Happy Valentine's Day Weekend!

Happy FSOG Day (aka pre-Valentine's Day)! FSOG will be sure to get all the ladies revved up for tomorrow! LOLJK but seriously - Happy Friday!

What's all this emoji nonsense?  Those are *some* of the Valentines I'm giving to my BFFs this year!  That's right - I took the emoji route because, well, who doesn't like emojis?!
For one of my "serious" Valentines, I took the classic heart+arrow+banner watercolor approach and added a little sass.  I tried doing a pretty 3D version with Illustrator (ughhhh) and Photoshop but it just wasn't coming together AT ALL...then I tried to do a pretty little illustration in the style of my new design crush Lauren Hom, but it just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do (because I'm not as pretty or as talented as her *sad face*) so I went with my pretty, tried-and-true method: watercolors, hearts, banners and arrows.  After a few crude sketches, I arrived at what you see above: "You'll always be my shorty".  I tried a different kind of card stock, which was interesting because the calligraphy ink bled in weird places.  That could have been a result of uneven pressure, probably.  Oh well!  My Valentine received it early and he loved it!



So what's with the Cheesy Pick-Up Lines zine?  Well, I saw Gala Darling's #MEGABABEMISSION for February: Make a MiniZine and at first, I wanted to go serious with a cute guide to ATL's prettiest art pieces (which I will probably still end up making, tbh) but in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I wanted to take emojis and make a list of cute and cringe-worthy pick-up lines for a laugh!  Print one out if you'd like!

Do you have any fun Valentine's plans?

Full disclosure: I'm normally not a huge Valentine's Day fan but for some reason this year I feel like spreading the love - not just to my BF, but to EVERYONE!  

Great Mail Day!

What a wonderful day for mail the other day!  I got some cute Valentines from Midge Blitz, another cute Valentine and a bow tie (YESSS!!!!!) from my pen pal Jess, and the coolest postcard EVER from Michelle!
And yesterday, as I was dropping of a set of Creepy Hearts Club hearts to be mailed out (to The Netherlands and New Zealand!!!), I spent a few extra minutes talking about Supernatural to the mailman who handled my letters.  Why Supernatural?  I forgot I had my Castiel pin on my jacket and the guy asked who he was and once I said "fallen angel", he was all "Tell me more" so you know I did! 
I'm hoping he made good on his promise to start watching the show as soon as he got home.  I told him he's got 8 full seasons on Netflix just waiting to be watched!  And on a related note, I've got THREE episodes of Hannibal left before season two starts TONIGHT!! 
I'll have to do another post on Hannibal because I'm pretty sure I love that show more than I love most things (possibly more than Supernatural!)

Happy Friday!

Handmade Valentine Swap!

Valentine's Day might be over but I'm not over receiving hearts!  Yesterday was a great mail day because not only did I get more Creepy Hearts for the Creepy Hearts Club, but I also received the last of my Handmade Valentines from the Handmade Valentine Swap!









Aren't they all beautiful?!

The first card I received was from Mayra.  Know I shared it in the Incoming / Outgoing Mail post but I wanted to do a proper Handmade Valentine post, so here it is again!  :)

You know me, I love a good pun and the card from Claire is the cutest!  "You hive my heart" with bees AND star confetti?!  So cute!  I'm hoping the weather in England has calmed down some so she can maybe start to have a Spring of some sort!  I'm trying to share some of this weird Georgia weather with my friends overseas.  Can you believe we're supposed to have a high of 69º+ today?!  We were just frozen last week!  (I'm not complaining - I'm ready for dresses and sandals!)

The button cupcake is from Steff.  She has a cute aesthetic and it totally shows in the card!  She hosted a party recently and I'm totally jealous of the set-up that she posted (and arranged).  So cute!

The last set is from Kasia, who makes beautiful jewelry at Kashen Jewellry.  Just look at this necklace!  Love it!  Looking at her Instagram, you know she's super talented in a variety of fields.  And the origami heart is so cute, it makes my origami skills looks terrible.  That's right - because I don't have any (yet!)

I'm so glad I signed up for this swap because I loved making and sending out the Valentines to four new friends and the ones I've received have inspired me to make better parcels for my new pen pals!

