TIP TUESDAY #13 - What creative ways can you celebrate Valentine's Day for/with your Girlfriends?

Valentine's Day has arrived - again! For some it is a wonderful, romantic day. For others, it is ignored or even a day of dread.

As women, we have the choice to celebrate it any way we please! And, since we LOVE our female friends, shouldn't we show our appreciation and support on Feb. 14th - like we do the rest of the year?

Romance may come and go, but girlfriends stick with you. Don't they deserve a handmade or store-bought Valentine's card, a thoughtful or fun email, or just a call to tell them how much you love being friends with them? Inspire others by answering this week's TIP TUESDAY question:

How do you show your girlfriends that their friendship means the world to you? How do you make them feel loved and appreciated? AND, as creative women, what can you make for your girlfriends to show how much you love being friends with them?

Think back to Valentine's Days growing up. Take some scrapbook or paper crafting supplies and make cards. (Even if they're late, they'll be admired and appreciation!) Show your girlfriends how much you value their friendship this Valentine's Day. Then, inspire others when you please share with us ... what can you do to show your Girlfriend appreciation and love this Valentine's Day?

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I interviewed author, relationship psychologist and women's retreat leader Dr. Karen Gail Lewis for our latest podcast. Dr. Lewis (aka: Karen) offered great insight on the value of female friendships and how this romantic holiday really is all about showing those special to us that we LOVE them.

p.s. And, check out our Girlfriendology Contest this month which is on the same "LOVE your female friends" theme. Win prizes and share inspiration, just by being a girlfriend! Happy Valentine's Day Girlfriends!

Girlfriend Greetings - More ideas for holiday cards

It was my first house. I bought it on my own without even tell my parents until it was mine. (I told my mom, "guess what I bought that's older than you?!" She never guessed it, but I wanted to do it on my own and I did.) So, of course to celebrate it I had to make my holiday card about having a home of my own.

This simple card featured my home but I wanted it to be somewhat colorful and year 'round. I did a pointilism image of the house and printed it on vellum. Underneath I did watercolors to fit the drawing of spring blooms, summer grass, fall leaves and winter snow. Inside it read:

The animation of spring, the vitality of summer, the beauty of autumn, the peace of winter ... may each season refresh our joy of friends. season's greetings.

What does this have to do with girlfriends? Well, as creative girlfriends we like to share our crafty ideas with each other so I hope someone finds some inspiration in this artwork that I did over 15 years ago. My cards have always been my expression of my appreciation for all my friends. So I wanted to express it to you too.

Have special friends? Take the time to make them a special greeting this holiday season. Is your BFF the best friend ever? Make her a custom card to show your love and appreciation. Life is short. Celebrate the good stuff - like holidays, girlfriends and happy memories together.

Girlfriend gifts, holiday greeting cards - what are you making this year?

I just recorded the most recent podcast with the winning entries from our Girlfriendology Contest. It was fun just to share the stories of female friends who have been there for their girlfriends - just when they needed them the most to wonderful friends who have fun and funny traditions of doing life with their girlfriends. All of them were so inspiring!

This month's contest is about "girlfriend gifts" - what wonderful things have your girlfriends given you or done for you? GirlfriendologyToo is all about the creative side of girlfriends so I'm really looking forward to your inspiring ideas and stories!

Football games and cooler weather make me start getting excited about the holidays. What will I make for our holiday card? I have a ridiculous tradition of overproducing a card at the most hectic, stressful time of the year! I thought I'd share this and will show my progress in future blog entries to inspire you or to show you what NOT to do! Shown here is my first card. It was back in the 80's and I made my own stencils on a cardstock postcard.

Unfortunately this is my only one and it suffered some water-damage but it is still fun to have and look back on! In fact, it reminded me of blogs some of my creative girlfriends wrote on old crafts that they now laugh about. (We all have those non-timeless designs or goofy projects that we love even if they're not perfect!) Get inspiration and fun ideas from my creative girlfriends (who wrote those blogs) - Katie Hacker and Linda Peterson.

I also try to give handmade gifts to my girlfriends. I'm looking for inspiration! Anyone have great ideas for girlfriend gifts? Do you have a creative holiday tradition to share with your Girlfriendology girlfriends? Has a girlfriend given you a special present? Maybe her time, or a handmade gift or a wonderful surprise. Share that too in our contest. Girlfriends are a blessing - share your stories and ideas!

