My Happy little Valentines

Happy After-Valentines! The time of much sweetness and candy :)

The most exciting thing for us on Valentine's Day is the fun of preparing and sharing Valentines with my daughter's preschool class! This year, I let Gabby pick a pre-designed template to put her name and picture onto, and we used the valentines as tags on giant heart-shaped cookies that she helped me decorate.

We made and fancied-up a lot of cookies. She had a blast :)

The front of each valentine said "I'm just NUTS a bot you, Valentine!" (Gabby thought this was hilarious :)) 

And the back, my favorite part of all, has a picture of my little sweetheart, giggling. Just like her classmates probably would recognize her. Even if they can't read her name yet.

 Gabby came home with TONS of goodies in return...

Lucky for her little sister, she's willing to share!

Check out our fun customizable projects in the Template Gallery, and as always, let me know if you need any help or want the best deal! :)

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Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

Looking for clever and time-saving Valentine’s cards for your kids to give to their friends or a truly personal way to say “I love you” to a sweetheart? Heritage Makers custom products are the way to make it meaningful as we celebrate the ones we love this Valentine’s Day.


School-sized “Bee Mine” Cards
“Bee Mine Valentine Cards & Treat Topper” a playing card deck by Joelle Paleologou, template 50265, is a wonderful school Valentine that works well for a boy or a girl. With several “post card” styles to choose from and a spot to turn your child’s photo into a postage stamp, you can use the 54-card deck to make sets for two or three youngsters in the family. And the best part about Heritage Makers Valentines? No need to supervise the time-consuming signing of each card!



  
For the Boys
School Valentines can be more problematic for the boys than the girls. Boys want to join in the fun of giving out Valentines but don’t want their cards to be too mushy. Another playing card deck, a set by Lynda Angelastro, addresses the dilemma with a robot-themed set of Valentine cards. “Robot Valentines,” template 77324 has a photo of the sender on one side and a choice of several cleverly worded, robot-related greetings on the other.



  
Dinosaur Greetings
Another adorable set of school Valentines is the “Rawr Valentine” playing card deck from Tanja Rigby. Template 50328 works equally well for boys or girls and is another deck that could be split between two children in the family. Just make half the names on the card faces from one child and half from the other.



  
Any Age or Gender Valentines
For a clean and contemporary style your child will love, consider Jill Means’ playing card deck “Little Valentines- Variety,” template 47790. With six choices for the face of the card, this is also a deck that could serve the school Valentine needs of the entire family.



  
Cards for the One You Love
For a sentimental Valentine for husband or boyfriend try Lynda Angelastro’s “Open Heart Valentine.” This 5 x 7 greeting card is a wonderful way to express your deepest love and is template 51193.




For a card specifically designed for your longer love letter, try “Love is the Start” by Kari Pieratt. It’s a 7 x 5 greeting card, template 49795, that says “love letter” inside with room for you to write one.


For a card with a lighter touch, check out Deanna Payne’s 7 x 5 greeting card “My Man Valentine,” template 26379, that has a simple “I Love You” on the inside of the card. These are just two of the many grown up cards you’ll find in the Template Gallery. Use our single word search and simply enter “Valentine.”





A Card for the Kids
Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to tell your children they are loved and there is no better card than Tanja Rigby’s 3-panel family fold “Funny Little Valentine,” template 49350. While this gorgeous card could easily be adapted for your romantic interest, its message of love for your little one is one you’ll want to be sure and send this Valentine’s Day.





Everlasting Love
Let your child know that you are not the only one that loves them with Tanja’s 7 x 5 storybook “A Valentine for My Little Sparrow,” template 47553 (it matches the card above). The text in this stunning beautiful and uplifting storybook is based on a faith-focused verse about God’s love for even the smallest sparrow.



Valentine Gift Book
Another perfect Valentine gift is this appreciation flip book “What I Love about You” by Tanja Rigby, template 49851. Fill it with heart-felt sentiments telling your daughter, best friend or coworker how important she is to you. You’ll need nine snapshots to complete the purse-packable size book.



“The” Valentine Gift
If this is the year you want to really tell your sweetheart how much he means to you, why not make a canvas gift as your Valentine present? There are many beautiful canvases in the Template Gallery that would make wonderful gifts for your someone special. Here are just a few suggestions. “Now & Forever” the 12 x 12 canvas by Kimberly Keber, template 69316, shown above is a wonderful way to display a treasured casual photo that shows how much you mean to each other.




