Sundays With Lorraine

Hello my crafty friends, and welcome back to Weekly Scrapper! I’m excited to share several heartfelt projects just in time to get you ready for Valentine’s Day, so sit back, relax and enjoy – you deserve a little me time!

My Heart Is Always With You By Mona Pendleton

Talk about adorable! Check out this darling card that Mona designed using Papertrey Ink’s Love Lives Here Stamp Set. This sweet stamp set is one that you will break out time and time again. With its adorable little houses, helping hands, and other heart-themed images, you will be well on your way to creating meaningful projects that any recipient will treasure always

I hope you’ve been inspired to create several of your handmade cards and mail them out to those special people in your life. Who wouldn’t feel your love when they open the mailbox to find one of your handmade treasures? I’d like to send out a big hug to Mona for being such a constant inspiration to her fellow paper crafters, I highly recommend stopping by her blog Cupcake’s Creations anytime you’re in need of some serious motivation to start that next project. Hugs to all!

Celebrate Your Special Day By Nichol Spohr

I love it when a card can be used for multiple occasions. This card is perfect for a birthday card, yet it would also be adorable as a Valentine’s Day card. Since I travel so often with Stamp & Scrapbook Expo I need to plan ahead, so what I do is create my cards – but I don’t typically add the sentiment and embellishments until I know who the lucky recipient is. A girls got to keep her options open, right? This way I’m ready for any occasion.

Nichol has prepared a must-see video showing how to get that no line watercolor look using your Distress inks. To watch the creation of this card from start to finish click here and I’ll escort you over to her blog and we can watch the video together. Nichol really is the queen of detail; I love how she created all that dimension without all the bulk.

Valentine Glitter Votives By Linda

Linda had me at glitter and mason jars! Wouldn’t these votive candles be a perfect little pishky to give out for Valentine’s Day? I’m also thinking they would be great to use without the candle to store some crafting supplies – like brushes and pens. Linda used mason jars for this sweet project. Mason jars are perfect to hold candles because they were made for canning and can handle the heat. If you are going to use the jars for storage you can use any old jar.

Since you will be breaking out the glitter on this project, I’d like to share a tip that is going to make your life a little less stressful. I love my micro fine glitter but in the past, I would cringe when it came to clean up – as you know glitter isn’t the easiest to clean up – until now.  Break out your Swiffer duster sheets (not the duster with the wand). They are going to be your new best friend when it comes to cleaning up glitter. One of the most requested projects that I taught last season in the Creativity Center was sponsored by Elizabeth Crafts and it was Els herself who shared this tip with me. Boy, did it blow everyone’s mind when we broke out the Swiffer sheets and bam the glitter was gone!

Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana  Recipe By Amanda

With it being so chilly these days, I was thinking you might enjoy a little homemade soup tonight. Thanks to Amanda you can have this traditional Italian soup without ever leaving the house. This soup has all the great flavors of the Olive Garden soup, but making it at home is much more convenient and less expensive.  If you’ve never had this soup… it’s a creamy soup with tender potatoes, spicy Italian sausage, and healthy kale; you and your family are going to love it!

Just seven ingredients (plus seasonings) is all you’ll need, and getting this soup in the crockpot and on it’s way to deliciousness only takes about 5 minutes, then its back to the craft room where you belong! 😉 Pick up some of your favorite crusty bread and you’re good to go. Thanks to The Chunky Chef Blog, gourmet meals are just a click away. Bon appetit!

Thanks for stopping by – have a wonderful week and I’ll see you next Sunday.