Although I have mixed feelings about the weather in February, I do enjoy designing and making valentines. Not surprisingly, there are multiple challenges focused on love and valentines. I have two valentines to share today that are going to The Paper Players Challenge: Love and Friendship and the Happy Little Stampers: Dies.

Both cards are tucked into some valentine bags with a variety of goodies for Caleb and Hannah. We’ll be on our way to visit them this weekend, and it will be fun to celebrate Valentine’s Day with them. I’m not sure that’s ever happened before. First off, the valentine for Hannah using a new-to-me Pinkfresh Studio’s “Foldable Shaker Tag.” It comes with both a circle and a square to die cut the window, but I substituted a heart die cut from Hero Art’s “Infinity Hearts.”

Putting the shaker together was super simple and I filled it with Gina K’s little clay hearts in multiple colors, adding three to the outside of the tag for a little embellishment.  I tied a little red gingham bow to the top with a sentiment and tag from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Love.”

I die cut the Honey Bee “Fluttering Hearts Pierced Cover Plate” in white and added to a red card.

Next up is a card for Caleb, my only grandson. It took me awhile to settle on an image for his valentine, but decided on the helicopter filled with hearts from Simon Says “Faraway Hugs” set. I used the My Favorite Things “Clouds” stencil to create a background for the helicopter which I colored with Copic markers.

Then I die cut it with a large heart from the Hero Arts “Infinity Hearts” die and then die cut the next largest heart with red and layered them.

The patterned paper is very old, cut from a 12×12 pieces of patterned paper from American Crafts, saved from my scrapbooking days. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things “Up in the Air,” embossed in white on red and trimmed out. None of the photos show it, but I also added some glitter pen to the three hearts in the helicopter.

I’m also entering Hannah’s card in Darnell’s NBUS (Never-Before-Used-Schtuff) Challenge.

 

 A week or so ago Ellen Hutson posted an Instagram reel using her “Stay Cool” stamp set. Since I had yet to use mine, I pulled it out and created three abstract cards intended for guys on my January birthday card list. (They’re all in the mail now.) This is a bit of a departure for me, but I quite like them.

I used the same color combination on all three cards, varying the designs and the sentiments. All three were matted in Dark Indigo (Papertrey Ink) cardstock. The first card is a standard A2 card created with Concord and 9th’s Marmalade cardstock. The sentiment is from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Birthday,” a set I use over and over again.

The other two designs looked better in a square format and I used the same cardstock as the base for them as well. The sentiment for this one is from Simon Says Stamp’s “Tiny Words.”

I think this one is my favorite, and it’s sentiment is one from Pink and Main’s “Special Day.” I’m throwing this in the ring at Addicted to Stamps and More where the challenge is “Make Your Mark.”

My card making these last few days has been derailed by a massive overhaul of my craft closet. I didn’t take before photos, but there’s been a major transformation. I have half an empty shelf, everything has been moved to clear containers that I can see into, and all the containers are labeled. I had so much! ribbon and much of it is in bags to take to the charity craft shop. I did take a basket filled with ribbon to the basement where I wrap gifts because I’m much more apt to use it on a present. Nonetheless, I did keep all my Papertrey Ink ribbon which coordinates with their cardstock and their inks. Aside from a fresh, new look, the best part of the project is knowing exactly what I do have and what ought to be used. Next up are the drawers in the two units under the shelves. Those I can tackle at a slower pace, one drawer at a time. But it’s good to have one of my 2022 intentions well on its way to being completed.

We’ve been home a week, and I’ve been immersed in an online class, “Beautiful Blooms,” a botanical watercolor class hosted by Karen Abend and taught by Sarah Simon (also known as the Mint Gardener.) I have two of Sarah’s books and have perused both of them, but found the prospect of working through them a bit intimidating. Being able to watch Sarah work in watercolor was so enlightening, and it was easy to see the simple things I need to improve. More water when working wet on wet, learning some excellent “recipes” for mixing colors, and how to work in layers on a piece are just a few of the things I’ve been working on. Her books are a lot more inviting now! I’ll have more to share later. 

But, finally, yesterday, I was able to get back to card making and my newly acquired Pinkfresh Studio goodies won back in November. I started off by stamping and stenciling the Folk Garden 2 set. It’s a beautiful design that really appeals to me. The stamp creates a lovely background pattern, but what’s especially wonderful is that an accompanying die will cut out (in one go) all the individual floral patterns. The open design could easily be colored with Copic markers or colored pencils, but the coloring stencil does it all with ink blending in six separate stencils — a much quicker process. I ended up with three different cards from the session, with a few blooms left over.

I used two of the blooms on this card, arranging them at the bottom of an oval cut with Ellen Hutson’s “Essential Ovals.

The sentiment is from another new Pinkfresh set, “Always Uplifting,” and the Pinkfresh Jewels are in Sapphire, my favorite blue ink color from Pinkfresh, and one of the inks I used in stenciling the florals.

The next card is a CAS thank you note.

This time I added just one floral to a red panel die cut with The Greetery’s “Crimped Frame.”

The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh. I don’t have many word dies with shadows, but I do love them. This one accompanies a stamp set “Sentiment Suite: Thank You.”

Lastly, a birthday card with another die cut sentiment from the Pinkfresh “Happy Birthday Sentiments.” Both this and the thank you set have been in my collection for awhile. Because they are a larger format, I often forget about them when I’m looking for sentiments for my cards. 

This card had a previous iteration that I tore apart this morning after deciding it was just “too busy.” I like this version much better. 

It’s always a bit nerve wracking to tear a card apart, but if I’m slow and steady, I can usually salvage the important elements. The only things that were trashed were a white panel and a blue card base. You can see I reversed that here. 

I’m entering this one in two open challenges:  Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes and Happy Little Stampers Dies: Anything Goes. 

 

 

In preparing for my Guest Designer jig on the CAS Mixed Media Challenge, I watercolored this Honey Bee “Winter Anemone” as well as the one I finally submitted. This was done with loose watercoloring. I got each petal and leaf wet with clear water, and dropped color in and let it do what it wanted. Because I had gold embossed the image first, it stayed within the lines, and didn’t look all that “loose” in the end. I did do some loose watercoloring as a background which I’m frequently reluctant to do for fear I’ll ruin the whole card. This time it worked.

This weekend I pulled it out and decided on a sentiment from the Gina K set “Wreath Builder. It fit in the open space perfectly, so I gold embossed it to match the florals.

After matting it in black, I added it to a card base created with Gina K’s “Fuchsia” cardstock. I decided there was some room for a few gems, so that was the final touch.

I’m throwing this in the mix at the Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge which is Anything Goes.

It’s 17° now and headed downward. By tomorrow morning, we’ll be at 6° with a wind chill of -9°. Good thing I have lots to keep me busy inside, and no reason to venture out!