For a canvas featuring a more formal photo, look to Wendy Bailey’s “The Hands of Time.” It’s a 20 x 16 canvas, template number 52700, and will become a priceless portrait of the love you share.


  


For a lighter look at romance, use Sandra Dovre’s “All We Need is Love.” This 8 x 8 canvas, template 37355 requires no personalization unless you’d like to replicate the photos using your own hands. The second of Sandra’s canvases shown here, “Love Always,” is also a snap to personalize. Just find childhood photos of you and your sweetheart to make this adorable 8 x 8 canvas gift that’s in the Template Gallery as template number 27257.

At the Heart of Heritage Makers
Building and preserving relationships is at the heart of Heritage Makers so Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to use your Club HM membership to let those you love know how much you care.  You have the perfect tool right at your fingertips!

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Template Spotlights: Weddings

With wedding season just around the corner, Heritage Makers offers this peek at three beautiful wedding collections, all of which can be customized for just about any bride’s fancy.

Our most recent bridal collection is by Darcie Toom and uses “Blessed” art and a classic style and feel. Incredibly beautiful, the neutral silvers, whites, and greens coordinate with any color scheme.

For additional touches of color, add blossoms in the bride’s colors or change the inside papers at the side or bottom of the page. In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Blessed” to find the entire collection.


Also new, our “Natural” collection by Sandra Dovre is a clean, white on natural design that can be changed quickly and easily to match any bride’s color scheme.

Neutral colored elements allow background papers of any kind to be swapped for the natural color shown and give an instantly different look like those shown here.

In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Natural” to find the entire collection or use the ID numbers below to find individual pieces. Products available in this collection include:

"Natural Wedding Thank You" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 55500
"Natural Wedding Bridesmaid Album" Square Flip Book ID 55499
"Natural Wedding Parents Album" 8 x 8 Storybook ID 55498
"Natural Wedding Album" 11.5 x 8.5 Storybook ID 55497
"Natural Wedding Guest Book" 11.5 x 8.5 Storybook ID 55496
"Natural Wedding Invitation" 7 x 5 Greeting Card ID 55495
"Natural Wedding Save the Date" Playing Card Deck ID 55494



One of our most popular wedding collections is the “Love Story” collection by Jill Means. The design is simple but elegant and features classic swirls and beautiful lettering.




Every element and paper in this clean and modern collection is color customizable. Slightly different from simply changing out papers or elements, in Jill’s designs, you can change the color of swirls, lettering, backgrounds, and overlay papers to colors “sampled” from the bridal bouquet, the bridesmaids’ dresses, or any color you fancy.

In the Template Gallery search field, enter “Means” to find the entire collection or use the ID numbers below to find individual pieces. Products available in this collection include:

"Love Story - Swatch Book" Square Swatchbook ID 37812"Love Story - Formal Wedding" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32436"Love Story - Photo Wedding Invitation" 7 x 5 Invitation ID 32434
"Love Story Save-the-Date Invitation" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32433"Love Story - Bridal Shower Invitation" 5 x 7 Invitation ID 32432"Love Story Wedding Album" 12 x 12 Storybook ID 32431
"Love Story Parents Album" 8 x 8 Storybook ID 31178"Love Story - Photo Wedding Invite" 7 x 5 Invitation ID 37473

These projects are just a few of the many wedding templates available in the Template Gallery. Enter “wedding” to find more. And remember, with Studio templates, every single paper and element can be customized to fit even the most unusual of wedding needs or color schemes. With Heritage Makers, your bride can really “have it her way.” Help the newly weds in your life to treasure the memories of their beginning by creating one of these elegant keepsakes today!

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Gabby's Valentine

Oh my goodness! This is a month late in posting, but I just realized I didn't post Gabby's Valentine! It was so cute, and I got so many compliments on it - so fun to see WHO sent the valentine, and the little preschoolers that can't read yet were able to identify which valentine was from Gabby! So fun :) and I had a BLAST making it!

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Happy Valentine's Day!

I found this card in the template gallery (Template ID #51782) and I've been sending it every time I want to send a card to somebody lately, it's just so adorable! And not JUST for Valentine's Day, although that is the theme today!

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Deep Canvases!

