Without much snow to speak of, winter made it’s official beginning today. I thought I’d pop in before it’s tomorrow! Christmas is coming, but winter is here and will be here for some time. In central PA, we generally get the bulk of our winter in January and February, so we aren’t surprised when we can get some work done outside this late in December.
With winter here and Christmas a few days away, I wanted to pause everything else and wish you a Merry Christmas! I’m still working on new things for the shop, alongside baking and trying to shake this chest cold. I hope your Christmas is just the right temperature for you and full of health!
It all started with a toothbrush holder… a broken toothbrush holder. We’ve been gimping along for weeks (months?) with this thing. Usually toothbrushes are everywhere (remember, there are 8 of us!) and today when I knocked a bunch onto the floor I decided to revamp our situation.
I ripped the broken toothbrush holder off the wall. Unfortunately, I actually did rip it off… and some of the wall with it. Ugh. I wasn’t mad, I just wasn’t careful. Sigh. The bathroom is bound for a remodel shortly anyway, but still, this look was taking us in the wrong direction. I needed something to cover this up.
Enter “Valentine’s” Bible verse. 🙂 I had already illustrated the cute snowman with the snowflakes for another project, so I just grabbed him and added some hearts (from yet another project).
To be completely honest, the verse print was one I was creating for the upcoming women’s retreat I’m decorating for. I just switched out the artwork and made a couple tweaks.
Perfect solution to covering a couple bad spots on the bathroom wall!
I love giving Valentine’s to my children each year. There are 6 of them. I don’t always, and to tell you the truth, it’s only in the last few years I’ve tried, but since I started painting and illustrating in 2016, I’ve enjoyed making things for them. It makes them smile. 🙂
This one, though, was something I did for me. I was inspired by some Christmas decor blocks the boys made me a number of years ago. I pictured it quite differently in my head, but it often works that way, doesn’t it? I painted this in my art journal with no other plans for it.
This past week I thought of it again and wondered if I could digitize it in time for Valentine’s Day this year. Sunday, I set aside another project I am work on right now to play with it and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. And not only is it done in time for me to share it with my children, but it’s in plenty of time to share it with all of you!
Update: I have updated this for 2023 and have it available in my Etsy shop. It’s available as a JPG and as a PNG with transparent background so you can use them as you desire. Print some to give for gifts or to frame for yourself. I also included some small cards to fill the empty space on the page. I love these for inserting in another card, using as a tag on a gift, or even a bookmark.
Oh, and please let me know how you plan to use them! It will make me smile to know that they are a blessing to you!
Confession: I haven’t been painting much since I stopped posting in early 2020. I have, however, been working digitally more and more. (Honestly, it’s just less set up, less time, and less energy to do during this super busy season of life.) And this is what led to my new drawing tablet for my birthday this last year. LOVE!
That’s just the tool I used to create this super cool couple (see what I did there?) I’ve had the pleasure of discipling a young lady in our church during the last year and I wanted to do something special for her Christmas gift. She wasn’t quite engaged, but she is now. I didn’t want to use something so cuddly as my Let’s get cozy snowcouple, so I settled with a “new love” ornament. I stayed with my personal snowman style and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
In staying with my recent trend, I forgot to take any pictures of the finished product. (Eyeroll) Thankfully, she took a picture of it and graciously shared it with me. 🙂
I printed it on card stock, sprayed it with a clear sealer for waterproofing and brushed it with a sparkle glaze. Then I put it in a simple frame that I painted a light green and again with the same sparkle glaze. (She loves glitter!) It was so cute! She said that next year this will be the first ornament she hangs. 🙂
Did you make any Christmas gifts this year? What was your favorite?
I’ve been sick since Wednesday last week. I think that makes today day 6. The first couple days I slept a lot, but since then I’ve had energy enough for using my computer on the couch. This has led to garden planning, illustrating, homeschool stuff, and even some blogging. Yey! I have nearly 2 years worth of stuff to share, so I’ve written up some posts to share with you. (No, I haven’t done all of them!) For now I’m scheduling them out one per week. I know when I’m back to full energy, I won’t have as much time on my hands, so I’m spreading things out to be more sustainable. 🙂
Today I want to share my winter shelf decor, so I’m slipping it in as an extra post. It’s a simple, one pic kind of post. I’m loving black and white buffalo check these days, so last January I added some black and white winter decoration to my collection. I also changed out the ribbon on that jar of “snowballs” for black and white check.
With February upon us at last, I’d like to share some of my fun Valentine-y goodness. Last year I shared these little cuties with you. I still just love them!
That cute cuddling couple! Something about cold, icy, snow people cuddling makes me smile still.
And that snow-mama with her little snow-baby. Melts my heart! (pun intended!)
I hope you like them as much as I do… and (Updated 12/2023), just in case you do, I’m making them available in my shop! You can find the “snow mama” card and a new snow mama design now.
And, surprise!!! They are now customizable with Canva! Click through to find out how that works, but you can change the text to suit you and your family!
I’m hoping to have the “Snow Couple” cards done before the end of the year! I’ll update this post when they are done, but if you want to keep an eye out, click over to my shop and hit the “follow shop” button at the top. You’ll see in your “updates” section when they are listed!
If you aren’t ready for it now, pin it for later… and while you are at it, follow me on Pinterest to find all sorts of great inspiration!
Back in September I entered a design contest with Spoonflower. It was one of my favorite fabric designs so far… the little girl making a snowman. It was entered in the “pun” category with the little hand lettered “making friends” off to the side.
Well, when my mom was buying a bunch of fat quarters of my 2019 calendar tea towel for Christmas presents, she bought this one for me. And she did the sewing to make it into a tea towel for me. I just love it… though the design on it is much bigger than it was in my head. 🙂 But it is exactly what I wanted it to be… a sweet little winter decoration.
The top (back if it’s hung) of the towel is filled with these snowflakes of different sizes. I’m so afraid of getting it dirty, though, that I think it would make a better pillow. I’m looking forward to grabbing up a fat quarter (or 3 or 4) to make pillows for next winter. Hopefully I’ll get to share them here if I do. It is so much fun to see my own art on something. If you want to purchase your own fat quarter of “making friends”, head over to my Spoonflower Shop… and let me know what you do with it!
I sketched out these little cuties last fall, but they never came to be until now. I dreamed them up with Christmas in mind, but I just love how perfect they are for Valentine’s Day! At least here in snow country. They may not have been fully appropriate where I grew up in southern California where we only ever saw snow on the ground one time in my entire childhood. But here… here we have snow. Not today of course. Today we have mud.
Sorry, back to the point! Snowman Valentines!
Mama Love
If I can pull it off, I want to scan and print out 6 of these mama love cards to give my 6 sweethearts tomorrow. I thought about putting the words “My mama heart loves you” or “Mama love” or something else specifically “mama-ish”. But I’m glad I didn’t. This way it can be used differently… like from a daughter to a mama for instance… or grandparent or auntie or whatever. Lady to child… or child to lady, you fill in the blank. 🙂 Maybe I can even get them in my shop for next year. Who knows!
Let’s get cozy!
I just love this one. I designed it first. Something about snow people getting cozy just makes me laugh. Maybe it’s the sharp ice crystals or the thought of the wet cold. 🙂 But these two just make me smile. It’s definitely the message I’m sending this year. 🙂 I’ll be giving this one to my sweet husband! 🙂
How about you? Did you make your own Valentines this year? Leave a link in the comments… I’d love to see them! 🙂
Update 12/2023:Â I have the sweet snow mama valentines in my shop and the text is customizable to suit you! I’m hoping to get the cuddling snowmen in soon!
