Owl Valentines

We had so much fun making Valentine owls last week, that i decided to revisit them and add a really basic template for those of you who needed one.



My son is making these for his school Valentine's party, so we have been very busy making them.



Miss Sage has really enjoyed making owls all week! My boy still needs to finish up a few more for his class party on Monday.
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We had fun coming up with saying to put inside them. "Owl be your Valentine" Whhooo thinks your awesome?" "Give a Hoot for Valentine's day". :)


If you click on the image above, it should give you a larger picture that you can print out and then use as a template. If you want your owls to open up into cards, line the owl up so that the dotted lines on the left are on the fold. We cut two owl cards out of each piece of construction paper and then used the scraps to cut out the extra pieces.


i also couldn't resist making a hanging Valentine garland with owls and hearts. Sage made the owls for this, and helped me glue the hearts to the ribbon. :) It was hard to get a good picture of it, but i love it hanging here. i finally took down my gingerbread. :)

Artistically Stitched Artist feature and Giveaway (2 winners!!)

i have known Wendy for many years, and it is a pleasure to be able to introduce her and her fabulous work to all of you. Wendy is a very skilled seamstress, who makes beautiful environmentally friendly clothing for men, women, and children out organic cottons, hemp and other eco-fibers.


Wendy - artisticallystitched
I am a WAHMama and artist.....I *love* being able to create my art at home & be able to st
ay with my kids.....so thank you & huge hugs to everyone out there who has made that possible :c) I have always been creating in one form or another my whole life. I starting sewing in middle school & went to art school for fine arts only to go back to sewing! Everything I know has been mainly self taught through trail & error so there is a TON of love in every piece I create. I love being able to express myself artistically through homegrown fashion. It takes a certain type of person to rock out my creations & those are the people I want to surround myself with, because they are true to themselves regardless of what the "norm" is. I grew up in PA, but have lived in OH, VA, & now FL. I would like to keep on moving but for now this is home. Within the last 8 years or so I have been working more with HEMP fabrics because I am committed to educating people & doing my part in changing the world with this amazing plant......If you don't know what a great product this is PLEASE, EDUCATE yourself!! ~ Hemp can save the planet.....but we need to make the change ~ when buying clothing look for organic & hemp materials & together we can make a HUGE impact towards saving our beautiful mother earth.


Wendy does some really incredible applique' work. Here are just a few examples of her amazing work. She puts a ton of details and love into each piece, it is totally evident in the quality of her work. All of her seams are serged and stitched, and top stitched where needed.

Wendy also makes bags and other accessories. All of her applique' are hand drawn, fused, backed with a durable lining and satin stitched to last throughout the life of the garment.
This lotus bag is one of my favorites!

This Rasta Mama Chevron Skirt is also lovely.

Take a peek at her amazing gallery to see more of her beautiful work.

You can Connect with Wendy
On Etsy: www.artisticallystitched.etsy.com
On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/artisticallystitched
On Twitter http://twitter.com/artisticallymee
Her website www.artisticallystitched.com


See something you can't live without? You can purchase it from www.artisticallystitched.etsy.com

Wendy is offering free shipping for the duration of the giveaway. Just use Promo code 'Enchantedtree' at checkout. This is good for US address only.

Now for the GIVEAWAY!!

Wendy has offered a pair of Low Cut Hip Hugger Hemp/Organic Cotton Undies to TWO readers!!

That means TWO winners!

You choose size and color!

MANDATORY ENTRY

Head over to the Artistically Stitched Etsy Page and let me know your favorite item!

Please include your e-mail address or make sure it is visible in your blogger profile so i have a way to contact you if you win. Otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

EXTRA ENTRIES (make sure you did the mandatory first!!)
please leave a new comment for each extra entry. If you qualify for 5 entries, leave 5 separate comments.

