This Forever Lovely All-Occasion Card is stamped with the Forever Lovely Stamp Set in the Occasions Catalog and inspired by the All My Love Designer Series Paper.  This designer series paper is beautiful. While it has come out sort of during “Valentine season” and it does have hearts, but a lot of the paper can be used for any season and all occasions.

For this card I started with the Lovely Lipstick Cardstock, one of the 2018-2020 In Colors.  It is one of the coordinating colors of the All My Love DSP. I added a layer of Whisper White and stamped three flowers from the Forever Lovely Stamp Set.  There is one stamp that is a grouping of flowers, but I used the individual flower stamps and then added individual leaves. I also stamped the little stems of open leaves which I decided to look at as little blue flowers, sort of like the tiny blue flowers on the DSP and colored them with the Balmy Blue Stampin’ Blends Markers  (new colors in the Occasions Catalog).  And for fun,  stamped the tiniest hearts in the stamp set in between the flowers!

I added a strip of the All My Love DSP to the bottom of the card.  The greeting comes from the same stamp set and is die-cut with the Layering Circles Framelits Dies.  The ribbon is in the same suite.  It is part of the  All My Love Ribbon Combo Pack, including Flirty Flamingo 1/8″ Ribbon and this Lovely Lipstick 1/2″ Ribbon with a white-stitched edge.

Not being able to stop with a little more embellishing, I used the Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush on the flowers plus added a tiny die-cut heart on the greeting and brushed on some Wink of Stella to give it a little glimmer.

As this card turned out, I would call it a “Happy card” and I hope someone who received it would feel that it brightened their day.

I might add that this stamp set has the term “Distinktive” attached to it. You might notice the “textured” look to the stamped image.  This is the intended look of this type of stamp.  It gives added depth and dimension to the stamped image in one step.

Check out the All My Love Suite of products, perhaps for your Valentine cards and projects, but keeping in mind that you will be able to use these products way beyond Valentine’s Day.

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Happy Valentine’s Day to you!!

I thought I would make an easy Valentine’s card for all of you, even though I can’t mail it out to everyone! AND if you need one more idea at the last minute for an easy card to make, something like this one should inspire an idea for you!

The card base is Powder Pink, one of the In Colors. The designer paper on top is from the Sweet Soiree Designer Series Paper.  It kills me that there is a gorgeous design with foil accents on the opposite side, but this Powder Pink print side is what I needed and wanted for my Valentine today!  It’s a gloomy, foggy, drizzly day outside so I think that put me in the mood for something more subdued.

The hearts are stamped from the Heart Happiness Stamp Set in Powder Pink Ink.  I love this stamp set, and I have to add it will be plenty useful even after Valentine’s Day. I simply cut them out by hand with my Paper Snips.  Before adhering to the base, I wrapped some Powder Pink 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbon around the designer paper and tied in a bow. Then the hearts are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The greeting is stamped on a banner from Thoughtful Banners and the words are from Wood Words.  I chose these words because now the card can be for anything, even just to send to someone to let them know you are thinking of them. For today, the hearts look like Valentines, but any other time, it just looks like a pretty card!  So don’t restrict hearts to just Valentine’s Day!  You can use them almost any time.

You could embellish this card even a little more, but I think it is fine the way it is.  And now that I made a hair appointment for this afternoon at the last minute, I need to make some last minute Valentine treats myself to take!  Keep it simple and you can make anything at the last minute!

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

It was a Valentine Extravaganza last night as I helped two moms make class valentines for their kids to take to their school valentine parties this week!  We’ve been doing this for a few years now.  I make some sample ideas, they see which ones their kids like, and then we get together and make them, sometimes with one of the girl’s help because Elsie has been stamping and scrapbooking since she was in preschool!  Really!  She taught a class on stamping in preschool!

The Magical Day Stamp Set in the Occasions Catalog proved to be perfect for Carl as he had just done some Shakespeare in school!  I tried various combinations of designs as you will see.  I used the new Stampin’ Blends markers to color in the knight.  That was a little time-consuming for making 30 valentines, but it had to be done and I knew the moms would want to try out the Stampin’ Blends markers. (They loved them!)

Using a different greeting (“Awesome”) from the Marquee Messages, which the mom liked, but her son liked the greeting that came in the Magical Day Stamp Set.

