A valentine, a tutorial, and a GIVEAWAY!!!

14 Days of Love.

I can't believe it's over.

I had such a fun time creating gifts for my awesome hubby and watching him get so giddy every time I handed him a new package to open.

I already have big ideas for next year, including a cute little paper mache mailbox I got on clearance!

For day 14 I stole an idea that I saw in a magazine at the beauty salon (BHG maybe?) and I knew I just had to try it.

Behold, the day 14 gift.

My binder rings were a little on the small side so I am going to buy bigger ones and redo that part but all-in-all it turned out great and he was really pleased!

At one point I was trying to get him to put it down so that I could tell him something and he said "No! You spent a lot of time on this and I am going to spend a lot of time looking over it! You deserve it!

*Insert beaming face here*

This cute book is super easy to make, but there is a little bit of time involved because I had to cut out a lot of little cardstock pieces. 53 of both the red and the black. But it only took me about an hour and half to complete the whole project.

Here's the step by step process.

1. I bought a deck of cards at the Dollar Tree (2 decks for $1- shhweeett!)

Then I inked the edges, wadded them up, spit on them (not really), and did anything else that would make them look all old and distressed.

I cut down my cardstock to the appropriate sizes and then matted the black on top of the red. I found this amazing product at my local craft store called Chalkstock! It comes in both 12x12 sheets and tags! I was super pumped! 3 sheets of 12x12 will do the job and I think I used 4 sheets of 12x12 red cardstock.

All that was left to do was write my little sentiments with a white gel pen, attach them to the cards, make my cover, punch the holes with my Crop-A-Dile and put the binder rings in the holes.

Super cuteness!

And he loved it!

This doesn't have to be just a Valentines gift. It would work great for birthdays, anniversaries, or just about anything!

If you make one I'd love to see your versions!

And last but not least: GIVEAWAY TIME!

The giveaway will run from today (February 15th) through Friday, February 18th @ 11:59pm

I've been working crazy hard to complete my 14 Days of Love Valentine mini scrapbook.

At first I was going to include a page for each day but I changed my mind due to the lack of people linking up. I decided to make it more versatile and do a generic Valentine mini. You could totally still do a 14 day album if you choose.

Giveaway rules:

Leave a comment on this post about either

1. A special Valentine's moment with a loved one.

or

2. Something you would like to see me blog about.

or

3. What you would do with the album if you won.

YOU CAN EARN EXTRA ENTRIES IF YOU:

refer my blog to someone, they follow me, and then leave your name as a reference in the comments section!

I am super pumped about my first giveaway and I can't wait to see who responds! Pass the word please!

Thanks to all who linked up throughout the 14 Days and I hope that you enjoyed slowing things down for Valentines day this year and enjoying your loved ones everyday. Don't stop here! Why not do 365 Days of Love? (Oh my!)

You can find me linking this project here:

14 Days of Love Day 13: The perfect one...

While searching for my husbands valentines present I stumbled across the most perfect card I have ever seen.

I got it at our local Family Christian Bookstore and it must have been good because when Landen finished reading it he looked at me and said "I like that a lot!"

I know a card seems like a lame excuse for a gift but when you read it I think you'll understand why I decided to use it as my 13th day of love gift.

Now, my only problem is finding a card I like as much to give him tomorrow!

Now on to something else non-Valentine related.

God has really been convicting me to trust Him lately with some areas of my life that are scary and out-of-my control. Which is not the perfect scenario for a control-freak like myself.

Anyway...

I am about to step out on a leap of faith spiritually. I am about to do a crazy, no-sense whatsoever, Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, leap of faith type thing.

I am going to test God and His faithfullness.

I'm not going to go into much detail here, i know, I'm sorry!

But at some point I will open up and let you know what's going on. Let's just say, I hope that my conviction in this area is from God because if not, I'm going to look like some kind of fool.

For real.

So I am enlisting you as prayer warriors in this. Pray that God will answer my test and show up and amaze everyone around us. I have faith in my God. I know that He is in control of everything. I am surrounded by people however who do not feel this way, who are living in fear and uncertainty about what the future holds. My hope, is that my leap of faith will show them how great a God we serve.