1. Heart the Artistically Stitched Etsy Page (leave your etsy name). 1 entry
2. Become a fan of Artistically Stitched on Facebook. (leave your facebook name) 1 entry
3. Visit The Artistically Stitched website and join the mailing list. (must be confirmed) 2 entries.
4. Follow Artistically Stitched on Twitter ( leave your twitter name) 1 entry

5. Follow my The Enchanted Tree blog via google friend connect. 1 entry
6. Be a fan of The Enchanted Tree on Facebook. ( leave facebook name) 1 entry

7. Share this giveaway with your facebook friends! 1 entry

8. Tweet about the contest, include @artisticallymee leave a link to your tweet. 1 entry (can tweet daily, for 1 extra entry daily)

9. Enter the Stella Blue Creations Giveaway or any another active giveaway on my site. 1 entry
10. Blog about the giveaway link to this post, leave a comment letting me know where to find it. 3 entries (leave 3 comments.)

**Rules**

• Giveaway ends Feb. 25th, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
  
• Winner will be chosen via Random.Org. i will then contact them by email, and post the winners name on my blog.
  
• Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen
• This giveaway is open to everyone
  

Cherry Tarts

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day; The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away. The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and vowed he'd steal no more.

~Lewis Carroll

These mini cherry tarts were super easy to make and absolutely scrumptious! You could use canned cherry pie filling for these if you wanted, but i have a freezer full of cherries we picked this summer and that is what i used.

To make the filling i heated up about a quart bag of frozen cherries, a squirt of lemon juice, about a 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 TBSP of corn starch. i let it cook until thick, then set it aside to make the crust.

The pie crust recipe is from Cooks.com Super Easy Pie Crust

2 c. flour
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. milk

Sift flour and salt together. Beat oil and milk with a fork; add to flour, blend well. Divide in half. Roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper until 1/8" thick. Cut out 4" circles using a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, bowl or what ever you have. i used the top of glass cup.



Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray you muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Press your pie crusts into each muffin cup, add pie filling about 3/4 full (try not overfill them or you'll end up with a mess.) Then cut out some hearts with your remaining dough and place them on top. Bake 20-25 minutes, until bubbly.


i ran a butter knife along the edge of each cup to loosen them up, but they all popped out easily. Pretty and delicious! Enjoy!

Valentine Bendy Dolls

i only have two new Valentine Bendy dolls to list, but wanted to give them their own post because they are just so darn cute.


So here is the newest Valentine girl. Her hair is a very dark brown, but not actually black like it looks. Her tights are white, red and pink striped. She has green eyes and heart shaped wings. :) $12 shipped first class (US).

This is my second Valentine Fairy. She has yellow hair, and blue eyes. Her tights are white, red and pink striped. Her dress is pink, and her heart shaped wings are red and white. :)
$12 shipped first class (US).

i already posted this Valentine Princess over the weekend, but wanted to include her with the Valentine group.

i'm loving the Valentine theme on these, and will be making a couple more today.
My girl has her heart set on one and so i'm going to make a special fairy for her and a little Heart Pocket from Living Crafts Blog to keep it in. How cute are those??

Valentine Shortbread cookies.

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes, because it really simple and only takes a few ingredients. The cookies are quite low in sugar compared to many cookie recipes, and yet they have a light delicate taste that is just sweet enough.

1 cup Butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-2tbsp red colored sugar

1. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with electric mixer or by hand until well mixed. Stir in flour. If the dough seems really crumbly, mix it by hand, gently kneading it until smooth dough is formed.

2. Divide dough in half. Shape each ball into a roll about 2" in diameter and about 6" long. Roll it in your red colored sugar until it is well coated.


Shape roll into a heart shape. i did this by pressing a butter knife down the center of the roll, and flattening the other side into a point. Hopefully you get the idea from my picture. Then wrap in plastic wrap and chill for around 2 hours or until firm.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Then you just slice off your heart cookies and place them about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. . i like them around 1/4" thick, but the original recipe calls for 1/8".

i had to form some of them once on the pan, so if they don't cut off in perfect hearts don't worry. They are pretty easy to reshape, once on the pan.


Bake around 8-12 minutes. i let them cool just slightly before removing them from the pan or they have a tendency to fall apart. These don't brown, so be careful not to overcook them. They should be a golden color on the bottoms.


The basic recipe came from my Betty Crocker cookbook and we added our twist by forming the rolls into heart shapes. It makes about 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how thick you cut them. This is such an amazingly simple recipe with only 4 main ingredients. It's an easy recipe for kids to make, and they always enjoy rolling the cookie log in the sprinkles.
These cookies are perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. They are just sweet enough as is so there is no need to frost them.