Hooray for Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite card making holidays. And this time I started early (well, early for me!!!).

Here are a few samples:

Dancing Hearts

I figured I’d start out simple — just stamping, embossing, and cutting out hearts. These hearts are from Hero Arts and Fiskars. The background is a Spellbinders embossing folder. And the sentiment is an old one from Hero Arts. Easy peasy! I made a bunch of these cards in various color combos.

Another easy one, but all that color and glitter pack a punch. The washi tape is from Love + Lemon (the Main Squeeze set), the heart die cut (Cheery Lynn designs) from Cosmo Cricket paper. I added some Fun Foam to the back of heart before adhering it, to give some depth. Sentiment, I believe, is also from an old Hero Arts set.

And this pretty pink card uses Lawn Fawn’s quilted background die and various hearts from my collection.

Stay tuned for more Valentine cards — and thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Throwback!

Just found a photo of this card, made last year:

Playing with Silver Hessian and Chocolate Bronze Metallic Gilding Polish from Creative Expressions to create swaths of color. The Scribble Hearts are dies from Simon Says Stamp. A little splatter, a few sequins and bam! Call it a day!

And check out this throw-back card from 2013 or maybe earlier!

Back in the day, Hero Arts was among the first to use so-called “shadow stamps,” solid stamps that made great backgrounds for images stamped on top. This was one big stamp! I’m pretty sure all the smaller stamps used are from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Valentines, 2018 version

I love these unique dies from Altenew and couldn’t stop making flowers:

The layering die (this one is Fantasy Floral, but you bet the others are on my wish list!) comes in three pieces, plus the leaves. I just went wild cutting pieces out of various card scraps, then I matched up colors:

 

I even played around with embossing and tone-on-tone:

These two were cut from some painted background pieces. The one on the left has Nuvo Aqua sparkle; the one on the right has about three layers of clear embossing powder.

Here’s a close-up:

And a white-on-white (one with sparkles, of course):

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

I (heart) Valentine’s Day

Christmas is long gone …. the new year is a week old … which means it’s almost Valentine’s Day! I love making Valentines to send to my besties, so let’s get this party started!

This one-layered card is relatively easy, and the reveal (when you pull of the mask) is so much fun! I created a heart mask, which I placed in the middle of my cardstock. Then I used some small flower and leaf images to stamp around the mask. Easy peasy. When I removed the mask, ta dah — a heart-shaped spot to stamp a sentiment! The sentiment above is from Stampin’ Up’s Bloomin’ Love set, as are some of the flowers.

Here’s another in the same mode:

I could do this all day! The XOXO is a Teresa Collins/Fiskars punch.

Fabulous Finds Friday from Fiskars

(Wow. How many times do you get to write a five-F sentence???? Without using a dirty word?)

Anyway … For cutters, scissors and punches, Fiskars is still golden.

Fiskars has a tool for every need, but my focus is usually on those that are particularly useful for paper crafters.

For example, it was punch lust at first sight when I saw this adorable XOXO punch:

This was perfect for Valentine’s Day cards — so fast and easy. But I see more uses. I have several weddings coming up and I think this could be a card making winner. Here’s a quick one I made, inspired by some scraps on my desk:

(The sequins are from Lawn Fawn.)

The punch was also perfect for some foiling:

(I am somewhat obsessed with foiling since I’ve been playing with various foils and adhesives from Therm O Web. But that’s another post…. stay tuned. The background embossing plate on the above card is the grid folder from Spellbinders. Love it.)

At the Januray CHA show, crafters of all types were checking out the new Paper Trimmer with Aluminum Cut Rail*.

I sometimes get a little wobble with smaller personal trimmers, so this should be a boon to my cutting. The reinforced aluminum cut rail (with a locking system) promises to eliminate cutting wobble – which is a problem with my old personal trimmers. (Or maybe it’s me? Either way, this one is a delight.) Other nice features include a paper clamp/smudge guard (something else I need!), a self-leveling extension arm that stretched to 15 inches, and an extra wide base for a bigger work space.

(Here’s my big admission — I was recently working on a small, crowded desk and put the trimmer on my lap so I didn’t have to move to a larger, cleaner work table, assuming I could find one. I know, I know … lazy crafter. Don’t judge. But the good news this, this is so sturdy, it still cut fine with just my flabby thighs for support.)

More exciting Fiskars punches are in the works.

*Fiskars was kind enough to send me this cutter to try. 

Happy Heart Balloon Bear

I know Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I had to share this Valentine I made for a very special boy using this adorable balloon animal set, called Balloon Builders, from Stampin’ Up!

The set has various shapes that you mix and match to create designs. I played around a bit with the shapes to find the “formula.” (My first one was a bunny, but he came out a little creepy, so we went with the bear!)

I started with the largest balloon for the body then continued to build the bear. The main stamping was done in Stephanie Bernard’s ColorBox brown. The heart balloon was stamped in my old Marvy Matchables red.  The string, eyes, nose and inside the ear were hand drawn. Grass was added with watercolor pencils, then blended (I kind of made a mess of that….) and the sentiment (from the same set) was stamped in blue. The pierced panel is from the Richard Garay/Spellbinders Pierced Rectangles set. 

