric paint.

Welcome Sign

Dodecahedron Cube Calendar

2011 is almost over and I realized that is time to get the 2012 calendars ready. From feedback I know, that many reader are giving them away as Christmas gifts.

How to Print & Assemble the Calendar

• The finished calendar is about 3 inches
• Use card thickness paper not office paper to print on
• The template is created to print to fit to a page on US lettersize or A4 paper. A4 paper calendars will be a little smaller than those printed on US lettersize paper due to the fact that the paper is narrower.
• Here are the instructions on how to assemble the calendar

2011 Calendar – Sun-Sat

• To download the calendar right click on the chosen image above and save the link to your computer or
• Right click on the link below and select save as and save to your computer

1. Black & White
2. Balloons
3. Ladybugs
4. Yellow Stripes
5. Strands
6. Daylight
7. Agate
8. Waves
9. Rust
10. Wood

The 2012 one-inch wide horizontal monitor calendars are here:

• The monitor calendar is available in a color and a black and white version as a free download
• 3 monitor calendars consisting of strips for January 2012 – June 2013 on one sheet of paper
• The calendar strips for half a year are one an inch high 
• To print it make sure you set your printer to 100%.
• you can also purchase a printed version for $4.75 + shipping

Color 2012 Calendar (one-inch high)  PDF

• right click here or on image below to download the free PDF

2012 vertical monitor calendar

Black & White 2012 Calendar (one-inch high)  PDF

• click here or on image below to download the free PDF

2012 vertical bw monitor calendar

Order printed versions here

The 2012 one-inch high horizontal monitor calendars are here:

• The monitor calendar is available in a color and a black and white version as a free download
• 3 monitor calendars consisting of strips for January 2012 – June 2013 on one sheet of paper
• The calendar strips for half a year are one an inch high 
• To print it make sure you set your printer to 100%.
• you can also purchase a printed version for $4.75 + shipping

Color 2012 Calendar (one-inch high)  PDF

• right click here or on image below to download the free PDF

2012 color inch high monitor calendar - click to download PDF

Black & White 2012 Calendar (one-inch high)  PDF

• click here or on image below to download the free PDF

2012 b&w inch high monitor calendar - click to download PDF

Order printed versions here