Our Valentine Cards

"Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart."
from William Shakespear - Midsummer Night's Dream
"Rain or Shine, You're my Valentine"


What to do when your Love's at sea? - a collection of poems, illustrations, rhymes and ditties.

"Loving a sailor is not always gay.
Loving him truly is a high price to pay.
He'll come for a kiss.
Say that you, he will miss.
You'll beg him to stay with persistence.
But the next morning you'll watch his ship sink into the distance."

"The sea, the sea. The sea has claimed he.
The boy who belonged all to me.
The sea is now his sweetheart, while I am but a spare part.
What do I lack, that posseses she?
I'll never know, but oh, so mysterious is she the sea."

"Once ago, I loved the sea. And as I did, it loved me.
But I found another love for me, and she became my bride to be.
We were as happy as can.
Unlike my old love, the sea, she was meant for me."


Last night our whole family was busy creating Valentine's cards for each other. No one could leave their part of the house and enter into the area where another family member had set up card -making shop without being shouted at: "Don't look!"

I made a shadow box and illustrated a Shakespeare quote from Midsummer night's dream for my husband. And was very happy when, after a long search through my image library, I found the perfect "berries".

My husband made the funny card with the house (actually a drawing of our house) and the little boy in the raincoat. He had come across a bunch of pictures with 1960's Valentine's imagery, that inspired him.

And last not least our daughter Valentina's elaborate Valentine's card with illustrations and poems. She invented a complete story . Her wonderful imagination and ability to draw everything from scratch always fascinates me. I love that the girl in her card is holding a real hanky.

Valentine's Jewelry

Big Ruby and small Garnets Tassel Necklace
Showing off the Ruby Tassel Necklace and Rose Quartz Chandelier Earrings

Fine Silver and Gold Leaf Coin Pedant Necklace
Tiny Garnets and Tourmaline teardrops
Cherry Quartz and little Garnets

Valentine's Day inspired me to make some red and pink adornments. You can see me modeling my 2 favorite pieces: a pair of faceted onion cut rose quartz chandelier earrings and a gorgeous ruby tassel necklace. They are for sale at Freshly Cut, the wonderful flower shop across from Monterey Market.

Love and Weddings

Today is the perfect day to make a confession: I love looking at Bridal Fashion and Wedding Design and always have to browse through the wedding magazines at the supermarket. I found a perfect blog to indulge my guilty pleasure: Brooklyn Bride is planning her own wedding and while researching all her options, she decided to share what she found on her blog.
She covers every aspect of Wedding Planning from the dress, the flowers to the invitations and cake. I found on her site three dresses that I would consider, when marrying my husband again.
See the dresses underneath. Which one is totally me?

Paper Laces.com introduced me to the fabulous Graphic designer Christopher Young. Being a nut for all things lacy, in particular paper lace and paper cut outs I just adore his Wedding Invitation pictured above. I love that it is black, which gives it a goth element.


Dress by Elizabeth Fillmore
Dress by Christos

Dress by Zac Posen


I don't care if it's for a wedding and maybe Valentine's Day would suffice as a reason, because I want to eat this cup cake creation by Justin Bernhaut (also thanks to Brooklyn Bride) right now!

Valentine's Vision in White

This morning when I looked out of my window there was a surprise: I was greeted by this vision of white. Puzzled I asked my husband, if he had noticed yesterday that the tree in my neighbors yard was in bloom. He was as stunned as I was by the occurence of snow white blossoms. The image was perfect with the morning sun high lighting the top of the tree, making it appear like a radiating halo.

Some of my stamps

Here are some of the stamps I carved for different occasions: Valentine's Day, Day of the Dead, Winter Solstice, Birthdays or Thank you notes. The person who got me started some years ago is the wonderful Alice Armstrong, who teaches at Castle in the air . At a time when I was mostly doing art with kids and for kids, she encouraged me to follow my own creativity and taught me many skills, including calligraphy.

A lovely stamp-making afternoon

Not only for cards, but use the hand made stamps on gift bags, wrapping paper or boxes!


I took Ellen's Marbleizing Paper class and made beautiful paper, that I later used as a background under my Valentine's stamp. I love it, when you can combine different classes.


Here are some of my carved rubber stamps.


Everybody was busy, working away.

I spent a perfect afternoon at the Workshop's sun-filled studio teaching how to carve rubber stamps and use them to make Valentine cards. It was a delightful group and each student brought her own individual creativity to the process. I love the different designs that were created. It is always inspirational when the students don't follow the teacher's examples, but create their own version. Thanks to everybody, who came and took my class. I hope we can play again! Thanks to the workshop for inviting me to share my passion and specially to Ellie, who was a wonderful co-teacher.

And here is some of the student's work:

Carved Rubber Stamp Valentine Cards

I have been carving rubber stamps for years to print greeting cards. My friends from
the workshop, invited me to share this passion in a class at their new, cool store.

Make your own personalized edition of Valentine's cards

In this class you will learn how to transfer and carve a design onto a butter soft rubber block. Then you'll print multiple cards using colorful stamp pads. You'll also learn how to give your personalized cards some added dimension and tips for extra embellishment, using embossing powder, glitter and more. You'll leave the class with several cards ready to be sent out and a reusable rubber stamp, with which you can print up more cards at home.
All tools and materials will be provided.

Class taught by Elisabeth Alexander
Thursday, Feb. 7th from 6-9pm
or
Sunday, Feb. 10th from 1-4pm

cost $ 45.00 plus $ 10.00 material costs
Call to sign up: 510 / 517-3674