Saturday's Valentines

Good Morning Everyone!

Not exactly sure why I got up at 7 AM on a Saturday! I've had my tea, read my e-mails, and now I am ready to start my day.

Today's first valentine was created with some Stampendous stamps. The window and the "stamp" that the text is stamped on were created with Sizzix dies. I used a Martha Stewart edger punch to create the lacy heart border for the valence on the windows.

I love all things punny so when I saw the idea for this card in an old issue of Scrapbooks, ETC. I knew I wanted to add it to my collection. Found an A Muse whale stamp on their web site that I HAD to own. Used an EK Success punch to create the strips of waves. Paper pierced the cloud to make it look as if it were stitched onto the card.

Came across the blue letters on this card while I was once again organizing my alphabet drawer. Even in the photograph the embossed hearts on the yellow tag pop out at me. They were created with a Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder that my friend Peggy bought me last year. Thanks, Peggy. If you study my valentines you'll see I've been using it a lot this year.

Here it is being used again on this "Bee Mine" card. The bee is from a box of Debbie Mumm chipboard embellishments. If you purchased a box of baby embellishments you have some of those bees.


Have a great day!
Carol

Baskets of Fun

Hi Everyone!

Today’s cards were created with some stamp sets from Hero Arts. The basket and the flowers are 2 of the 3 stamps in the Sunny Smiles clings stamp set. The pineapple and the phrase "simply the best" are 2 of the 9 stamps in the Simply the Best clear stamps set.

I did some masking on both of today’s cards. I wanted the flowers to look as if they were in the basket. I wanted the pineapples to look as if they were in a basket and I wanted one pineapple to look as if it were behind 2 other pineapples.

For the card with the flowers in the basket I began by stamping the basket on a sheet of 4" x 5.25" white tag. Then I stamped the basket on a Post-it and cut it out. Look at the image of the basket. I trimmed the Post-it so only the front handles and front of the basket were intact. I then placed the Post-it on top of the image I had stamped on the white tag. Then I stamped the flowers. Some of the stems went on the Post-it and some went "in the basket." When I removed the Post-it , it looked as if the flowers were in the basket. I used Marvy Twinklette markers to color the basket and the flowers and then attached the white tag to a green A2 card.

I used Martha Stewart fringe scissors to create the grass on the card. If you’re unfamiliar with these scissors you may want to check them out the next time you are out shopping. Instead of the usual 2 blades, these scissors have 10 blades, five on each side that all cut at the same time. They are fun to use when you are creating grass, fringing, cutting confetti, etc.

I didn’t ink the back handles or the strip across the back of the picnic basket when I stamped the basket image for the second card onto white tag.

I used the same mask I created for the first card on the basket with pineapples card. I put the mask on top of the basket and then I stamped the pineapple that you see in the center of the basket. I stamped a pineapple on a Post-it and cut it out. I placed the Post-It pineapple on the pineapple I had stamped and put the mask for the basket on top of the stamped basket. Then I stamped a pineapple to the left and to the right of the original pineapple. After I colored in the pineapples and the basket I cut them out. I attached them to the "sky decorative paper" with thin pop dots. I used an EK Success dotted wave border punch to create the edging on the curtains.

I love that basket stamp and think it has lots of possiblities. Have a great night.
Carol