alright, i have a confession, i am a bit obsessed with chalk paint right now.  it is awesome.  you can paint any surface and do not have to sand, prime or do any prep really, aside from cleaning whatever you are painting.  hello. thazz my style right there.  it is so easy to use.  it is a bit more expensive than other paint mediums, but i find it goes a long way and evens out, price wise, because you do not have to buy a primer.  also, you are spending less time, in general, on your project.  yes, your time, even craft time, is worth bucks ladies and gents!  there's my justification for the extra cash money you are shelling out. 

i went thrifting for a couple projects one day and found this big framed painting.  it reminded me of one my grandparents had on their wall above a similarly upholstered fuzzy couch they would force me to take naps on.  "i'm too big for naps grama!!", i would protest right before i would snooze my way through fuzzy couch surfing dreams.  i think i nabbed this baby for $15 dollars.  

took it home, gave it a good wipe down and went to town with my coveted chalk paint.  it was so fun painting over this landscape with white.  therapeutic even.  i had a whole plan going into it.  i was going to do this really cool colourful geometric painting on it.  however, once i was through and hung it on the wall, as is, i was completely in love with how it looked up there.  still looking for a big framed canvas to do that on, but this one will stay white.  

here's some photos i took of the process.  sorry about the quality, i was just snapping shots as i went along. happy painting!!!

happy valentines day weekend loves!  i love, love, love getting extra geeky about little ways to show affections around this time of year.  these are just a very cute little something to give your sweetheart or a buddy that could use a valentine.  

i am planning to pimp these out as the dessert arrives, after a delish dinner at our favourite local restaurant, Chaster Restaurant.  i'm going to take out a capsule and pour out the sprinkles onto our dessert and let him know that he's the sprinkles on my top!  oh emmmmm geezlehoffin, does that sound cheesy or what?  wow.  almost reconsidering posting this after re-reading it... but alas... with blushing cheeks... i will hit "publish".  livin on the edge baby!  living. on. the. edge.

now...lets get clear here, i have made 2 different kinds of "love pills" here.  ones that are filled with edible sprinkles, and the others i filled with, oh so very NOT edible, foil glitter.  the purpose is to make someone smile, feel loved and adored, and maybe...just maybe have a giggle or two whenever they look at them.  if you ingest one of the glitter pills....well....4 words... disco toilet party, batman!

you can do whatever you wish with these once you have made them.  they are a choking hazzard for the littlish little kids or for husbands who've had waaay to much vino, so, take caution;)  

i had these super cute little vials i got from here that i tried to make look like a cuter version of a pill bottle.  my friend, Nico, turned 40 a few weeks ago and i made a tiny glass vial into a necklace with one single rainbow sprinkle pill in it and told her that if she ever wanted to have fun again (after turning 40!!) that she could take the rainbow pill (lil Matrix reference) as i placed it around her neck.  she looked at me all suspiciously and asked with a suspicious smile, "w...hat's in it?"   i flashed her the same sneaky smile and replied, "sprinkles". k, yeah, funny moment...on with it...

what you will need:

• capsules
  
• sprinkles or glitter

and literally, that is it.  that and whatever you'd like to put them in.  a pill box would be suuuuper cute. you can get those at any pharmacy or dollar store.  here's a picture DIY.....have a fun v-day!!

you can find capsules at health food stores or vitamin shops.  i bet they even carry them at most pharmacies.  if you have the time, order them online.   i went crazy and made all the sprinkles i had in my baking cupboard into pills.  i'll use the rainbow sprinkles and the plain green ones for something funny on st. patty's day, etc....they are so funny and pretty unexpected.

oh the punches.  as some of you know, i am obsessed with these.  stars, hearts, tags, scalloped edges.  if you don't have a punch, you can get tags at any craft store or in the craft isle at the dollar store.  you can also just cut one out or use a sticker.  

valentines day can be such a mixed bag of emotions, failed attempts at romantic schemes, hallmark holiday strike lines, forced tokens of loves expression, true doting, breakfast in bed, stained sheets (um, because of the breakfast in bed...come on guys!), name written in the sky style romance (yeah. this totally happens) and super sweet surprises from your girlfriends (these are my fave). 

if you are a parent with a kid in school, i bet you've had the wonderful experience of  spending the night before valentines day pulling your hair out as your child takes 9 hours and forty two minutes trying to choose between transformer cards or go with the retro pack (which you are fond of and trying to sway his decision cause you wanna get the rock outta there already before you curse this love day into non existence)....thunder...thunder...thundercats...ohhhhh! 

then, just when you get home you realize, oh geeeziss, i need to have my 2nd grader address these to all of his 52 class mates, friends, teachers, family members...okay...back to calling off the holiday! where's the whiskey?

k...everybody remain calm. sit back, sip your whiskey and remember the cutest moments when you were little, walking around the classroom, dropping little treasured envelopes into cute valentine receptacles. trying to play it cool when you drop THE valentine into you know who's big heart. aww. adorbz! 

few hints: stay in that cute moment. be patient with your lil one.  they can mispell things and not start a card over.  but most of all....forget the store bought cards!!! oh my stars...come on...they just get tossed, hopefully recycled, candy pillaged and probz not even read. get creative...make something the other kidlets can keep and don't get swag candy to add the the hoards of sugar they will ingest that day! 


here's what we did this week.  you'll need:

• some sort of air dry clay. i used a paper based clay and liked it a lot. any craft store will carry it.
• a rolling pin
• some sort of letter stamps. i just got some leather stamps, but you can get little alphabet rubber stamps from michaels for $1.50! the dollar store might even carry them.
• i found little screw eyes at the hardware store, but anywhere that sells jewelry stuff will have something similar. this is for the pendants. 
• if you wish to make magnets out of the hearts instead...easier...then grab some little magnets at the craft store...i got mine at the dollar store. 
• paint. i used acrylic, but man...spray paint would have been a lot less time consuming. more expensive, but you'll only use a bit and have the rest for other projects in the future.
  
• wax or parchment paper
• heart shaped cookie cutter

start by placing a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface. roll out a handful of clay with your rolling pin.  cut out heart shapes.  you can keep re-rolling out the scraps of clay to get all the hearts you can out of that chunk of clay.  you wont need much.

using your finger, smooth over the edges.  now, stamp out cute conversation heart sayings on them or if you have a list of the names of the kids in their class, you can personalize them.  if you want to make necklaces, you will carefully screw in the screw eyes into the tops of the hearts.  if you are making magnets, you will glue them on the back after you are done painting them.

they'll need at least a whole day to dry out.  when they are dry, paint them.  ours needed a couple coats.  i did the first coat and then Loji, my little guy, helped me with the rest.  he helped with stamping too. 

i picked him up from school the other day with some markers, card stock i picked up from the print shop and cut into small cards there on their nifty paper cutter, and took him to the coffee shop to draw little cards for his friends.  we had so much fun!  he loves to draw though...if your little one doesn't care to...you don't need to...you're done.  they'll just bring the little treasures to school and pass them out. 

here's some pics to show you what we did....have fun!