Card Making: Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

One upside to our snow day last week was it gave me a chance to finish this year's Valentine's Day cards. Fortunately I'd already cut out my focal images using my Silhouette Cameo since the power was out. The rest didn't require any electricity!

My colors this year were black, cream and fuschia. 

Here are the papers and supplies I used: 

• Black metallic Stardream cardstock 
• Cream Cardstock
• My  Minds Eye "From the Heart" gold foil heart paper
• Craft Smith gold foiled paper 
• Recollections gold mirror and fuschia glitter paper
• Watercolor paper 
• Watercolor paints 

I chose an image from the Silhouette Design Store and cut it from gold mirror cardstock. Waste not want not, this image resulted in a positive and negative so I had the hearts that were leftover from the middle of the framed image if that makes any sense, and used those as well. 

For the "framed hearts" as I'll call them, I mounted on cream cardstock, then the fuschia glitter paper. I cut a panel from the gold foiled heart paper ( 4x6) and mounted to the Stardream black card (5x7) and then mounted the focal as shown.

For the cards I made using the center hearts, I played around with some watercolors I picked up recently on a BOGO ( buy one get one free) at Aaron Brothers. Cone to think of it , the watercolor pad was from a previous Aaron Brothers BOGO. Spotting a trend? 

I just played around and made some background paper ( oh I added some gold mica inks): 

I trimmed this , mounted on black then gold paper and attached the gold mirror heart with a foam dot. 

I finished each style of card with gold sequins!

Hand Lettering Practice ... Happy Valentine's Day  

Mizuhiki Cord Valentine's Cards

I rarely do traditional Valentine’s colors and this year is no exception. I am so in love with the papers in a DCWV Decor Noir stack I picked up at Michaels. I feel like they designed this stack especially for me with the combination of black and white, photos, bold graphics and foiled pages.

One of my regular stops is at Daiso, which is a Japanese chain of dollar stores. In the USA they're open in WA and CA only right now.  I picked up some metallic origami paper ($1.50 for a pack of 30 sheets!) and a couple of packages of Mizuhiki cord which gave me the idea to use a Japanese aesthetic in these cards. I’m not sure I’ll ever master the complex knots that can be made using the cord but like pretty much everything else I stumble upon, I had fun playing with it in my own way! 

For these cards you’ll need:

• DCWV Decor Noir Stack
• Black, gold, silver mirror cardstock
• Stamp
• Metallic origami paper
• Mizuhiki cord
• Washi tape
• Glitter paper scrap
• Heart punch

Cut black cardstock to make 5x7 card, trim decorative paper to 4x6, mat on mirror cardstock panel 4.25 x 6.25 and attach to card. I chose a small heart stamp from my stash and stamped on black cardstock using white pigment ink and embossing powder. Trim, mat with origami paper and again with cardstock .

 

I made three loops from the Mizuhiki cord, cut leaving long ends, taped to card front. Repeat so you end up with two sets of loops. Mount stamped heart panel using foam dots and finish with hearts punched from glitter scrap.

Included in the stack are a couple pages of sentiments. For this card, I cut one out, cut it apart and matted on scrap mirror cardstock.

This one’s for College Boy…part Valentine’s, part congrats on recent good news. Finished off with mirror stars ( DCWV).

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BFF Open House Link Party #143

Happy Friday Eve! Still recovering from yesterday's record breaking Super Bowl parade in Seattle and I only watched it on TV! Fun to see the hometown pride. Valentine's Day is one week away people! Every body panic and freak out so I'm not alone OK? 

If like me, you've done NOTHING ( sorry honey!) then here are some ideas from last week's party to inspire you. 

Loving this sweet ( literally) idea from Crafty Lumberjacks. Use candy sprinkles, clear votives, and tea lights to make festive decorations. 

Likewise, loving this upcycled wreath from 3 Little Greenwoods. Great way to repurpose those plastic bags!

Almost no sew works for me every time and these adorable pillows from Steph at Silly Pearl are perfect for Valentine's Day or all year round. 

I have two chocolate features for you this week. After all what's Valentine's day without chocolate? 

I couldn't resist this heart shaped display of handmade chocolate peanut butter hearts. Pop on over to Organizer By Day to see how to make your own. 

And if you want to make your someone special an extra special Valentine's dessert: 

Almost too pretty to eat isn't it? For the how to on this Chocolate Hazelnut Tart, visit Karyn at Dieter's Downfall ( still the most accurately named blog I know) . 

