Love Owls

It is "anything goes" at Simon Says Stamps Challenge. Last year I had a successful sale of Valentine's at my gym. So I thought I would try that again and get started on some Valentine's. This is my 3rd one today. See the other's here. I am staying with the sketch from Pals Paper Arts with just a different orientations this time.

Do Not throw away or store that red Christmas paper. They will look great on Valentine's. These strips are both from SU Holiday Catalog. The owl stamp is an old one. Actually 2 separate stamps. I put them on the same block to stamp.I just noticed they are not straight. I guess the left one is leaning toward his true love? haha!! Coloring done with Tombow markers. The sentiment and tag punchs are also SU. I love the googly eye stickers. Makes them so cute. 

 

2 Valentines

Cold, snowy, blizzardy day here so I am taking advantage and crafting. I made 2 cards for Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge. My crafting resolution for the New Year is to pull out ribbon from my box of scrap pieces and design cards around them. I really need to use up some of them. So this is the perfect challenge to start that resolution.
Here is my masculine version:

 

I found this cloth tape measure in the box. It was old but still a little bright yellow so I sponged on SU chocolate brown. Ran the kraft card base thru Big Shot with CP wood folder and then sponged chocolate brown on the highlights. Red heart is cut with Cricket. The sentiment is done on computer and trimmed in a white heart shape. I used the negative image of a heart cut with Cricket, centered it over the sentiment, traced the outline and cut it out.  Accents are  hammer and copper brads.

 Here is the inside:

My second card is the feminine version of the same layout. Here there are 3 scraps of different design pink theme ribbons.

The white doily looked a little lost on the white card base so I sponged on some Martha Stewart pink geranium ink. The fairy stamp has lost her label so I can't give credit there. She is colored with colored pencils. I used a clear star gel pen for the wings and gold star gel pen for crown. There are actually stars in the image but I covered them with small pink punched hearts. Happy Valentine's Day sentiment is from SU. Haven't quite figured out the inside of this one yet. It will probably be for my granddaughter.







heart balloons

More of the Valentines I am making for Operation Write Home who sends hand made cards to our troops. If like me, you accumulate a lot of excessive cards just because you like to craft, send them to Operation Write Home.Check out their website for guidelines.
I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

Here is my take on the sketch:

Ignore that Kraft background. It is just to make the white show on the scanner. I used white cardstock base, a scrap of ribbon. The white square was run thru Big Shot with lace IP. The ballons are SU colored with a water color pen. Since this will be mailed back home by some soldier, I didn't want a lot of dimension so I just drew in a ribbon to tie the ballond together. 

Hoppy Valentine

This is for Retrosketches challenge with this sketch:

I love this little frog from Sizzix. Not what you would usually use for a Valentine but I thought it would be okay for kids. It usually has a flower but I replaced that with a punched out heart. The DP is Paper Studio. The tag punches are SU. The sentiment done on computer.

This one look's a little girly. Scroll down to the previous post for a more masculine version of the same frog.

 

"Hoppy"

Keeping score at Cas-ual Fridays challenge to use score lines on a card. Since Christmas cards are done and mailed, I decided to start on Valentine's cards.

I've used this Sizzix frog a lot. He is just so darn cute!!. I colored the eyeballs white and added a black dot. The stem actually comes with a flower but I replaced it with a heart from the hearts Embossolit from SU. The label punches are both SU. The sentiment done on computer. The score lines are with the Scor-bug, makes bumpy lines like warts on a toad? 

 

"favorites"

My crafting favorites--not a short list for sure. On this card for Simon Says Stamps challenge, I used the Big Shot (which I use on about 80% of my cards) with lace impression folder, Cricut to cut out heart, Scallop punch and square punch (to notch the ends of banner). Also another favorite is using up scraps of paper. This DP is actually Christmas paper from SU. I have been able to do several Valentine's from scraps of Christmas paper. The sentiment is also SU.

Another favorite, although not directly crafting, is volunteerism. I am making Valentine's for Operation Write Home that sends cards to our soldiers overseas so they can send them to their loved ones back home.
 

Loads of love

Sending "loads of love" to Freshly Made Sketches for this clean and easy sketch this week

So in continuing with my Valentine's frenzy, here is my card with the sketch inverted.

