Little Valentines – Sweet Treats Box

by Linda | Feb 4, 2012 | my creative journal

For today, I created a sweet little treat box to hold one of the Lindor chocolates that my husband really loves. I think it’s fun to create your own boxes using paper, so it was bound to happen during this little valentines series.

I’ve put some filler in the bottom of my box, since I only want to include one ball of chocolate, but you can stuff it with lots of other goodies of course!

Download Sweet Treats Box Template ZIP

Feel free to download the template and print for your personal use, I hope you enjoy it and create a sweet treat for a loved one with it. It’s easy to create, just print out at the size you would like, then cut along the lines.

I went ahead and scored all the fold lines before folding the box together and gluing the side flap. For the bottom, there are numbers under the flaps in the template to tell you the order to close up the bottom. You can also glue those flaps closed, but I didn’t find it necessary at all.

That’s it, treat box done! You can decorate and label as you would like. Enjoy!

Little Valentines – Packet of Hearts, Candy, Chocolate

by Linda | Feb 1, 2012 | my creative journal

My husband and I never really celebrate Valentine’s Day with big gestures or all the commercial stuff. We think it’s just that, an overblown commercial holiday. That said, I think it’s fine to celebrate in whatever way you see fit…because it’s good to express your love! Hopefully you do it all yearlong…but I totally understand that the holiday is a nice little reminder.

This year I’ve decided to create little valentines to give to my husband. A countdown of sorts, with a card-a-day from February 1st up to Valentine’s Day on February 14th. I’ll be leaving little treats and sweet notes to brighten up his day and express my love. Just something small, but meaningful…not to mention stretching out the whole affair into two weeks. Sometimes we don’t have to make cards to send in the mail. Try making cards for those you see everyday – it will still be appreciate. My first little valentine is a mock bag of heart treats- I liked the idea of mimicking a treat bag, but really wanted to include a bar of chocolate. So I included the folded paper in my mock treat bag to slip the bar of chocolate into.

I printed out my own design of Valentine treat bag toppers for this project, so please feel free to download for your own personal use below. There are six different designs to choose from, just print at your desired size and fold in half over your treat bags.

Download Valentine treat bag toppers ZIP

It was simple to make this little valentine with a bunch of paper punched hearts inside a glassine envelope, stapled under the printed design. On the back, I wrote a little note and actually messed up a bit…see the sparkly glob there. I decided to stamp, doodle, and glue word strips over it all – a nice way to cover up mistakes. It’s definitely handmade!

I think it turned out quite nicely for a mock treat bag. Of course, you could make a real treat bag with candy or little chocolates inside. It all depends on what sweets you would like to include.

Alternatively, you can also slip in a bar of chocolate as I did…or a gift card or similar gift. Simply sweet, no?

Creative Business 101 – Check Yourself

by Linda | Jan 31, 2012 | my creative journal

When you need to check yourself and really get planning and organized, use a weekly planner printable page to start.

I’m sitting in my room and it’s the last day of January 2012. I try to ignore the feeling, but now and again I get that numbness of realizing how old I am, how much time has passed already, and how little time there is left. Yes, I know it’s a bit morbid, but those thoughts pop up every now and again.

Download Cute Bird Weekly Planner Page PDF

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I would like to blame it on the snow outside and how everyone is grumbling about the troubles of bad weather. I would blame it on hormones and some kind of biological funk I can’t control. Maybe it’s the winter blues? I could blame it on something, but what’s the point? I realize that it’s totally okay to freak out a bit and worry about things. The bright side is that it means I’m alive and thirsting for more. There’s energy, perhaps misdirected, but it’s there.

Last year I started blogging creative business 101 posts, sharing my progress of building a profitable business. I was happy with the general progress, the accountability, the momentum of it all. Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon when the holidays rolled around. I totally lost my momentum and it’s the last day of the first month of the following year now. Jeepers.

I’ve been watching videos, reading blogs and listening to podcasts (all under the guise of researching) and slowly, but surely, realizing that I am failing myself. It wasn’t a dramatic or sudden epiphany – it was a bonk on the head in slow motion, because it took me so long to  maybe, perhaps, snap out of it.