Thank you in advance for being willing to covet this in prayer. I am faithful that God will provide.

After all, He has already provided so much!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's day tomorrow!

And if you get a chance I'd love to see your Valentine's ideas so link up below:

*Be checking back for more information about my giveaway scrapbook album*

14 Days of Love: Day-12

I am horrible at surprises.

I mean, I stink at them.

For example: I had planned a surprise overnight trip to Chicago for next weekend as part of Landen's valentine present.

But....big mouth here blabbed and the idea was totally shot down so that we can "save our money" psssh...what's that even mean.

So anyway of course when I went this morning to pick up his actual Valentine's Day gift I couldn't contain myself.

I had to give it to him today.

Good thing is, he loved it!

He already has the MacArthur NKJV version but has been wanting an ESV translation Bible for awhile. I had no idea that MacArthur also had the ESV in study Bible form so I was super stoked when I found it.

And doesn't his name just look fabulous on it?

He was really thankful and it felt good to get him something that I know he will use.

And since we're on the topic...

I also finally bought myself something that I know I will totally use!

I have been wanting one of these for so long! I go through my other adhesive crazy fast so when I got my Michaels coupon this week I knew the time had come.

I brought that pretty little pink thing home!

And the best part of it all:

So all in all it has been a pretty great Pre-Valentine's Day for the both of us!

I would love to see how you are celebrating Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

Link up below!!

14 Days of Love-Day 11: A necktie affair

There is one thing about Landen that I can't stand.

I mean I HATE it!

It makes me want to scream...punch something...anything.

His stupid ties.

I mean, he has a ton. And every Christmas it seems like everyone else has the perfect gift, more God-forsaken ties!

I probably wouldn't hate them as bad if it weren't for the fact that they usually end up everywhere else BUT his tie rack in his closet.

Maybe I should do a blog post just on the random places I find his ties.

What do you think?

Anyway

In honor of my hate/hate relationship with his ties I figured I should do something "tie" related.

I'm loving this card. I combined some origami YouTube videos and some creative genius on my part to create this gatefold necktie card. In true Landen style, of course.

Inside I attached a cute little journaling spot letting him know how thankful I am for constantly providing us with financial stability and food (healthy food) for our table. I thank you for the lettuce Landen.

I am going to post a step by step tutorial on how I created this card tomorrow. My stud-muffin, tie-wearin man just got home and I'd like to go smother him with suga.

Happy 11th Day!

Have a cute Valentine project? Link up below!

This says it all!

Happy 10th Day of love!

I loved the whole idea of giving my husband a cheesy Valentine's card!

I'd love to see your acts of love! Link up below!

14 Days of Love-Day 9: A love letter

What a day this has been.

A couple of weeks ago I made a comment about a stressful situation at work right now. Well needless to say today we got a little bit of bad news regarding a pretty significant cut in pay. Bummer right?

It made it kind of hard to think about a crafty, sweet gift for Landen today. I know that I should be thankful that a pay cut was all it was and that I still have a job but I think I deserve a few moments of aggravation.

With that being said I decided to go wayyyy back to the basics for Landen's gift and I wrote him a love letter. Turns out the basics wasn't such a bad idea because I think it might be one of the most personal gifts I've made. I'm not going to post the exact details of the letter on here but let's just say I teared up more than once while writing about how much I love him.

To create the base for the letter I took like 10 minutes and created a cute little scrapbook mini using one 12x12 sheet of paper and then added some journaling spots to it. The journaling spots became the background for my letter. I loved the look of the letter once I finished. I also thought I would take this time in the blogosphere to just brag on my husband a little. For those who know my husband they know that he is an extremely financially minded man. (With his job I guess it only makes sense). He creates our budget, makes sure I reign it in on my spending so we can stick to that budget, and freaks out when we get below a certain dollar amount in our checking account. These things are all extremely beneficial in our relationship because I am the exact opposite.

