Wuv, Wuv, Wuv ....

.... as my son used to say when he couldn't pronounce his Ls!

Yes, it's that soppy time of year again!  My monthly craft meet was on Saturday and I spent a good few hours making a card for Paul.  Someone asked would he be appreciative of all the time I devoted to making his card?  I said "He'd better be!"  Here is the finished article:

There are oodles of Valentine challenges to enter this into: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ("It Must be Love"), Little Red Wagon ("Shades of Red"), Creative Inspirations ("Love is in the Air"), Cardz4Guyz ("Something beginning with L"), Moving along with the Times ("Love") and Brown Sugar ("Valentine").

The main focus of my card is the striped red heart in the centre.  I cut strips of different coloured and textured red cardstock, inked some with darker or brighter distress ink to give me an even bigger selection of colours, then lined them together carefully and stuck together behind a cut out heart shape.  I added black embossing round the edges of the card and the heart and stenciled some black on the left hand side.  The stripes look a bit pink in the light in this close up shot, but they are definitely red!!

Recipe:

Stencil: Tim Holtz "Bubble"

Paper: Basic Grey "Urban Prairie"

Other: Cardstock, black e.p.

Thanks for looking!

In the ....

.... good books again!  Last Valentine's Day, what with travelling to Scotland for the wedding and all that - like the cobbler's children not having any shoes, this cardmaker didn't make a Valentine's Card for her own husband!!  So this year, I thought I'd better not neglect him a second year on the trot and this is what I made:

I watercoloured a rainbow onto watercolour paper and then cut out loads of hearts, stuck them down then added punched small circles, glossy accented some bits and not others.  I'm entering the following challenges: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ("Use your favourite tool" - mine is actually very low tech - my Tim Holtz scissors, I cut something out on almost every card), Tuesday Throwdown ("Heart String"), Paper Creator ("Love is in the Air") and Fab 'n' Funky ("Wild About You").

It's dark now but I'm going to have to retake the picture tomorrow - the colours are just not right - they look much truer in this side-shot:

Recipe:

Other: Watercolour paint and paper, glossy accents, red thread

Thanks for looking!

Wuv, Wuv, Wuv ....

.... as my son used to say in those long-ago toddler days when he couldn't pronounce his Ls!!!  Valentine's Day has been and gone and I was only a day late making my husband's card - oops!!  Here's this year's offering:

Update 18/02 - this card was chosen as Top 3 on The Kraft Journal - many thanks!

I'm entering this in the following challenges: Less is More ("Masculine"), Totally Papercrafts, Creative Inspirations, The Kraft Journal ("Valentine/Love"), Papertake Weekly ("With a Heart"), City Crafter ("Love Bug") and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ("Get Krafty").

I got some new crafting goodies during the week - first time in ages and ages - and I was itching to use the embossing paste.  I've seen it all over blogland in the last while and I knew I'd like it.  The Tim Holtz hearts stencil was out of stock, as was the plain white paste, so I got the stars stencil and the pearlescent paste and I'm glad - more hearts would have been overkill and the pearlescent sheen is just lovely.  I hand-drew the red heart, slathered it in a thick layer of glossy accents, and then cut it out when it was dry.  Here's a side shot of the card:

Recipe:

Stencil: Tim Holtz "Stars" stencil

Font: joeHand 2 - www.dafont.com

Other: Pearlescent embossing paste, glossy accents

Thanks for looking!

The challengiest ....

.... challenge of the year for me, card-wise, is my husband's Valentine's card!!  In the days before I started making cards, we used to compete to see who could buy the most non-soppy, yet still recognisably Valentine-y, Valentine's card!!  I remember winning one year with a card that was just plain matt black, no sentiment, with a tiny embossed foil red heart in the centre.  Nice card it was too!!  I was reminded of it when I was thinking up this year's effort.  Here's what I made:

I used last week's Deconstructed Sketch, and I'm also entering this into a few of the Valentine's challenges around: Craft your Passion, Kaboodle Doodles, Little Red Wagon, Moving along with the Times, also Basic Grey Challenges ("Your Favourite" - it's my favourite BG Christmas papers - "Jovial"!), Card Crafters' Circle ("Paint the Town Red") and Stampin' for the Weekend ("Distressing").  Phew, that's quite a list.

Here's a side-shot of the layers of this card, I like the enamelled hearts.

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Scarlet's Letter" and "Jovial"

Sentiment: from an MFT Pure Innocence set

Punched Hearts: MS Valentine Lace

Other: Black Tulle, zig-zag scissors, Tim Holtz black enamel accents, glossy accents

 

I was chuffed when I found out that my last card won not one, but two challenges, nice to see the old name up in stars!!!  Not to mention getting a blinky for the sidebar and winning a set of stamps too.  Yippee!!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Time to get mushy ....