I have been avoiding those reality checks and simply brushing the surface with others, in attempts to avoid the truth. Total FAIL. This is when the Ice Cube song suddenly started to play in the soundtrack of my life, Check Yo Self.

No matter what the circumstances are in life, no matter what crazy huge mistakes I might have made, I always have the opportunity to check myself. That ultimately means I can change course and move forward in the right direction. And if you think about this rocky road of life, we always have to change course. Change with the times, because we never can predict how things will go.

The worse thing is stagnation and inaction. That’s how I’ve been feeling and it sucks. It’s about time to check myself out of this situation.

I’ll be taking some time to re-align, formulate a plan and actually use the resources that I have at hand.

Do you need to check yourself about something? I hope that by sharing the free printable, it might help spur some action in you as well. Sometimes you need someone to shake you to your senses, but sometimes it’s just a very slow and gradual realization. All that matters is that you want to move forward…

doodles starting with a circle

by Linda | Jan 30, 2012 | my creative journal

year of the dragon doodle

by Linda | Jan 23, 2012 | my creative journal

A bit wide in the hips, but still a cute baby dragon. I thought it would be a nicer version to doodle, as opposed to the  fierce scary ones we usually see for new year. Wishing you a super productive and blissful year…

For those of us who missed making new year resolutions or starting a project in 2012, why not start today with lunar new year? Although really, it goes to show that you can start something whenever you want. Every day is a great day to start something amazing.

doodle of hairstyles

by Linda | Jan 19, 2012 | my creative journal

A bit of practice, doodling possible hairstyles on my girl illustrations. I tend to do the same thing all the time…need to practice variety…

doodle of scribble girls trapped

by Linda | Jan 16, 2012 | my creative journal

I was randomly doodling and discovered that the scribbling of a circle can result in a pretty cool face drawing. At first it looked like the girls were wearing head scarves…but then they also looked trapped in another dimension when more scribbles were used. Hmm… wonder what these can become. BTW, check out this video to learn about doodling patterns with Joanne Fink.

you (really) rock – a record of success mini

by Linda | Jan 13, 2012 | my creative journal

Although I should be finishing up my December Daily album, a new idea that couldn’t be shaken popped into my head. I took some packaging and made it into a wraparound mini album. The idea is to record successes in 2012, sort of cheering myself onward and helping me to remember all that did happen, versus didn’t happen.

During the new year, we tend to review our progress and resolutions. I always fail to remember anything great or fantastic from the year prior and thus beat myself up for not finishing projects. Boo hoo. I’ve realized that I need to celebrate and acknowledge my successes, instead of focusing on the negative. That’s where this minibook comes in.

We often like to make lists of to do’s and ultimate goals, along with a million projects bookmarked or starred, to be completed. I thought about how it’s important to do the opposite, to record what I have already accomplished. Do you sometimes add onto your to do list, just to cross the item out? Yeah, I do that sometimes too! What a mind trick!

Of course, this mini is not about saving my to do lists of tasks. I’m thinking of bigger successes that I will want to reflect back upon at the end of the year. Finishing a project or accomplishing something for a month or adding something into my routine, etc.

So far I’ve put my little celebrate illustration postcard inside, but not sure how I will add pages into it. Any ideas on how an unknown number of successes (or pages) can be accounted for? I was thinking accordion style… but I suppose the first success will be a deciding factor.

I used the North Country line of Prima Marketing papers to cover the chipboard, but not so happy with the quality. I don’t think it’s thick enough paper to do that kind of thing, but used some white lace to hide some of my mishaps. Since I finally got some elastic, I was able to create the elastic closure to this mini, which is totally neat. The bling is actually an old button from my stash – I’m all about reusing and recycling. I’ll be sure to update as I add in entries to this mini, wish me luck!

doodle letter to 2012

by Linda | Jan 4, 2012 | my creative journal

Yes, I have been MIA this holiday season, spending all my time with visiting family. However, there were many creative pursuits throughout our vacation together, namely leather crafting madness! For now, here’s a page from my doodling to ring in the new year… happy 2012 to you!