Hey Scrapbooking Girlfriends! Enter this CONTEST - Quick!

Hey Creative Girlfriends! I just found out about this great contest and thought I'd share the news with YOU!

Epson is inviting scrapbookers and crafters to submit a winter holiday-themed greeting card, scrapbook page or holiday paper craft created using a patterned page from any CreativeZone project. Entries will be evaluated by well-known scrapbook and craft divas, including Rhonna Farrer, Renee Pearson and Jessica Sprague. Winning projects will also be featured on the Epson CreativeZone during the holiday season.

All contestants need to do is visit EpsonCreativeZone.com and download a free patterned page from any of the CreativeZone projects and use it to create an original holiday greeting card, scrapbook page or holiday paper craft. Then, just send an e-mail to EpsonHolidayContest@walt.com and include the following:

A photograph or scan of your winter holiday-themed greeting card, scrapbook page or paper craft, A list of supplies used in the project, Step-by-step instructions explaining how the project was created and your name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address.

You only have a few days to participate in Epson’s fun holiday scrapbook and craft contest. Prizes include an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 printer ($549 value) or a PictureMate Dash ($99 value)! The deadline is coming up next week on October 31, so enter and forward the contest details along to any creative girlfriends who may be interested!

For more info, see the official contest rules. Good luck, Girlfriends!

National Women's Friendship Day - Sunday, September 16th

Make plans now for the National Women's Friendship Day - September 16th (Next Sunday!). Started in 1999 by Kappa Delta Sorority to celebrate the great bond of girlfriends, what are YOU going to do to celebrate?! A few ideas:

- Plan a craft day or brunch with girlfriends
- Make and send cards to all your girlfriends telling them how special their friendship is to you
- Start a craft or book club with girlfriends so you can get together on a regular basis (Visit the GirlfriendologyToo Girlfriend Gift Shop for book and gift ideas!)
- Free calls on weekends? Spend the day calling your long distance and local gal pals
- Buy a bunch of mums, make some cards and then deliver them to your girlfriends
- Send a Women's Friendship Day eCard from Kappa Delta

What ideas do YOU have?! Send your thoughts and plans to ideas@girlfriendology.com. Celebrate Girlfriends!

Staying in the G mode ... Greetings from ME!

Through the love and support of primarily my girlfriends along with my family and husband, I had the amazing opportunity to go to South Africa last year with 300 others from Cincinnati. While there we built houses, planted gardens, took care of the sick and loved on kids.

In addition to gifts purchased in South Africa, I wanted to give my supportive friends something from that special place that was completely personalized. First, I printed out THANK YOU Their Name cards and took them along in my suitcase. During a break one day I posed in front of the house we built (I actually laid the block shown behind me in the photo!) with each one of the signs. I cut "Thank You" out of white cardstock. Then I placed the photo in the front of the card so the message could be seen.

As simple as it was, at least they knew that I made a special effort to send them my love and appreciation from the other side of the world. What girlfriends do you need to make feel special? How can you create a custom greeting just for them? Have fun with it - then share it with the rest of us!

Great Girlfriend Gifts and ... what was that other G word??

GREETINGS Girlfriends!

Handmade greeting cards are the icing on the cake for a great girlfriend gift - the total package! (No calories but still very sweet!) And, even with scraps from other projects, you can create a great card through decoupage, layering or altered art.

The card shown above uses a contrasting color of paper along with short lengths of ribbon on card stock. The focal point is a polymer piece (conditioned and rolled through pasta-roller to make it even and flat) with a rubber stamped image on it. (Baby powder and corn starch on the rubber stamp make sure it releases from the clay. Just wash off before using in stamping ink.) Two-holes in the polymer were made before baking. Then, before gluing the polymer element on the card, wrap a mini ribbon through the holes. (Check adhesive guides online for polymer glue advice!)

And, speaking of a Girlfriend Greeting Card - and polymer ... check out my girlfriend Linda Peterson, her blog and her great polymer designs. We've taped together before (Carol Duvall, A.C. Moore, etc.) and always have such a great time together. I'm sure her designs will inspire you! And your girlfriends will love getting gifts featuring polymer accents. Check out Linda's creative clay book

And, come on back to GirlfriendologyToo to read and share ideas for Great Girlfriend Gifts and ... GREETINGS!