Oh, heck… here are two more cards I made for Valentine’s Day (but they can be used for other occasions, too!)

How sweet are those birds?

It’s the same die I used here, a Cath Edvalson design for Technique Tuesday. The paper is from Simple Stories and the sentiment from Stampin’ Up’s Bloomin’ Love set.

And this fast and easy card uses the Scribble Heart  Arrow die set from Simon Says Stamp. I cut a bunch from various brightly colored papers and glued them on this purple card stock (a discontinued color from Paper Source. You’ll see a lot of it because I bought a huge package when I found it on clearance!) The sequins are from Lawn Fawn, attached with Ranger Multi Medium. (I also used the inside of the hearts on other cards.)

These were so fast and easy I made a bunch (note the inside pieces, too) :

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are a few more Valentines … enjoy! I hope your day is was sweet!

I’m so crazy about Tim Holtz’s Crazy Birds (Stampers Anonymous) and the accessories pack. I’m also crazy about my new *Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors (I have six, but now I want more!). What better time to combine these two products?

I started this card by playing around with these delicious watercolors. I used Deep Pink and a touch of Carmine Red to create the background on watercolor paper. The colors are so rich I found myself diluting them with more water to get softer shades.

While the background was drying I stamped the sassy bird on Tim Holtz Watercolor Card stock (smooth side) in VersaFine and painted her with the watercolors. The hat was stamped separately and painted with Distress Ink Fossilized Amber; the rose and the ribbon on the box with more red. (The rose, the ribbon, and the details on the bird were later highlighted with Kuretake’s Wink of Stella Pink and Dark Pink. Oh, how I Wink of Stella!)

I cut the watercolor paper to fit on a tan card, edged it with VersaMark and Judikins’ Egyptian Gold powder (love the sparkle!), and affixed it to the card front. For my last step, I die cut Technique Tuesday’s  adorable *Heart Strings from gold paper scraps and glued them on top. How sweet is this card? Oh yeah … and I stamped the sentiment using *Stampin’ Up’s! Bloomin’ Love set. (You’ll see the coordinating die set used in my earlier Valentine cards here.) The sentiment is perfect for my “gal-entine” cards that went to my BFFs.)

Here’s another version using the same materials (and the other die in the Technique Tuesday Heart Strings set. See how I got some extra hearts?)

One more quick card using the Heart Strings in a different way:

The adorable bird (Love Bird by Cath Edvalson) is also from Technique Tuesday. The sequins are from Lawn Fawn. The sentiment from *Stampin’ Up! Bloomin’ Love. 

 

*These products were generously donated by the companies. See this note.

(This post was written on Feb. 13, but then I lost it all!!! Aaargh. )

Valentine’s Flowered Heart

It was instant love when I saw this flowered die set (and coordinating stamps) from Stampin’ Up! The die is so beautiful that it does all the hard work for you, whether you are making a Valentine’s Day card, a wedding card, or anything in between.

Look at how easy it is to change the look with just a change of colors. These are very simple, but can easily be used on a more elaborate card.

Enjoy:

I did use the Sizzix Precision Cutting Mat to cut this on my Big Shot — the mat made a huge difference in how well this intricate die cut. The flowers were also die cut and added using Glue Dots™ Minis. Self-stick rhinestones add a bit of sparkle.  The sentiment (Hero Arts) was embossed in white.

Basically the same card. The pink card stock is from World Win and cuts like a dream.

The faux stitching is done with a white gel pen. The sentiment here was stamped in Wendy Vecchi’s Potting Soil archival brown. I love that color.

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Heart

I’m taking a brief break from CHA reporting to delve into Valentine’s Day! This is probably my favorite card making holiday. (Last year I sent 40 Valentines, each one just a bit different) to my best gal buddies.

Here’s the first of this year’s batch, a quick-and-easy heart in non-traditional colors:

So easy! I die cut the heart (Hero Arts) three times from white card stock, glued the three together and embossed the top with WOW! gold glitter powder.

I built my card base (using some older card stock from Stampin’ Up!) and affixed the heart on top. The banner was stamped (old Hero Arts sentiment) on white scrap paper, trimmed, and affixed with thin foam squares. Easy peasy!

Straight From the Heart

Yikes! It’s almost Valentine’s Day and I’ve only posted one of the many heart cards I’ve made! I love making Valentines, and I love sending them to my girlfriends.

Let’s kick off my Valentine extravaganza with these fun ones made using Simon Says Stamp’s Hearts on Parade die (and lots of scraps!):

I love making these cards (as you can see by the assortment!) Piecing the cards together reminds me of the puzzles I used to work on with my mother — such pleasant memories. There is something so relaxing about matching pieces to die cut openings.

Here’s a closer look at just one card:

As I was die cutting the pieces, I wound up with odds and ends. Never one to let anything go to waste, I used some leftover pieces on this tag …

… and on this kind of strange card:

I’ll be back with more Valentine’s day cards, using another Simon Says Stamp die.