However,

Even with all of his money-tightness (dare I say cheapness?) he was still able to encourage me that we will be alright even after my pay-cut. He's the best.

For those who don't know I am currently working as a para-educator in a school district. Basically I am a certified teacher hired in to assist the other teachers with reading groups, co-teaching, etc. The downside to the job is that it is a one-year gig. After this year I will be jobless and back on the interview market for a "real" teaching job. S.t.r.e.s.s.f.u.l.l.

I know that God is going to provide but I find myself getting extremely down in the dumps sometimes about what will happen if I don't get a job next year. All of our conversations revolve around "when you get a teaching job we will...". I'm so so SO sick of it.

But God will provide.

Landen has been nothing but encouragement to me during this time in my life. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have him in my ear constantly telling me how great I am and how much he believes in me. It's nice to be believed in.

I love my husband,

and I hope he knows that.

Happy 9th day of love.

Link up below with your cool projects!

14 Days of Love-Day 8: Word Search

So I don't know about you but we totally love puzzles around here.

Not like jigsaw puzzles; more the word and number kind of puzzles.

So I thought it would only be fitting to do a customized word search puzzle for Landen for his 8th day of love gift.

I found a really cool puzzle creator website (of which I totally forgot the name for so I will add it as soon as I can find it again) and I entered in lots of cute personalized sayings, words, places, etc for him to find. I barely got it out of my hands before he was already starting on it.

Looking forward to tomorrows gift already!

I'd love to see your unique Valentine's gift ideas! Link up below!

14 Days of Love-Day 7: And some blubber butt news too.

*Disclaimer* This is going to be one of those post.

You know the ones that cover like 20 bajillion things at once?

I 'pologize in advance.

Now, on with the show.

The morning began with weigh in for us Blubber Butt girls.

And I forgot my camera again. Poop.

However,

....another one bites the dust, bum bum bum...another one bites the dust.

That's right folk. 137.0 and 9 lbs gone!

(Hold your applause please.)

Now here's the kicker, all I want is Chinese food. I.am.craving.it.

But that's the glory of eating in moderation, and having a stomach virus and not eating anything for the last few days. I am totally allowing myself.

Now, onto Day #7 of the 14 Days of Love Challenge.

Can you believe we're halfway through.

I am love, love, LOVING how Landen has reacted to my little "gifts".

Tonight's is kind of special. This past weekend Landen totally put up with a house-full of 2o-ish year old girls acting like 12 year olds. He sat patiently by while we made crazy dance videos and even blew up the air-mattress when we were about to pass out from a sugar-come. He rocked!

So I decided he needed to have the favor repaid...sorta.

I made him a manly little card and included a tag on the inside with a special message. A day out on the town (or ball court, etc) with his best friend, Drew. I have noticed that my guy needs some guy time. And I think he totally misses his bud (in a complete non-mushy way of course). So I write out a little note telling him that Drew would be contacting him to work out all the details. SCORE! He loved it.

Makes a person feel good to do something for someone else.

Especially when he lets his wife still have slumber parties in her mid-twenties :).

Landen,

You're my fave!

Have a great Valentines Idea? I'd love to see it! Link up below!

14 Days of Love Day 6: Message for a champion

Tonight was the big game!
Go Packers!

And in honor of the big game I honored another champion with a little message of love:

Dear Landen,

Thank you for being the official winner of the Super Bowl game for my heart.

It's yours forever!

Love, me

(I go back to work tomorrow, hopefully, so I will be posting in the evening. Don't forget to stop by and link up! I can't wait to see your projects!

14 Days of Love-Day 5-Top 10

Well I think there might be a light at the end of the tunnel with this stomach flu thing.

And just in time too because I am having a girl's only Valentines Day Party with some of my besties tonight at my house.

You can be sure that pictures will follow.

For today's gift in the challenge I wanted to do something a little more simple for the hubs. It is a lot harder to plan a surprise when he is around all day so I had to steal this time while he's napping to finish up my gift.

I printed off a "Top 10 Reasons I want you to be Mine" list here at loving you.com and I backed it with red cardstock then filled it in with lots of mushy reasons. This website has a lot of cute printables for each season and Holiday.