Happy Wednesday!

Incoming / Outgoing Mail + Some Creepy Hearts Club Love

      

      

      


1.  My outgoing Valentines for the Handmade Valentine Swap
2.  The Creepy Hearts Club heart cutting process
3.  Incoming mail from the super-awesome @lowercase_r.  Check out her blog here!
4.  My first Valentine from the Handmade Valentine Swap!  It came at the best time, too, because I needed to read the lovely message.  It reads: "In the sweetness of friendship, let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures.  Valentine's is not only about lovers, it's about friends too!"  So sweet!
5.  My second Valentine from the Handmade Valentine Swap!  (I'll post photos from that later)
6.  A collection of cute things for a Journaling Kit
7.  Cute food erasers!
8.  Another collection of cute things for a Mail Art Kit
9.  The latest Creepy Hearts Club outgoing mail

Once I get all my Valentines, I'll do a nice little post on the swap and include all of the things that were sent and received.  I can't wait to share them!

Have you checked out the sweet write-up about the Creepy Hearts Club over at Busy Weekends?  Check it out!  Many thanks to Michelle for writing such sweet things about the Creepy Hearts Club!

If you want to get in on the Creepy Hearts Club action but don't have an Instagram account, you can submit your photos to the Tumblr here or email them to creepyheartsclub@gmail.com

I hope you're having an awesome day!

The Creepy Hearts Club is OFFICIAL!

  

Okay - I started a Tumblr for all the Creepy Hearts Club fun!  I just had to because I mailed out my first sets of hearts today and I had so much fun assembling everyone's packages that I had to share it!

If you want to join, email me your mailing address and I'll send you a cute little set of Creepy Hearts!  Post a photo of them to Tumblr and tag it with #creepyheartsclub and tag @creepyheartsclub to join in on the fun!  I'll repost all photos to the Tumblr.  And by the way - this will not be limited to Valentine's Day!  It'll be all year long!

Send inquiries to:
creepyheartsclub@gmail.com
OR
shelovesyoublog@gmail.com

Hooray for making new friends!  Happy Saturday!

Join the Creepy Hearts Club!

I think I'm going to start a "Creepy Hearts Club" tag on Instagram so that my pen pals can share and tag their photos of their "Creepy Hearts Club" hearts!  What do you think?  Wanna join?  I already have some requests!  I might even make a Tumblr for it...we'll see!

If you'd like to be part of the Creepy Hearts Club, email me your address: shelovesyoublog@gmail.com
Don't worry - I won't share your address with anyone else!

Happy Friday!

Monday Morning Crafts

What do you do when you're transcoding a large-ish group of videos and the server where your working projects are is kinda down?  Make these cute little 8-bit Valentine heart boxes!

I found this wonderful tutorial through Craftgawker and pinned it for others to share!  Be sure to follow the Minted Strawberry blog because there are lots of other sweet DIY treats for you to try and share!




These will soon be ready to string up and hang once my mythical shelf (which has finally arrived - with a large gouge on one side - thanks Ikea!) is assembled and ready...  And who knows - maybe some lucky Valentines around the office will get one of these cuties next week ^__^

Lauren's Morning Conversation:

9am: Call from B-Money letting me know that he was my ♥Valentine♥ and
headed to ATL tonight after his last appointment at the salon...thank
god!!! He continued by telling me about how he wonders if girls are
late to their pap smears like they are to hair appointments...
Oh yes my baby is back!!!
We will be hitting various gay nightclubs tonight
in his honor...my handbag full of rainbows!!!

10am: Get off the phone and I am asked by my "Future Ex-Boyfriend" if I
had refered to him as my boyfriend to my #1 gay on the phone ... I told
him I was nauseous and that I cringe at the thought of titles...So no Mr. you are NOT my boyfriend...
NEXT!!!

11am: Still nauseous

12pm: Party planning in full effect Mr. Not-So-Much-Boyfriend leaves
after I blab about my commitment issues for the last hour....thank
god!!!

1pm: Wardrobe planning

To be continued . . .

♥
Lauren
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.