I've been eyeing a project I found in the February edition of Country Living for about a month now, so when my husband was heading to Home Depot this week I had him gather some paint chips in red, pink and white so that I could begin. The creator of the idea is Jodi Kahn, author of "Simply Sublime Gifts" and I loved the picture in Country Living; the stamps that were used and the three piece color strips, but I would have to settle for larger rectangle paint chips and the stamps I had on hand.

Stamping away, I experimented with pink and black and white stamp pads and found my groove when I smudged a bit of ink and decided to read the directions. In which I read that in order to help the ink adhere to the slick paint chips, spray with aerosol hair spray before applying stamp. Lesson learned, because, yes, they do smudge later on, I tested it. If I'm careful, they will be fun Valentines, especially because of the names of the colors: Picket Fence White for my neighbors, Marshmallow White for my dad, Bubblegum Pink and Candy Apple for my sisters, Sugared Pansy Pink for my mom and Sexy Pink for my husband.

I also wanted to use the leftover folded paper glitter circles I'd made at Elaine Tolson's Glitter Tea last weekend. So I went to work and play and added some embellishments like the cute vintage looking Valentine cards from Daisy D that I had purchased from Christy Dunham, Ballyhoo Girl at the last Funky Junk show. Adding the glitter was so fun, I used some vintage red "Sparkle Glitter" for one and the tiny cute bottled samples of pink and blue Meyer Imports glitter from our Glitter Tea Gifts Bag, as well as some extra silver I had on hand for the other two. Adhering the embellishments was not easy, and since I didn't have time, cash or energy to go and purchase the right stuff, (for which Christy recommends Koyoko, or Tombow) and I couldn't even begin to find the box my glue gun is packed in, I just used every possible glue I could find until they stuck. I found some fun vintage pink ribbon and two other Valentine inspired ribbons to staple on so that my recipients can hang their presents.

It was a good day for creating, and even when my projects didn't go exactly as I hoped, I love what I created and I loved every minute of the time spent on my hand created gifts for the ones I love.