DIY: Valentine's Day impressions

A friend of mine uses scrapbooking tools and materials to produce Christmas and birthday cards that are real keepers.  So why not one or two for Valentine's Day? 

Scrapbooking was originally only practiced for preserving family history and memorable moments, but has expanded since about 2001 into an industry that supports making cards, invitations, and artwork-- including steampunk and digital. A nice piece of digital scrapbooking was found at ArtFire.

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"Tiny Moments #4," Chili Designz

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There are many websites offering supplies, such as paper, cardstock, stamps, inks, and pretty little doodads, to add to your design. Some are Papersource (mostly offers kits), Amazon (search on 'scrapbooking'), and Michaels. 

You can find a number of design ideas and kits for Valentine's Day at Scrapbook. Here's a sample.

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Sanna Lippert, "Live in the Moment," Scrapbook

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PaperSource has a selection of kits, crafts, stamps, stickers, and card ideas. There is a selection of steampunk stamps available at Pinkflamingo61 on ArtFire.

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 Steampunk wood mounted rubber stamp, pinkflamingo61

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Now, who to send one to?

-- Marge

DIY: Polymer clay valentines and more

You have just two more days, if you want to make a gift for Valentine's Day.  Polymer clay, as compared to mineral clay (earthenware, stoneware, porcelain), has always looked to me like it would be fun to play with. Mineral clay pieces can be extremely lovely, but they have to be fired in an oven at temperatures from ~1300 degrees to ~2372 degrees F (depending on the type).  Polymer clay can be cured in your oven at home. 

There are a number of brands of polymer clay; seems to me Fimo is the best-known.  The Wikipedia article cites health concerns for polymer clays, so be aware.  A new brand called Pardo uses all-natural ingredients. Below is a pasta-making machine for conditioning polymer clay.  One can be purchased at Amazon for less than $20.00 (be sure to check the reviews).

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Dan Bollinger, "Polymer clay conditioning," Wikipedia

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Here are some ideas for projects from Polymer Clay Daily. 

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Mariana Bankova, Donna Kato, and TejaeFloyd, Polymer Clay Daily

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For projects rated by difficulty, try Polyform.  One of Polyform's projects in this Dichroic-Look Pendant.

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Dichroic-Look Pendant, Polyform

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And if you just want to see some expertly done polymer clay jewelry, take a look at Etsy.

-- Marge

DIY: Valentines, pro and con

Since Valentine's Day is approaching fast, here are some resources for making your own cards or using online resources to send an e-card.  I've noticed a lot of anti-valentine cards and sentiments this year, so they're included.  Keep in mind that most sites offering e-cards mostly just want your email address, thus the option to spam you.

Blue Mountain offers free, printable cards; Egreetings (a subsidiary of American Greetings) will send a free ecard for you.  The designs are, well, cute. Jukebox will print your cards in quantity (there's an option for digital output in PDF form) for a price and send them to you. What's interesting about the Jukebox site is the discussion in their FAQ of paper stock and coatings.

For projects Inhabitots has "6 Adorable DIY Valentine’s Day Cards to Make for Your Love." Here's a sample.

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Paint Chip Valentine Bookmarks, Inhabitots

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For some punny fun take a look at Buzzfeed's "30 Punny Valentines For Everyone You Love." I like this one:

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Buzzfeed

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And if you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty of romance, take a look at "Nasty, funny, FREE Anti-Valentine's Day cards" at StudentBeans.  You can download these cards as PDF files for printing and giving.  The sample below was extracted from the PDF.  There's a section near the bottom of the page titled ....and here's what can happen that you may want to check out.

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Sample anti-Valentine, StudentBeans

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-- Marge

The knottier side of Love

For Valentine's Day I'm offering some posters and artwork found at the Motifake site in an attempt to counteract the current flood of sugary-sweet sentiment.

"Love Is" by greeny:

"Choices" by rerun:

"Hate" (is just a phase) by gas:

"Some Broken Hearts Never Mend" by greybeard:

Dare I say "Happy Valentine's Day?"

-- Marge