Time to get the party started! 

Vintagey Valentine's Cards

I love sending Valentine’s to family and friends. Consistent with my paper addiction, Valentine’s Day was just the excuse reason I needed to pick up another  Recollections paper pack at Michaels called “Union Square”. It’s full of vintage papers in muted shades of red, black and neutral, with lots of damask overlays on text and assorted other patterns.

A few of the cards were made using a digital image of “Alice’s Rabbit” found here : Free Vintage Digital Stamps.

I downloaded, sized and printed on white cardstock, then colored in the rabbit with alcohol markers and colored pencils. I decided to only color in spots of his vest etc.

I trimmed one of the images to use as a mask , laid it on top of the other images and then “spounced” around the exposed edges with a brush and “Antique Linen” distress ink.  Trimmed and mounted my rabbit panels on black panels embossed using a fleur-de-lis embossing folder by Cricut.

The cards are 5x7 ( I used blank cards I had on hand) and I covered the front with torn pieces of papers from the pack. Embellished with coordinating washi tape, hearts punched from scraps, Prima flowers, rhinestones, and some ticket stickers from my stash.

 

For some of the other cards, I tore a panel from a page that already had LOVE written out in glitter, along with other washi tapes and embellishments.

or stamped the word LOVE onto a book page and then mounted with coordinating papers. My gold heart there is made from loops of mizuhiki cord I found at the Japanese dollar store chain Daiso.

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BFF Open House Link Party Wrap Up and Features: Valentine-a-palooza

So many cute ideas shared at Friday's party. Clearly people are in LOVE with Valentine's Day and are well prepared to celebrate it this week. Let's have a look:

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Tonna from USS Crafty shared this adorable Valentine's wreath made from Dollar Tree and Michael's supplies. Low cost, high impact. 

Teri from A Creative Princess shared how she not only embellished washers ( cute on their own) but grouped them together to make a heart shaped washer necklace. LOVE!

Denyse from Glitter Glue and Paint raided her scraps and whipped up these sweet Valentine's candles. 

Sarah, from Sarah's SaturDIY share here "Owl-entine's " bunting along with her adorable Valentine's vignette. 

And Caroline from cw frosting shared how to easily transform your throw pillows into Valentine's decor with an easy no-sew technique. 

Of course, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without chocolate. Here are some delicious chocolate ideas you could whip up for your someone special. 

Karyn at Pint Sized Baker shared these yummy chocolate strawberry hearts. You might pop over to check out her giveaway too!

Your family will love you ( even more than they do already ) if you whip up a batch of these Reeses's Brownies from Jovana at Taste of August.

You could start Jovana's brownies with these homemade Peanut Butter Cups from Shauna at The Best Blog Recipes, or you could just make some of these to give your sweetheart.  And to round out the trifecta of Peanut Butter chocolatey goodness:

Peanutbutter and Chocolate Pretzels from Amy at Ameroonie Designs. I am in love with that sweet paper rose in her picture too!

Happy Valentine's Week sweet readers. 

Valentine's Photo Props and Treats

I knew I wanted to send College Boy some goodies for Valentine’s Day and when I saw these lips and mustache photo props by Amy at Living Locurto , I knew exactly what to do. 

I started by downloading the files for the photo props here. Then cut them out and adhered them to  bamboo skewers. These were great but I thought they needed a holder.

I grabbed an empty tea tin and covered it with scrapbook paper and coordinating washi tape.

I had some film strip rub-ons in my stash so I applied those and then used up some alphabet stickers I had on hand to spell out “Photo Props”

Finished it up with some metal self adhesive brads.

I figured he and his friends could have some fun posing for silly pictures. This is exactly the kind of thing he and his friens like to do and they mostly hang out as a group. But that was only part of the treats for the goodie box .

I picked up some chevron print paper bags and had some heart themed washi tape from when I couldn’t resist a “buy all” option at Pick Your Plum when they had washi tape on special.  In keeping with the mustache theme, I made an image in PicMonkey that I sized to 2.5 x 2.5 and put on each of the bags.

If you don’t get my brand of humor, it translates to : “I mustache you to”.... Feel free to use if you like.

Of course the bags are filled with assorted chocolate hearts, Reeses, Nestle Crunch, Butterfinger ( I didn’t even eat any!) Laffy Taffy, and some Valentine’s themed temporary tattoos.

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