Final Valentine's Day Card

Here it is! The long awaited final Valentine's Day card that I made last week to send to Beate for the soldiers in Qatar.




This card again uses the (retired) Cerise paper from SU, and a Real Red card base. The sentiment is from the Family Phrases set. I think it is designed to go with All in the Family, but I bought it because I think it will be really cute to use with Zoofari, and I think it looks great on this card.




The centre square is raised on pop dots, as is the photo corner, and the stamped hearts from the level one hostess set A Little Bit of Happiness.

I can't remember where I got the fibres, but I haven't used them before, and I have sooo many colours, that it is time to quit hoarding, and start using the accessories I have purchased over the past year.

Designer Paper Valentines

Stamping Mama (Erica Martin) is an AMAZING stamper, and I CASED the idea for theses cards from her no stamping cards found in these posts.



This first card uses the retired Cerise paper from SU as well as a Real Red card base, and Real Red grossgrain ribbon.

This is another 6 x 3.5 card to fit in some envelopes I found.

Such an easy card, but it really adds some interest with all of the different paper.



The second card isn't 'no stamping', but it is minimal stamping. The paper is from the new Berry Bliss designer paper from SU. The ribbon is the chocolate chip and purely pomegranate satin ribbon that was available in the Holiday Mini.



The tab is stamped using Chocolate Chip ink on Purely Pomegranate cardstock. The white prima was coloured using one drop of reinker placed right in the centre, and letting it spread. The centre is a dew drop from Robin's Nest. I am LOVING these dew drops.

More Heart Day cards

As I mentioned in this post, I made some Valentine's Day cards to mail to Beate so that they would be distributed to soldiers in Qatar.

I also included these two cards that were in my stash that I made about a year ago. These are nice cards, but they are much simpler than what I generally do now.

I still really like the simple cards, but now I seem to always want to add something more. Sometimes it's good to get back to the basics and the simple clean lines. This is a card I made just a few days ago.



This card uses a classic colour combo of Real Red, black and white. You can make a really classy card with black, white and any accent colour. The background is stamped using the Whimsy jumbo wheel and Versamark ink, then embossed with Iridescent Ice.

The hearts are stamped in Real Red using the retired Doodle That set. The sentiment is from the Stem Sayings set. This set was designed to be used with the Pick a Petal set that I used a few days ago, but I love these sentiments as independent elements of a card.




You can see the sparkle in this photo, but it's much more glittery in real life.

Tomorrow I will have two cards that were inspired by the Stamping Mama, and her cards that are done without stamping.

Multiple Challenge Weekend

I try to complete Beate's weekend sketches each week, but this week I also completed Amy R's sketch challenge, and I used a colour combo I found on Heather's blog.

For Beate's sketch, most of the samples I saw had the image in the box on the left, and the sentiment at the bottom right.



I decided to flip things around a bit and put the sentiment in the box.



The base is Rose Red with a layer of Apricot Appeal that has been distressed and sponged with Pumpking Pie ink. The flower is from a hostess set from the last SU catalogue, and is stamped with Pumpkin Pie ink on the Apricot Appeal.



The sentiment is from the set Give Thanks, and is also stamped in Pumpkin Pie on Apricot Appeal, with distressed and sponged edges. It is mounted on Regal Rose cardstock that has been distressed, and sponged with Ruby Red ink.

The glass beads are from the Sunflower dew drops by Robin's Nest.



The flowers are punched from Pumpkin Pie cardstock using the Three for You punch. They looked too bright at first, so they were also sponged with Pumpkin Pie ink. The flowers are mounted on Ruby Red cardstock that has been distressed and sponged with Ruby Red ink. Again, I used dew drops from the Sunflower bottle from Robin's nest on the flowers. Deron thinks that it may be too much with the dew drops, and suggested that perhaps the flowers should have brads in the centre. I really like this card, and if I reproduce it, I will probably try it with brads instead.



With Amy's sketch I decided to use the same colour combo (Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose) to show how the same colours can look very different together.






I chose Apricot Appeal to use as the base because in Beate's sketch, I used Ruby Red, so I thought that would be a big difference. Unfortunately, as I was playing, I didn't put another layer on the card base, so the main colour that is visible in both cards is Apricot Appeal.

The card base is stamped with the Whimsy wheel in Versamark, then clear embossed. The bottom rectangle is stamped with Regal Rose using the flower stamp from the Three For You punch box set. Some flowers are stamped off once before stamping on the Regal Rose cardstock. The background of the Ruby Red rectangle is done with the dots stamp also from the Three For You punch box.



