Altenew Peony Dream 3D Valentine

It's Monday. Lots of errands and getting set up for the week ahead. Just now getting to my computer to check emails and post. On the bright side, and I do mean it literally, we had another day of sunshine. Finally getting some vitamin D fixes.

I completed several Valentine cards this weekend, including this card. Had so much fun with the Altenew Peony dies, I ended up creating 4 of the same card. I've neglected this die set for a while, so it was high time I put it to good use. The leaf die is from Stamp Market. The background stamps are from MFT Distressed Patterns. If you're like me, impatient and/or not always comfortable creating a distressed background with watercolors or smooshing, this is a set for you. It's one of my all-time favorite sets, instant distressed background without the wait or mess. It created the perfect backdrop to show off the beautiful peony flowers.

I shimmer spritzed the background for lots of sparkle and added some reflective confetti. The photo doesn't do the card justice, so you're just going to have to trust me, in person, there is a lot of razzle-dazzle to make the recipients feel extra special. So very happy how these cards turned out.

Friendly Valentine

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I've been busy putting together some greeting cards. Typically cards for this holiday go out to friends and family, so I'm less focussed on romantic sentiments and more on friendly reminders on how much their friendship is valued. Of course, being told you're appreciated never goes out of season. Am I right?!

This first card I'm sharing is using non-typical valentine colors, perfect for your guy friends or co-workers. The images are from the Silhouette library. I print and cut several images, some with borders and some without so I could layer.

A window was cut using one of the MFT Peek-a-boo die-namics. The square and the rectangle Peek-a-boos are definitely one of my favorite dies.

A little stenciling to create the window backdrop and washi tape trim, which surprisingly matched up with the colors in the hearts pretty well. In my world, this seems to rarely happen despite my large stash of washi. Card one and done.

Hog Heaven Valentine

Mailed the last of my Valentine greetings yesterday. Cut it a bit close especially since I didn't have many to send, but the essential factor is they got shipped.

This one featuring MFT's Hog Heaven is one of my favorites. I know it will bring a happy smile to the recipient's face. How could it not? The pigs in this set are all adorable.

Valentines

Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  Typically I don't send many valentine cards. Most of my crafting around this holiday tends to center around treat bags or punny valentines for the kids. This year I agreed to assist our youth group with creating cards and gifts for our shut-ins. Still working to come up with some ideas. I'm finding it a bit more challenging as I'll be working with teenagers...punny valentines seem too young and most of the items I've pinned in the past, much too complicated for the time allotment.  I'm sure I'll get there.

In the meantime, here are a few cards I created to send. No stamping, just paper, dies (Concord & 9th, MFT, Mama Elephant) and shimmer pen. Not that you can see the shimmer very well in the images but trust me, it's there. I would not create a valentine without sparkle!

Valentines

Quick post to share the last of my Valentine cards. Again, kept it simple using mostly premade embellishments from my stash of supplies. I loved the window card I created last week so I made a few more though this time round I put a bit more thought into the assembly so I wasn't lifting and repositioning.

Used Papertrey Ink cardstock for the base. Rustic white. Love this stuff, especially the weight of the cardstock which will hold up to layers, stamping and distressing. Definitely one of my favorites. And while the specks in the rustic line tend to darken when photographed in person I think it has the perfect blend of modern, earthy tone which I like for masculine cards.

Happy Hearts

It was a snow day in our area today. Kids off from school and those who could worked from home. I was undecided whether to send Valentine greetings off this year but since I had a little free time today I pulled out my stash of supplies to whip up a few cards.

I kept it real simple: white cardstock, a few dies, and some really, really old embellishments from Making Memories, Paper Bliss, Little B and a few odds and ends I've collected through the years. No stamping involved. These cards have a little more bulk to them but are still mail friendly.

I really love how this card turned out with the clear window. Nice modern feel and not too frilly.
On the other cards, I scored a diamond patterned to provide additional depth and interest.

Have a few more cards I started which I'll finish up tomorrow. The hoard descended upon me this afternoon so I had to take a break from card making to Valentine box making with my nephew. He's leaning toward a Minecraft design...of course, because it's complicated. It may be a few days before I get back to those cards.

Valentine Treat Bags

A few quick treat bags made with glassine bags and some valentine doodads I've collected over the years. The brads were picked up at Walmart recently and on sale no less.

At the Speed of Light

That's how quickly I felt time zip by me this past month. Lately there's always something on the agenda so I'm spending more time in the craft room and very little time online. Not a bad thing.

So what do you do with 12 boxes of left over chocolate Hershey bars from our Christmas crafts? Well if you're my nephew then you try to convince me to hand over a box...or two or three. Believe me I'm not that hard to convince. I don't need the extra sugar and in reality, though he can afford it, neither does he. Lucky for me (us) Mom came to the rescue with a plan to kick off fund raising for the Youth Group. The kids are planning to attend APS (Appalachia Service Project) this summer. They don't get to attend every year as it takes quite a bit of planning, coordination and cash; perfect opportunity for us to help out and at the same time get rid of the mounds of chocolate bars. We connected with the Youth Pastor and then Mom and I spent a weekend crafting for an impromptu Valentine Bazaar. What started with Hershey bars quickly morphed into a "few" additional items when the LD (Lettering Delight) email landed in my inbox. Come on...how was I suppose to resist these?

I did a slight modification for the bazaar. The pinch box is cute but a bit time consuming for mass production on a schedule. Instead I filled a small glassine bags with Hershey Hugs and Kisses and attached the bag to the back with a couple of staples. They were a BIG hit and held up well even with some handling. If I were to make these again, especially for a bazaar, I'd double the card stock on the body pieces to provide extra stability. Don't want to put all this work in and then have an arm or tail tear when they're being handled.

A photo of our puny valentine Hershey bars. And yeah, the monster has a bit of Yoda going on. We used papers from the K&Company valentine stack and mainly designs from my Cricut library.

And since we were on a roll we also made a bunch of sucker flowers. These actually went to a single buyer who bought the entire bucket. When all was said and done we collected a little over $150 for the Youth Group. A small drop in the bucket compared to the amount the youth will need to raise but not a bad start for the fund.