We've had this bare space in our main floor bathroom since we moved in, and now that the rest of the bathroom is squared away, it's been bothering me. So I am SOO excited about our new deep-framed canvases! Check out this canvas that I just finished (It took all of 20 minutes!) - with our beautiful new scenery background papers, it's easier than ever to have classy art featuring your favorite photographs around your home!

I got my design inspiration from this 18x18 Deep Framed Canvas in the Template Gallery - I just wanted mine to be rectangular, along with a few other changes, but I think I stayed pretty close to the original :)
(template id #38150)

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Then Comes Marriage

I am so excited about this mini-poster! It is on an 11x14 print, and is the 2nd in a series of posters I'm making for our family - my next work in progress is one of our first baby :) I had so much fun designing it, and even though it is covered in beautiful embellishments, it was cheap, fast, and easy to make!

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First Comes Love

I'm so excited about the new 11x14 Prints! This "mini-poster" is the first in a series of prints that I am creating to frame and hang in our stairwell - I think it will be a perfect way to teach our children about the proper order of things (can you guess what the next print will be called?) as well as display some of our favorite pictures from special events in our family life!

 

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Engagement Pictures Canvas

Some of my favorite pictures of my husband and I as a couple were from our engagement photo-shoot, but the only place that they are displayed are in our wedding album! So I've made this beautiful Canvas Print to display our love while it was still fresh and new, so we never forget :)

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Our Family 2009

This summer, we hired a photographer and went and had our pictures taken in the park where my husband proposed. The pictures were beautiful, but what do you do with 200 fabulous pictures of the same day? You make a coffee-table book, of course!

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My Wedding Album

For those of you who know me, you'll know that I start projects with the greatest of intentions, but that I haven't always been great at finishing them. This was how the original wedding album began - the beginning of my scrapbooking hobby! I invested hundreds of $ into our wedding album, only to have it sit on our shelf for the next 4 years, in all its unfinished glory. Incomplete journalling, pages that were still waiting for pictures to get developed, and then eventually it got dropped and the binding broke. My one and only copy of a very special event.

So when I discovered Heritage Makers, I told my husband that I was going to re-do our wedding album. And FINISH it. I don't think he really believed me. But I did it! I scanned some of the original 12x12 pages that were special to us, and put them into a Legacy 11x13 book (I really wanted the leather!) and I finished all of the journalling, re-did a few pages that used to make me cringe, and completed all of those unfinished pages! And it only took about a week! And now, with our Heirloom Assurance, I'll never have to worry about this being my one-and-only copy, and our children can feel free to read the story of their parents' love as much as they want!

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A Love Like That

Submitted by: Candace May, co-founder of Heritage Makers

My favorite song on the radio right now is one called, “Like Johnny and June”. It is about the love story of the famous Johnny Cash and his wife June….

Here are a few lines form the song…

And when there gonna be no tears to cry,

Only memories of our lives,

They’ll remember, remember

A love like that.

One of the things I really love about Heritage Makers is that we can all celebrate a love like Johnny and June. We all have someone with “a love like that” in our family.My grandparents had a love like that.My parents had one.
And I like to think of my relationship with my husband that way as well.

I once made my husband a canvas poster that says “I would rather have a tent and a crust of bread with you than be queen of all the world.”

It is my greatest hope that my children find a love like ours as well. It’s not a love full of worldly possessions…it’s a love that is comfortable, happy, secure, and passionate. This is one of the reasons I wrote mine and my husband’s love story…so my children can have a bed time story that indeed ends in “happily ever after…” What better way to teach them about love?
I have the most darling friend from college. She and her husband were our very first couple friends. We experienced those poor married student days together…scraping enough money together for Chinese take out, etc. We also experienced first babies together. Sadly, this sweet couple’s marriage ended in a divorce. As their children grew up and experienced the life so many children experience growing up in a divorced home, I mentioned to her that she should STILL write her love story. Is there any reason not to? Didn’t they fall in love, deeply and madly in love? Did they not have a wonderful courtship? Did he not get on one knee and pop the question? Did they not have a fairytale wedding? Did they not become parents together, a time of complete joy? Yes they did and just because the ending wasn’t perfect, it is still a beautiful love story! In my opinion it is a love story that needs to be told for the benefit of their two beautiful boys, ages 8 and 10 now.

So this Valentine’s Day I will not seek for roses or chocolates, but it is my gift to help my friend write her love story for her two sons so they might know of their parent’s love and someday hope to have “a love like that…”

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