Happy Valentine's Day!!!

This Valentine's Day I will be happily clinking and clanking. I joined an Art Charm Swap Group... and obviously this month's swap was 'heart' related. 30 of us 'charmers' across the US made 30 charms and sent them to the hostess who sorted all 900 of them and sent each of us 30 back... all different. I decided to make a bracelet out of mine... and wear it in honor of St. Valentine.

Ohhh... Ahhhh... All so pretty.

As a general rule I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. I believe it puts un-necessary  stress on all the poor males on the face of this Earth. If you all need a specific date on a calendar to remind you to say, "I Love You"... then you are not saying it often enough throughout the year. According to the shopping guru gods, it is predicted that the average male will spend somewhere around $116.00 on a gift or dinner out... for a total of over $51 BILLION being spent on this Hallmark Holiday. Come on guys... keep your money in your pockets and show some creativity... Let your Valentine know how you feel WITHOUT doing the same old thing everyone else is doing. Feel free to help the economy by purchasing something else on another day with that money instead.

Valentine’s Day is named in honour of Saint Valentine, the patron saint of lovers who, it is believed, was murdered on Feb. 14 AD 270. During that time, the Roman emperor Claudius II cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome, as he was having a hard time getting men to join the military, and he believed married men, being emotionally attached to their wives and families, did not make good soldiers.

However, Valentine secretly married couples until he was caught, then, refusing to renounce his Christian beliefs, was sentenced to be beaten to death with clubs and have his head cut off.

One legend suggests he left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter before his death which said “Love from your Valentine,” the first Valentine’s card.

It was the pope who set aside Feb. 14 to honour St. Valentine in AD 496. However, the day was not often celebrated until the Middle Ages. Gift giving and exchanging of hand-made cards became common in England around the 18th century, while in the 1840s the holiday caught on in the United States.

This year I am giving Hallmark a break. They came out with a TV commerical for the holiday that I actually liked. It states... Valentine's Day isn't a day for me to say I Love You... it's a day to say I Love Us. Awwwwwww... How sweet is that???

The Discovery Channel just had this whole show on Love, Lust, Sex Appeal and such. The most interesting story was how the brain works when you are in love. Dopeamine is released in the brain when you meet someone and fall in love. Scientists put a happily married man in a brain scan machine and showed him a series of photos. After 20 years of wedded bliss Dopeamine was still released when he was shown a photo of his wife. Now THAT'S a Valentine Gift!!!

So... grab the one that releases your Dopemine and tell them how you feel. Give them a huge HUG and KISS and never let them forget you love them. Keep Valentine's Day in your heart and life each and every day. And for all of you without a Valentine... feel free to send any and all chocolates and flowers my way :-)

First Pancake Rule

Did you ever notice that the first pancake of the batch never comes out quite right? It's still edible... just a little burnt, or dry.  If you stick it on the bottom of the stack no one will notice, but you know it's there. Well... the same is true when crafting.

I finished my charms for the first swap I ever joined. While looking them over I was amused to stumble across the 'first pancake'. Can you pick out which one it is?

Here is a quick overview of how I made my charms. My last post showed me making paper beads from a magazine... watch the fun continue!

 The beads were coated with a water resistant sealer and stuck in a styrofoam cone to dry.

Next was to cover a small rectangle of balsa wood with vintage sheet music... seal and dry... then sand, sand, sand.

Since this is a Valentine swap I punched out teeny tiny hearts from the same paper as the beads and glued them to the back of the wooden rectangle.



Now it's time to combine the pieces. Adding pearl beads I wire wrapped the paper beads to to the wooden base. Last step... glue on the bail (shaped like a heart)... and TA DAH... my first ever charms!!

These were all new techniques for me... so a real learning experience. The most important lesson I learned was to only do a few charms at a time... that way you can tweak your technique as you go along.

This charm swap is way too much fun!! The next swap is using Origami Paper... again, not something I'm used to using in my crafts. My design is not finalized yet, but I have a bunch of ideas swimming around in my head. After that, the third swap is to use copper and green in a charm. I am so excited for this one as I already have a design idea and all of the supplies... but first I have to trudge through the Origami Paper one.

By the way... in case you were wondering... the First Pancake Rule works for children too :-)