Flowabella is stamped with Black Stazon and coloured with Ruby Red, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, and Creamy Caramel SU markers.

The felt flowers are from a set I got at Dollarama, and they match Pumpkin Pie cardstock really well.

I don't know what it is with this card, but I don't really love it the way I love the previous card I made with these colours. I decided to use the same image, coloured with the same markers, and make a new card with the cardstock colours in a different order.



The process, the stamp sets, and the colour scheme are all the same, but I like this card much better.

The darker colours of Pumpkin Pie and Ruby Red seem to work better with the image than the card with the Apricot Appeal card base.

Here is a shot of the two cards side by side.



Tomorrow I will be back with some more Valentine's Day cards, so come back again :)

Valentine's Pick a Petal

Here is valentine #2 using the dimensions of 3.5 x 6.2.



The card base is Real Red, covered with Cerise paper (SU retired). The square the is backing the flower is 2.5 x 2.5, and is raised on pop dots.



The small 'love' sentiment is from the Level 1 Hostess set A Little Bit of Happiness. I coloured the 'love' using the Real Red marker.

The flower was stamped with Pick A Petal in Versamark on Real Red card stock.



The flowers on the bottom are punched with the Three for You punch box, then brads put through the centre, and then up on pop dots.

This card, and the one from yesterday, and some more that I will show you in the next few days, will be sent to Beate so that she can then forward them on to her husband in Qatar, who will distribute them to soldiers stationed there, so they can then send them to loved ones at home.

If you have some extra Valentine's Day cards laying around, or you want to make some like I did, please go to this post on Beate's blog and help her out.

Valentine's Bella

I have lots of envelopes that I must have bought for some reason, but I haven't used in years. The envelopes are 6.25 x 3.75 in size, so I decided to make some cards that would fit in these envelopes.




This card is 6 1/8 x 3 1/2, but the front is only 3 inches wide. The base is Pixie Pink, and the second layer is Purely Pomegranate. I punched along the side with the Three for You punch, lining up the third flower on the card stock with the first flower in the punch to make sure they were all evenly spaced. Balloonabella was stamped in black stazon and coloured with the Pixie Pink, and Pink Passion Stampin' Write Markers. The sentiment (Wonderful Words) was stamped with basic black ink on Velum Paper and adhered with white brads.




When the card is open you can see the flowers that line up with the punched shapes on the front flap. I used Pixie Pink Stampin' Pastels to colour in the flowers when the card was closed, so that when it opened we could still see the flower. I used stickles to add some glitter to the centre of each flower.





When the card is closed the flowers show through, and there is a small white border visible.

Stay tuned for more cards of this size tomorrow.

Way to Go Birthday

A co-worker with a great sense of humour turned 50 last week, and I thought it was the perfect occasion to break out the Gina K set Way to Go.

I used a card in the gallery designed by Carolyn King as my inspiration. (16 in the Way To Go gallery).




I used the numbers from the Ambassador Monogram Papertrey set to stamp 50 in versamark on the top half of the card.

The base is Chocolate Chip, and the layers are Really Rust. I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink, then used a baby wipe to remove the ink from the word 'clean'. Then I cleaned the whole stamp and masked off the already stamped words and stamped again in Whisper White craft ink.

I wanted to use twill as the top layer instead of another strip of Chocolate Chip, but I couldn't find my twill in the mess that is my craft room.

All in all, I think it turned out okay, but I think I will do another similar card using twill as I had originally planned.

Decorative Tea Container

I made this for my friend Becky for Christmas, but I think it is still appropriate because this can be a gift for ant time of year.

Becky really likes loose tea, so I bought a used tin at Value Village and washed it really well. Then I covered it in Apple Cider paper from the Stampin' Up! Christmas mini catalogue, and double stitched River Rock ribbon.



The stamp set was borrowed from my upline, and I carefully coloured only one of the tea bags with my Really Rust marker. The cardstock is Really Rust, and River Rock. I am really happy with how this turned out, I wish I had a 'before' picture to share, but I don't think things through that well.

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge

After about a month off, I am back with some regular updates. I got too busy making things for Christmas, and didn't spend the time updating them, but Deron's mom's birthday coupled with Beate's weekend sketch challenge, was the perfect time to get back on track.



Deron's mom turned 60 this weekend, and I made this card for her. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos at home, so these are taken at the party location, in front of her gift.






And, now that I am back in the groove, I will be back with another update tomorrow.