I think he'll like it. Sometimes we just have to keep things simple around here and to be quite honest, I don't have the strength to do much of anything else. (Boo stomach bug!)

That's okay. I think he will like tomorrow's gift just fine!

Have a project or something sweet you'd like to share! I'd love to see it. Link it up below:

14 Days of Love-Day 4-A cup of tea for my sweet-tea!

Holy moly,

it has arrived.

The stomach virus that is.

I thought I had avoided it.

WRONG!

Luckily, I had an epiphany in the shower last night and was able to whip up my day 4 gift for the Mr. before I went to bed. I definitely would be struggling to do it today.

But anyway, enough woe is me.

I thought I was pumped about all my other gifts so far.

And I was.

Really.

But now, I am so incredibly uber-pumped that I just can't see straight.

It doesn't help that I already gave the gift to Landen this morning and he was so proud that I came up with the idea all on my own.

I told you that he liked tea right?

Well what better for a gift than a cup of tea!

or several cups of tea in a cute little sandwich baggie with cute little matchbox covers! Woot!

I got the basic idea from over at eighteen25 by using her tutorial; you can find it here. I changed my dimension from 3" wide and 5" long.

Then I scored lines 1 inch from the bottom and then 2" up. I stapled my tea bag into the cardstock

and then added just a little adhesive to make a matchbook cover.

Then came the label!

Oh how I love the label!!!

It's simple but how cute! Sweet-tea, not sweetie, get it? I'm sure.

I whipped these up on photoshop, cut them out, and stuck them on the front of each tea bag.

Next I made a sandwich bag topper using the same design as the label, filled my baggie, and stuck it onto the top with some staples, and wha-la!

I super cute gift that he can enjoy for 11 days and it cost me zero dolla.

Woohoo for me!

He has already called me from work to tell me that he has his cup sitting on his coaster with his tea already made. I love impressing my husband. It's the small things.

And as a special treat to you I am including both the printable for the labels and the baggie topper. Happy 4th Day of Love!

Just follow the links below to download!

Full sheet of labels

Sandwich baggie topper

Have a project of your own? Link it up below!

Now if I move from the couch to my craft desk maybe I can continue working on the giveaway prize that one lucky blogger will be receiving on Valentines Day!

14 Days of Love-Day 3

Can I just say that I am having a BLAST creating projects to show Landen how much I love him!

He was really surprised with yesterday's gift and I think it really achieved my goal of showing him all the things I love about him.

Today I decided to do something a little more practical and functional but still special.

Landen always has some kind of drink (tea, pop, water) sitting on his desk at work. And right now his drink coaster is usually a piece of paper or a notepad. This photo coaster can now replace the paper and add a touch of love to his office.

I found a cheap 4x4 tile at Lowes and just modgepodged a photo down to it. I added some felt to the back to make it scratch resistant and there you have it!

A cute, personal, photo coaster that cost me $0.33 to make. Can't beat that!

Have a cute Valentines project you have created for someone you love?

I'd love to see it.

Link up below:

and don't forget to grab my button!

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14 Days of Love-Day 2

Hello everyone!
We are still covered in snow and ice here so I have been cooped up all day...AGAIN!

I had one person link up to the Challenge yesterday and I loved reading about how she posted on her husband's facebook how much she loved him.

So sweet!

Landen LOVED his coupons and couldn't wait to get started using them. It was nice to see him light up over something as simple as printed cardstock!

I am really excited about my gift for him today too.

I try to thank him on a regular basis and tell him how much I appreciate him, but I think sometimes the little things can slip by. So I decided to try and figure out something I could do that would stop him in his tracks and show him I love him all at the same time. So, I came up with this:

I typed up a list of just a few of the reasons I loved him and then printed it on some cardstock. I trimmed it down to fit my 8x10 frame and then stuck some ribbon on the back.

Guess where it's going to go?

I used one of my suction hooks and it will be hanging eye level as soon as he walks up the steps.