This version I thought using punches was going to be quicker and easier that cutting or die-cutting squares. That’s something you have to consider when you are making a quantity of cards.  What can you mass-produce fairly easily?

In the end we made a card with the “Magical” greeting, the knight layered on a  piece of Silver Glimmer Paper punched with the Starburst Punch and that all layered over a Black Glimmer Paper (retired) strip flagged at the ends like this silver one.  And we stamped the little stars in the stamp set around on the card front in Versamark ink, which was better than using the Bermuda Bay ink.

Wyatt is a soccer player so I dug out a retired stamp set called I Love Soccer.  I bought this set in case I ever make scrapbook pages for my two boys who played soccer!  Luckily I met Wyatt who likes soccer valentines!  The grass is stamped from the Sheltering Tree Stamp Set. I stamped it in both Old Olive and Crumb Cake to look like some dirt mixed in. In the final version of the card (and late at night!) we decided it would be quicker to just stamp the “Woohoo” in Real Red ink right on the card instead of stamping and cutting out.  It looked fine!

All these cards were just one-sided (no fold) and the kids will sign them on the back.  Since this one is mounted on Basic Black, we added a Whisper White layer and stamped with some more soccer stamps.

Last but not least, Elsie likes cats, so this was her card she chose!

The cat is from the retired stamp set Pun Fun. I got a lot of use out of that stamp set back in the day! The cat is stamped in Memento Black ink and colored in with the Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends.  The cat is punched out with the 2″ Circle Punch and then layered on the Starburst Punch piece in Real Red.  The little hearts are from Heart Happiness (love that stamp set!) and the word “Love” is from Watercolor Words (another great set!).  Pretty quick and easy valentine to make for a cat-lover! If you are looking for a cat stamp set, the current one in the Annual Catalog is this adorable one, the Pretty Kitty Stamp Set.  If you need a dog, order this stamp set, Bella & Friends.  This stamp set was designed by one of the Demonstrators who reached $1 million in sales, Angie Juda.

This was another potential sample using the Cat Punch.  Her eyes are stamped from the Halloween set, Spooky Cat (retired).  The “friend” is die cut with the Lovely Words Thinlits Dies.  It comes attached to an oval, but to get only the word, just snip the ends to separate.

And this was another sample I played around with.  I stamped the Whisper White in Melon Mambo with the beautiful flowery stamp in the Wood Words Stamp Set.  Then I used the Cat Punch to punch out the cat. Next, adhere the Whisper White layer to the Melon Mambo card base. Pop the cat up on Stampin’ Dimensionals and adhere it in the empty space.  This is called the Eclipse Technique and you can do it more elaborately with the Large Letters and Large Numbers dies, but it is very easy with just a punch!  She may give this card to one of her teachers.

For more ideas for class valentines for kids, check out my blog post from last year to see the valentines I designed for the kids!

So there you have lots of valentines ideas for kids!  I sure wish I’d know about Stampin’ Up! back when my kids were in elementary school.  I hope the schools don’t give up the tradition of handing out valentines. I think it is one where they can all participate and enjoy receiving their little cards and treats!  It’s even more fun if you can stamp some valentines, perhaps with your child’s help, and have a Valentine Extravaganza making their class valentines!

Valentine’s Day is coming soon so here is a Simple Hearts Card For a Valentine! I decided to use the color scheme from the Painted With Love Designer Series Paper, so I chose Melon Mambo and Calypso Coral, which is an unusual color combination.  You can certainly use this card for other occasions besides Valentine’s Day!

The card base is Melon Mambo with a layer of Calypso Coral. The top layer is Whisper White with a thin strip of the Painted With Love DSP.  I needed some piece of that paper so you could see the color combination.

I stamped two hearts from the Heart Happiness Stamp Set and cut them out.  This is a great stamp set to have on hand because hearts, like stars, can be used for many occasions!  I love this heart stamp! A grouping of the little hearts are also in this stamp set so you can stamp several little hearts at one time.  The greeting is from the Petal Palette Stamp Set.

Just to go with the gold accents, I used a piece of the 1/8″ Gold Ribbon to tie around the top layer.  This ribbon has been around for years and I use it a lot.  It also comes in silver. It’s perfect for when you need a little something.

This is the weekend to be making valentines and getting them in the mail. So I hope you can use this simple card with the hearts for a valentine idea!

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