I'm Back! :o)

And that can only mean....YES, I finished pulling together what I needed for taxes and dropped everything off at the preparer's office this morning. WHEW! I worked most of the day yesterday on it, finishing right at my normal bedtime, and boy am I glad that's over! :o) What a great sense of accomplishment I feel. It's extra special because now that I am no longer a consultant, I know I will never have to pull all that stuff together again.

And since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I thought I'd get busy today and work on the gifts for the teachers. I know I mentioned and showed that fortune teller candy holder before, but I decided it was going to be more work than I had time to devote to the project. I really should have done those sooner. (Remember, I have to make 5, since Jess has 3 teachers, plus the preschool director). So, instead I chose to cover Reese's Peanut Butter cups and put them in a tin, like I did at Christmas.

I was also "ink"spired by a card Kathi posted recently. You can see it here and read how she created it. I followed her comments. I put a bit of a different spin on it as you can see, but the basic technique is the same. It's hard to see, unless you click on the picture to make it larger, but I used "celebrate today" from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages stamp set. The hearts were cut using my Cricut and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The larger heart is 2 1/2 inches and the smaller one is 2 inches. Thanks, Kathi, for the inspiration!

Next up are the tins I made. I chose to use Holiday Red in keeping with the traditional Valentine color. The paper around the tin is a retired Background and Texture paper from CTMH. I cut the hearts using my Cricut. I think it was 2, 1 1/2 inches, and 1 1/4 inches. The stamped circles on the peanut butter cups are punched using a 1 inch circle and matted on a 1 1/8 inch circle. The ribbon is from my stash, which means I have no idea which store I bought it from. The tins are ones I found at Archiver's. (sorry, Kathi-lol) Kathi doesn't live near an Archiver's for those who wonder why I say that. I guess I shouldn't mention that it takes me oh about 10 minutes or so to get to the Archiver's near me...
Here's a top view. The stamping on the white heart is a label stamp in Papertrey Ink's Sweet Love set. I got the idea for doing this from Nichole's blog. I added some small red dots, instead of the white she uses. The tins fit 10 peanut butter cups.
I had the girls help me finish up the projects. I got most of it done while both girls were in school, but still had to glue the circles on the peanut butter cups. So, I let the girls do that part while I worked on the cards. They were quite enthralled with the task. :o)

Oh and in addition to working on this and finishing it up this afternoon, the girls and I made strawberry muffins for Amy's Valentine's Breakfast in the morning. I took a bunch pictures and hoped to work on a layout today, but alas, that isn't going to happen today. Maybe tomorrow.

So, today I took Amy to school, got the oil changed in the van, dropped off the tax stuff. Took Jess to school. Went home and worked on the gifts until it was time to pick Jess up. Let Jess play after school with her friends. Went home. Had lunch with Jess, picked Amy up from her early release day, worked on the muffins, worked on finishing the gifts, helped both girls finish up their Valentine's, got dinner together, cleaned up the kitchen, ran out to the store for some Valentine's goodies, came home, got the girls to bed, sat down to watch SuperNanny and then typed this. And I wonder why I am so tired tonight? LOL

But I know my day isn't much different than yours, right?! Oh and get this...it was a beautiful near 60 degree day today. Tomorrow? SNOW and it probably won't get out of the 20s! Sigh...Mother Nature sure can be a tease...

G'night and maybe tomorrow I will have a layout to share. Right now, I'm going to head to bed.

One last thing...
Thanks for all the positive comments on the video tutorial. I guess you liked that idea, huh? We'll see about doing some more then. :o)