Crafty Gals February Challenge!

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is doing well!  As I have mentioned before I belong to a great group of blogging ladies over at SCS.  Today our February challenge is due to be posted.  Our hostess is Lela.  So our challenge was:

"ReCipE for A VaLEntiNE"

February is the month of LOVE and what could be better than showing off our idea of a "ReCipE for A VaLEntiNE". What makes the perfect VaLEntiNE surprise? Is it candy, flowers, love notes? Let's see your ReCipE for sharing LOVE. Don't forget to add a Heart or 2 on our project.

I really had to think about this one.  Of course the first thing that pops into your mind is for your hubby.  Well, I can tell you that he does not care to get cards and does not eat much candy.  So I had to reach a little deeper and think of something else.  Then it hit me.  My lunch buddy and my BFF.

The schools in the city I work has a program called Lunch Buddies.  It is where people in the community partner up with a child from 3rd-6th grade.  You stay with that buddy throughout that period, you don't switch unless your buddy moves or you decide to leave the program.  These children are considered "at risk".   Perhaps they have a broken home or struggle in school making friends or understanding their work.  There are several reasons a child would be in this program.  We have about 15 from my place of employment.  We do visit monthly.  At Christmas time, the kids get a field trip to come to visit us, instead of us going to the school.  We get the opportunity to show the kids what we do and a different side of the workforce.  Of course, we bring in santa, have pizza, make crafts and give them lots of school supplies to take back to school.

I have done the program for several years and after a short break, I decided to join again this year.  I have the sweetest little 4th grader named Cassidy.  She is very quiet, but is finally starting to come out of her shell a little bit.  I am confident by the end of the school year, she will be jabbering away during our visits.  I decided to show her some love this year for our challenge.  She needs to feel special!  So I decided to make her this little purse out of paper.  I found the tutorial from Leigh Obrien on SCS.   I used the pink and reds Cosmo Cricket paper for Valentines day.   Finished it off with pink ribbon, white brads, a white doily, pink flower and a brad with a heart.  I then filled it with some heart chocolates.  I will see her this week, so I hope she enjoys it.

Then I thought about my BFF.  She is amazing and the BFF any girl would love to have.  It is so funny that we are opposite in just about everything.  But we find that we balance each other out very well.  I know that I can count on her for anything and she knows the same.  We don't often buy each other anything, we just hang out when we can.  We do work in the same office, but often there are days that we really don't get to talk.  So I am going to leave this little box on her desk as a surprise.  She loves sour cherries candies and can only get them around Valentine's Day.  So I filled her little box with her favorites!!  Just a little way to say thank you for being my friend and I love you no matter what!

Boy, I am quite chatty this morning.  I found this box in a bag tutorial by Diana Gibbs over at SCS.  I used basic gray paper that has four hearts that meet to make a square.  Accented it with some teal ribbon, flowers and a little heart in the middle.

I hope you enjoyed the projects for the challenge.  I know I had a lot of fun making them and can't wait to see what the other gals have created.  Please find the Crafty Gals Blog group over to the left hand side of my blog.  Stop by and check them out!

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings until next time!
Athina