.... again, what with Valentine's Day coming up!!  Our challenge on PaperPlay this week is a timely one, "Love Letters", and we're sponsored by Stamp Fairy.

I've had the usual extra challenge of making a non-soppy, non-girly Valentine's card for my husband - here's what I ended up with this year:

Update 18th Feb: This card was picked as a Top 3 on Shopping our Stash - thank you!

The papers are actually Christmas ones, from two different MME collections, but I think they fit the bill very well.  I do like the letters, I printed them from the computer, backed with chipboard, cut out and covered with contact for shine.  Here's a close-up:

There are tons of Valentine/Love challenges around atm, of course, so I'm entering this into the following: Creative Inspirations, Simon Says Stamp, Truly Scrumptious, Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge and Shopping our Stash.  I'm also entering Papertake Weekly ("Anything Goes").

Here's a side-shot of the layers on the card, lots of dimension:

Recipe:

Papers: MME "Holly Jolly" and "Lost and Found Christmas"

Other: Ribbon from stash, needle + thread, burgundy stickles, glossy accents

Thanks for looking!

Yawn ....

.... bit tired this week, 7am feels like the middle of the night!!  All those lovely holiday morning sleep-ins are a thing of the past!!  And as I can't seem to switch back into working week bed-times, despite having to get up early, I am officially a wreck!!!

It's Thursday and my team's week for doing the DT samples on PaperPlay.  Our challenge this week was set by Vera and it's called "Cutie Patootie" - use a cute image.

Well, I hit a bit of a wall on this one.  I pulled out my Tildas and my Sugar Nellies et al, and I just wasn't feeling the cuteness!!  Hmm, hmm, what to do?!!  Scrabbled around in the back of the wooden stamp drawer, and out came one of those never inked Peanuts stamps - it's called "Snoopy Kisses".  I think that would qualify for cute, don't you?!  And then I started thinking ahead - Valentine's Day - could this become the card for my hearts 'n' flowers hatin' husband?  Here's what I made (sorry about the light - very dark day here - I will have to try and retake):

I used the sketch from this week's Shabby Tea Room, and I'm also entering this card into Basic Grey Challenges ("Dots + Spots" - I've used Jovial papers), Crafty Cardmakers ("Use red and a die-cut") and Bunny Zoes Crafts ("Love is in the Air").

Here's a close-up of the Peanuts image - Charlie Brown is so funny with his eyes rolling up to heaven!!

And here's a side-shot of the embellishments.  I made these Xs and Os from cardstock, and put glossy accents on the red Os and black enamel accents (wonderful stuff!) on the Xs.

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey Jovial

Stamp: Stampabilities "Snoopy Kisses"

Colouring Medium: Distress Inks

Other: Nestabilities Labels 2, Doodlebug brads, glossy accents, black enamel accents, ribbon from stash, needle + thread

Thanks for looking - I would be off for a nap now, but my mother-in-law is coming over for dinner, maybe I should tidy a bit!!

One card a week ....

.... oh, this is just too bad. I'm so thankful for my DT position, it makes me make time to craft once a week even when things are crazy busy. I'm about to off-load a voluntary secretary job that I've been doing for the past 5 years, it takes up a lot of my time on a sporadic basis, especially at this time of year. It's the AGM at the weekend, so all I have left to do is take the minutes, transcribe them and then hand over to my "lucky" successor. That will surely leave more time for crafting!!!

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Anyhoo, this week's challenge on PaperPlay Challenges is called "Love Notes", given the time of year and all that!!!

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Here's my DT sample, it's my card for my husband, who would recoil in horror if I made something pink and frilly with hearts on, so I made black (and red and green and gold) with hearts on!!!

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I'm also entering this card in Fussy and Fancy Friday, their challenge this fortnight is "Hearts" and Simon Says Stamp,who this week have a photo challenge of red roses on a green background (I've taken the colour scheme and shabbied it up a lot) and Double Dutch, their challenge is "Be my Valentine".

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I used the divine BG Scarlet's Letter papers, they are the first BG I saw and I still love them. Great for manly Valentines cards!!! And I've put a little joke on DH on the card - he is NOT a fan of MS punches, I won't tell what he says about them, it's not repeatable. See those little black hearts, they are the throwaway bits from the middle when you punch using the Valentine's Lace punch. I got them out of the bin and put Crackle Accents on them. He'll never know there's MS punchwork on his card!!!

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Here's a little close-up:

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Recipe:

Papers: BG Scarlet's Letter

Stamps: Hero Arts stamped in Gold with Gold E.P.

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Old Paper, Fired Brick, Black Soot

Other: MS Valentine Lace Punch, Crackle Accents, needle and thread

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Thanks for looking!!