Valentine Round Up

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've got a lengthy post for you today, with lots of photos, but hopefully it will offer you some inspiration for planning your Valentine projects for next year! I will list the supplies for each item underneath each project rather than at the very end of the post so you can quickly locate what items you will need in order to case a technique.

Steffan's Card

First up is the card I created for Steffan, my daughter's boyfriend. He's definitely a one-of-a-kind guy so I wanted his card to reflect that and not be too lovey-dovey. He loves the color black but also likes red so that's what I went with for his card.

I created a simple watercolor wash using my Aqua Pen and Smoky Slate, followed by a little Basic Gray. I added some droplets of black by flicking some Basic Black and created some larger droplets by squeezing some drops from the Aqua Pen.

I liked the effect but wanted a bit more grunge so I added a stamp from Gorgeous Grunge using Tuxedo Black Memento ink.

I used the Hearts Collection Framelits as well as the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack to die cut three hearts from Red Glimmer paper. I inked the edges of each with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.

I cut the watercolor matte to size and then inked the edges with Real Red. I used the Alphabet Rotary stamp to stamp the sentiment at the top using Real Red. My only regret is that the stamp does not include the # symbol so I had to go with @ instead. Otherwise, the rotary stamp is great for words or short phrases (up to 13 characters) and includes uppercase letters, numbers, and some punctuation.

I adhered the watercolor to a Basic Black matte and then wrapped the bottom with Basic Black Baker's Twine. I adhered the largest heart over the twine, using Dimensionals. The two smaller hearts were adhered to the top right using Fuse Fast adhesive.

The matte was then adhered to a Real Red card base using Dimensionals.

Using the Envelope Punch Board, I created an envelope from Basic Black and die cut two hearts. I embossed the hearts using the Tim Holtz Alterations Bubble Wrap embossing folder and adhered them to the envelope.

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Courtney's Treat Bag

Next up is the treat bag I created for Courtney, using the Mini Treat Bag Framelits Die. What a wonderful set of dies! Not only do you get the two pieces for creating the treat bag itself, but you get 10 other pieces to use for decorating it, including two sentiment dies. These dies will prove useful in many projects throughout the year!

I altered the use of this treat bag die and actually created an enlarged treat bag by cutting two pieces of Rose Red card stock with the larger die for the treat bag and not using the smaller one. Each piece had the smaller section of the pinked edge cut off and each was scored on the smaller side at 1/2 and 1 1/4." I also cut a piece for the bottom of the bag, measuring 1 1/2 x 4 5/8", scoring it 1/2" from each end. This idea was not my own but I modified the process of creating the larger bag after viewing several different tutorials from the web.

As well as folding on the original score lines provided by the die, I did mountain and valley folds for the score lines I added. The pieces were then adhered together using Fuse Fast and the bottom piece added to finish the bag itself.

I cut a piece of the paper from the Painted Blooms Designer Pack to adhere to the front of the bag and then used the Banners Framelits to cut a banner from Blackberry Bliss and embossed it using the Happy Hearts embossing folder. I adhered the banner to the top front of the bag.

I cut a strip of Rose Red and used the Fringe Scissors on it. It was adhered over the banner at the top of the bag. A strip of Silver Glimmer paper was die cut with another of the dies from the Mini Treat Bag Framelits and adhered on top of the fringed strip.

Using the Bow Builder Punch (another new favorite of mine!) I created a bow from the matching designer paper and embellished it with a rhinestone.

I used Rose Red to stamp one of the Groovy Kind of Love hearts on Whisper White and then punched it with the Sweetheart Punch. I inked it up with Versamark ink and then heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder to make it glossy.

I cut another heart from Silver Glimmer paper. Both hearts were adhered to the banner using Dimensionals.

"For You" was die cut using one of the sentiments from the Mini Treat Bag Framelits. I actually cut it three times and glued the pieces together to give it added thickness. I then applied Crystal Effects to it to make it really glossy. It was also adhered to the bag with Dimensionals.

After filling the bag I attached a Blackberry Bliss clothespin from the 2014-2016 In Color Printed Clothespins.

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Courtney's Card

Courtney's card was a fun one to create! I used the Hardwood background stamp to stamp Smoky Slate ink onto Smoky Slate card stock. I did two separate stampings and then cut the boards apart.

