Annual Valentine (Galentine) Creation

Each year I create my own Valentines for lots of my women friends, also known as Galentines. My way to let them know they are in my thoughts & I appreciate them!

The jump off point this year came from a Christmas card idea from Helen Hiebert's blog.

It took some time to fine tune the design so it would fold well, have a pleasing shape, as well as fit nicely on the Canson Mi-Teintes paper I wanted to use. 

 In a clam shell box making workshop  I learned the brilliance of using Legos for a perfect corner guide. You can butt it up to any surface and have a straight edge or perfect corner to work from. Stuff like that is worth the price of admission.

First I decorated each full sheet with stencils.   The large sheets, 19" X 25", offer so much opportunity for folded structures.

Each Valentine (Galentine) was traced & cut separately. Good way to hone my xacto skills. 

In a few days I will post my Blogging from A to Z  April Challenge reveal. I participated last year and truly enjoyed the process. Stay tuned & follow along

Valentines Through the Years

When I pulled out my file with all my Valentine ideas, scraps, examples, I was amazed how long I've been making them for my girlfriends. Then I saw a post this year about "Galentines". Who knew it was a thing that had been given a name? Compliments of Parks & Recreation apparently. I like it.

                These are dated 2005...11 years ago. Kinda crafty but they got the message out there.

 I went crazy with images, cutting little bits, stamps, fonts. No idea how I found the time to do about 30 of these in 2009. Every one was a bit different. Which is my usual approach, but not always.

 

These two are not dated, but they came at about this point in the line up.

The top had several iterations seen above, the bottom was the same for all with a message on the back.


 These mobiles were a big hit. I still see them hanging in friends houses. A great way to use pieces of interesting hand made paper from the scrap bin. They are about 16" long.

These are images I used for a little fabric quilted Valentine. I printed the images on muslin then used a backing piece and satin stitched around the outside edge. Alas I have no pictures of these. But I love the images.

Below are possibly my favorite. They are big. Had to use an over sized envelope.  I had a couple different messages. The left hand with the ribbon was for my husband. For the Gals I used a quote from Anna Quindlen that I adore:
  
“What I expect from my male friends is that they are polite and clean. What I expect from my female friends is unconditional love, the ability to finish my sentences for me when I am sobbing, a complete and total willingness to pour their hearts out to me, and the ability to tell me why the meat thermometer isn't supposed to touch the bone.”

Years later I got to hear her speak at a "Writer's Series" talk, which caused me appreciate her even more.

I found inspiration for these online (where else?)  They are small. Some ATC size 

and some a bit larger 3" X 4". Acrylic paint on Arches cover, Stamps and Cra-Pas for embellishing the edges of the hearts.

I bought myself a new sewing machine for my 60th birthday so decided to play with free stitching for my Valentines in 2013. I painted muslin with water colors and used my printer to do the message on the back then free stitched the mini quilts.

These were last years edition. You may have seen them here before.  I used my Gelli Plate for the surface design. I don't know about anyone else but I find the plate rather finicky. Could be the dry air here in the winter, or the acrylic paint I'm using. Anyone care to weigh in & tell me what success or failure they've had with the darn thing? Please?

Almost done. Last up, this years offering. Very simple but I like that. Post card size, done with hand made stencils and Shiva Paint Sticks. I love these paint sticks. Oil based so a little messy, but silky smooth and a great edge with stencils.

If you are still with me thanks for looking at my "Galentines" through the years.

Comments please!

Off to Adult Summer Camp

Oh man, it's been ages since I've been here.  My goal to post more?....life happens.  Broke my wrist in March cross country skiing. Non dominant hand thank goodness. So things came to a halt for awhile. Working for the only Hand Surgeons for miles around in our area I just went to work early the next day & got myself a nice cast. We just don't bounce like we used to at the over 60 mark.

Having nicely recovered I'm off to PBI (Paper & Book Intensive) at Ox-Bow in Southern Michigan in a couple days. http://www.ox-bow.org/  Looking so forward to 10 days of uninterrupted creativity! Plus the vibe and people there are wonderful. Not to mention the food is great. 

                      In the meantime a few pics of more recent endeavors, books, travels. This years Valentines, post cards.

             A trip to Charleston South Carolina with friends. Such a cool place filled with history.
       met the most amazing young man at the library Society. His blog is fabulous. Check it out
                                                         Brien Beidler

                         A little fun book with slip case done with stencils and Akua ink. 

                                     Another with mono prints and bits of hand made paper

I'll be back with lots of thoughts on the inspiration I find at PBI & of course I'll take lots of pictures.

This Years Valentines

Surviving a good ole fashioned winter here in Northern Michigan. It's zero this morning. Loads of snow so I'm a happy girl getting lots of cross country skiing in. Using an app my son told me about to track my distance and time. Nice way to keep motivated. It's called Run Keeper.

On to creative endeavors. Every year (almost) I create Valentines for a bunch of my "girlfriends". It gets me in the studio and I use these as a proving ground for techniques, tools, my skills.  I have to say I REALLY struggled with a. what to do, then b. the final approach to take. Since I got a new sewing machine less than a year ago I'm still learning and playing with it. So the mini quilts were born.

 

Every one is different, which is my usual way. Did loose water color hearts on muslin then doing free stitching where is seems pleasing for the quilting. 

One of my decisions, as I don't do "Resolutions", for the immediate future is to get more posts & pictures on this blog. Please subscribe so I know you are out there! 

Speaking of pictures. Going on a vacay in 3 weeks to the island of Vieques just off Puerto Rico. have decided to take only my iPhone as a camera. Going to use the Camera+ app. I have a tripod mount, your iPhone headphones toggle button can be used as a shutter release. I'll learn as I go & will post some (hopefully) wonderful shots. 

I've put a couple new links in the Interesting Things Category. A co workers son is on a wonderful adventure post grad school in Asia. weresthecrux? He is a terrific writer, way too smart. I'm going to love following his trajectory.  The other is the blog I discovered that led me to the Camera+ app.