2010 Valentine Inspiration Station

Edit: The acrylic unit that my rolls of ribbon are in was given to me by a friend who made jewelry. Sorry I don't have a source.

Hello friends. Here's what you've been waiting for...my Valentine Inspiration Station. Each holiday season, I try to have a color theme or special little items I want to use on my projects. This year, my Valentine Inspiration Station was inspired by the card below that you've seen in a previous blog post. The pinky purple tone of the button used on the doo dad sparked it all. I decided to add some purple ribbon to my card then the purple stamped hearts at the bottom. I liked the addition of purple so much that I pulled out a few items to use for my inspiration station. This year, I nestled all my goodies into an old baking sheet pan that I found at a junk shop. I put felt glides on the bottom so it can slide around on my wood table without scratching it up. All of my embellishments are nestled inside and I can easily see them and access them due to the narrow depth of the baking pan. Kinda reminds of when you go to the dentist or doctor for a procedure.....all of the tools are lined up in a little pan. Maybe I should sterilize all my little jars. :)

All of my embellishments are in light tones of pinks and purples. Nothing to dark, I plan to use a lot of tea dye inks to create a vintage look on my Valentine cards and treats this year. I love these little sticky rhinestones. They add such a nice finishing touch to projects.

Pretty pastel ribbons, trims, velvets and ric rac from my vast stash. I like to keep loose ribbon wrapped on clothes pins and secured with a stick pin. You can find these old style clothespins at The Dollar Tree...last time I looked. Notice the beat up heart tin that my ribbons are in. It was a gem of a find at the junk shop.

Old fashioned Valentines always had glitter on them. I love glitter. You love glitter. We all love glitter. It always reminds me of a story of my mom. Years ago she worked at a Hallmark factory. She recalls her favorite job was to add glitter to Valentines and then stick on a fuzzy feather. Who knew??! My glitters are from Martha Stewart, available at Michael's or Walmart, etc. I dug out a few bottles of Stickles too.

I also found some Stampin' Up! eyelets in Valentine colors. Do we use eyelets anymore? Ohhh, the beautiful buttons. I like to dress mine up with Papertrey's Rustic Twine or good old fashioned embroidery thread.

And look at this adorable little salt shaker? My friend Pine (Heather Nichols) turned me onto these. They're perfect for storing a small collection of trinkets. When out junking, look for unique salt and pepper shakers that are clear and have unique shapes or lids.

Of course I'll be using other coordinating projects in pinks and purples too. Instead of getting out too much stuff though, I left a lot of items in their regular storage spots. Like my Copics, gotta love the Copics. These are stored in a Pottery Barn Kids lazy spinner organizer.

My Papertrey ribbons will get a work out too. There are so many colors and varieties to choose from.

My favorite Valentine paper this year is from Papertrey. This collection called Simple Valentine was designed by Pine. She's getting very good at designing these patterned papers!

I'm also big into punches lately. They make quick and easy work of fun shapes, like these hearts. All of these punches are available at Papertrey Ink.

There ya go, folks. I hope you enjoy having a glimpse into my crafty world. I also hope you are inspired to create your own Valentine Inspiration Station this year. It's a great way to dig into your supplies and find goodies you probably forgot you had. Have fun and if you create your own Inspiration Station, please leave a link in the comments section. I'd love to see what you've done.