The airplane is from Stampabilities stamped with black onto a scrap of silver paper and cut out. I colored the windows with a white marker. The tag is a modified Spellbinders banner die. I just cut of the edges, and "v'd" the end. I glued it to a scrap of Cherry Cobbler paper and trimmed close to the edge. Sentiment is SU stamped in Cherry Cobbler. Then I stuck on a lot of puffy heart stickers to make it look like the plane just released it's load.



 

Hearts & Love

I am making good progress on the Valentine's I am making for Operation Write Home. The last of the Christmas card are going in the mail tomorrow. So I thought I would use the next couple of weeks to make Valentine's for our troops. I am using the sketch fromRetrosketches and the color challenge fromThe Paper Players. Pool Party may not be the traditional color for Valentine's but I think this turned out to be a good combo.

 

Ignore the brown in the background. I had to back the card for the scanner to pick up the white edges. My camera is in the shop.

The Cherry Cobbler paper is done with Sizzix IP and the aqua is with Cuttlebug. The heart is a very old Delta one stamped with SU's Cherry Cobbler. Twine is Tim Holtz. The little love tag is TAC and punched with SU tag punch.

Here is the sketch I used:




 

Hearts

Well, I have come full circle. I think my crafting journey started about 60 years ago (oops, I'm confessing my age) when I started making Valentines. So after the circuit of all kinds of crafts, here I am back making Valentines. I'll have to say, they are a bit more sophisticated these days.
Here is my Valentine for Case This Sketch and Cas-ual Fridays challenges. Cas-ual Fridays challenge is using knots.

These cute heart stamps don't have a label and I don't know where they were from. The sentiment and punches are SU as well as the Cherry Cobbler ink. Twine from Tim Holtz. I have trouble deciding if there is too much white or not. I first tried just the twine but the card looked too stark so I cut a piece of SU cherry cobbler scrap and slid it behind the twine. Much better.
Here is the sketch:

You & Me

Took me awhile to come up with a design for Retrosketches challenge this week.

Ignore that black background. I had to use it as a backing on the scanner for the card to show up. My camera is in the shop. This is quite the colorful Valentine. The heart DP is from Paper Studio. I pulled out the different colors of hearts for the rest. The you & me stamp is from the dollar bin at Michaels stamped in pink geranium from Martha Stewart. The little tag says "love" and is punched out with tag punch from SU. I had this done without the hearts on the circle and decided it was a little flat so I punched out all those little hearts and glued each one on the scallops. Certainly won't qualify for any timed challenge but is just the "pop" the card needed.

 

Lots of Red

Crafting with a timer. That is the 10 minute craft dash challenge from Pretty Pink Posh. Thinking time doesn't count. Which is a good thing as coming up with an idea if often a lengthy process for me. Frequentlly occurs in the middle of the night when I can't get back to sleep. This weeks dash was to feature red. And I have lots of it. This fell right into my plans of starting on Valentine's. This one took 9 min. 11 sec.because I had to do the lower punch scallop twice to get it right.

DPs are strips of leftovers from SU Christmas papers. Stamp is from Stampabilities. Punches are EK. I think that larger punch resembles tops of hearts.And I see now that it needs a little leveling. Well we could say my heart is just getting bigger with love!! Right?!  I used this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches  

Snowman

The Paper Players challenge is "snowmen". I love the image of this happy snowman. Looks like he  has his shopping all done!

I'm sorry I can't give much credit here. I borrowed the stamp from a friend and stamped a bunch of these images. Then returned the stamp to her so I don't know who makes it. I colored the image with colored pencils and gel glitter pens. The snowflake IP is from Cuttlebug. The sentiment is one of my very first stamp purchases long ago. 

Heart

The Playdate Cafe challenge colors for the week are black, white, and maroon. I have my Christmas cards done so thought I would do some Valentines for Operation Write Home. The deadline for Valentines is Dec. 31.

I found this cute b/w heart sentiment paper yesterday at Hobby Lobby so it fit right in with the challenge. I didn't want to cover up much of the DP with ribbon so did just the 2 loops with a sheer maroon. The sentiment stamp is SU.