(Excuse my horrible posture in the reflection but I did risk my life out there to take these pictures!)

Anyway,

hopefully this will show him just a few of the reason why I appreciate him so much.

At first every little piece of information had a little heart beside of it but for some reason when I printed it only one of them showed up. Funny how it is the one that is telling him how much I love him for supporting me in counting calories. Haha.

I also decided to keep a blank version of the file for you to use and customize for your own special person.

If you use it please, please. PLEASE, take pictures and post them so I can see how they turned out!

So don't forget to grab my button over on the sidebar and link up!

And check out the other people who have linked up too.

What better way to show someone you care!

14 Days of Love-Day 1

It's here!

14 days of Love Challenge Day #1 is finally here and I am so excited!

I have a few things to share with you including my own 14 days of love project and a sneak peek video at the item that will be given away to one lucky blogger on Valentine's Day itself! Woohoo!

Just a reminder of the rules.

The goal of this challenge is to show someone that you love them each of the 14 days leading up to Valentines Day itself. This could be a spouse/parent/child/pet, whoever, but SHARE THE LOVE PEOPLE!

And if you miss day 1,2, 5, or even 10 I STILL want to see your ideas so please don't hesitate to jump in whenever!

Then...

Check back here daily to link up your project.

Use pictures or writing to show us your project but just LINK IT UP!

Add my button to your blog so others will check it out and link up too:

Cruise around some of the other bloggers and make nice sweet comments on their mushy gushy love posts.

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So..... without further delay

my first 14 Days of Love project:

I hopped on Photoshop and created these super cute love coupons for my husband. There have been so many variations to these things and you can find them pretty much anywhere but I wanted to include things that I knew he would enjoy.

I used:

1.Free night of cuddling

2. A get out of trouble free card.

3. One round of golf.

4. I'll let the dog out in the morning.

5. You ask, I'll do.

6. A back rub.

7. Dinner...your choice.

8. A lazy day on the couch with no honey-do's.

9. Breakfast in bed.

10. A long bike ride together.

I printed them out, inked the edges, punched a hole in the corner and then added some ribbon (football, of course!)

And there you have it!

No literally!

I'm not going to leave you hanging.

I created a printed version like mine and then a BLANK version that can be customized to say anything you want! And they're FREE.

the blank version

the printed version

I only have 10 coupons in mine but you could print as many copies as you like.

And lastly,

here is the sneak peek of the gatefold 14 Days of Love scrapbook I am creating for one lucky blogger to be given away on Feb 14th.

So link it up below! I will be checking back later tonight to see your ideas!

Oh and I won an award!!!

Thank you Carolynn from MakinCuteBlogs for this awesome award!

There's a party going on!!! 14 days of Love Challenge!

Can you believe it's the end of January already?

Where did this month go!? Before we know it we are all going to be blogging about Christmas again.

I'm really excited about February though and I have some really fun blog posts planned.

Not only am I working on a handmade gift for my husband but I am also planning a really cute gift for the classes I work with at school.

Super. Pumped!

One of the things I am most excited about however is my new project that my husband and I are planning for Valentine's day this year. We have decided to not spend as much money on gifts this year and really try to do personalized things that will mean so much more.

So...starting February 1st we are going to be challenging each other to 14 days of Love. Each day we will surprise each other with something personal and special. I already have a few things up my sleeve that he doesn't know about. I'm pretty excited about it!

Here's where you come in:

I am going to be hosting a linky party every day where we can share how we are showing 14 days of love!

Here are the rules:

1. Each day show someone that you love that you love them.

2. Take a picture of it.

3. Link it up to each day's list.

4. Show some love to other bloggers and check out their posts.

And the best thing of all: A GIVEAWAY!

On February 14th, in honor of the day of love itself, I will be giving away a handmade gift of my own to one lucky blogger.

How's that for showing some love!

Grab my button below and I can't wait to see your projects! You have 2 days to plan!!

Good Luck!

<center><a href="http://manicmother.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Manic Mother" src="http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac70/aobanion8628/14daysofovebutton.jpg" /></a></center>