The Chevron Punch was used to give a point to each board and then I cut them to size. Each board was inked with Smoky Slate ink using a sponge dauber.

I adhered the boards to a Pink Pirouette matte. To be sure I got them spaced correctly, I affixed the middle board using repositionable adhesive and then placed boards on either side, adhering them with Fuse Fast. I then removed the centre board and re-adhered it with Fuse Fast.

Two other boards were trimmed to size, inked, and then adhered with Dimensionals as cross pieces on the fence.

The sentiment from the January 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit (Filled With Love) was stamped with Blackberry Bliss ink on another piece of stamped board and then punched using the Ticket Duo Builder Punch.

I used one of the Piercing Templates from the Essentials Paper Piercing Pack to help me evenly pierce two holes, with my Piercing Tool, on either side of the sentiment and through the pink matte. I used two Candy Dots Brad Bases to attach the sentiment to the Pink Pirouette matte.

Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities were used to color two rhinestones and then I added them to the Candy Dots Brad Bases.

I die cut five small hearts, two Rose Red, two Real Red, and one Blackberry Bliss, using the Hearts Collection Framelits. I applied a coat of Crystal Effects to each to make them glossy.

To create a banner, I tied a piece of Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine to the top horizontal board and then used Glue Dots to adhere the hearts to the twine and ultimately to the boards themselves.

The Pink Pirouette matte was inked with Rose Red and adhered to a Blackberry Bliss card base.

A matching Pink Pirouette envelope was created using the Envelope Punch Board. The flap was embossed using the Happy Hearts embossing folder. A tiny doily and Rose Red lace trim were added as further embellishment.

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Raine's Card

My granddaughter, Raine, is currently besotted with Elmo from Sesame Street! She has a large, talking Elmo which she received for Christmas, as well as a small Elmo which came with a book. I knew that an Elmo card would be a hit with her so I scoured Pinterest for some punch art inspiration.

I first created a square card base from Real Red and used the largest scalloped circle from the Circles Collection Framelits to create the shaped card. I cut a single scalloped circle to adhere to the card front, hiding the fold of the original card base.

More circles were cut from Basic Black,Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie using either the Circles Collection or the 3/4" Circle Punch.

All pieces were adhered to the card front with Fuse Fast or Tombow adhesive and the nose was adhered using a Dimensional.

Inside the card, I used Tuxedo Black Memento ink to stamp little hearts from the Perpetual Calendar stamp set as well as a sentiment from the January 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit (Filled With Love). I used the Alphabet Rotary stamp to add her name.

To complete the inside of the card, I die cut a heart from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and adhered it with Dimensionals.

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Raine's Treat Bag

Of course, it wouldn't be Valentine's Day or a little girl without some treats so I made a simple treat bag with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper using the Mini Treat Bag Framelits Dies.

I used the heart die from the same set of framelits to cut a heart shape in the front of the bag. A square of Window Sheet was adhered over this opening on the inside of the bag.

Using the Note Tag Punch I cut a tag from Red Glimmer Paper and punched a 1/4" hole for some Real Red Taffeta Ribbon. The sentiment, For You, was die cut from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and adhered to the tag.

Another piece of Real Red Taffeta Ribbon was tied in a bow at the top of the bag. Some Red Foil cellophane can be glimpsed through the heart opening and peeks out the top of the filled bag.

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Bob's Card

 The last card that I completed was for my husband, Bob. The design for his card had been "gelling" in my mind ever since I created the watercolor Bokeh background for it, back in January.You can read about the Bokeh Technique that I used in my blog post, Bokeh Technique and Sneak Peek From 2015 Occasions Catalog.

This is the result I got after creating the watercolor portion of the background, complete with the colors of Ink Refills I used:

This is what it looked like after I added the bokeh:

  

I must say that this is my most favorite Bokeh background to date! I love the swirl of dark, jewel tones topped with the three dimensional circles of white.

The Bokeh background was trimmed to size and then I used a sponge dauber to ink the edges with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.I adhered it to a matte of Silver Glimmer paper.

I punched a heart from Blackberry Bliss using the Sweetheart Punch. I added Crystal Effects to create a very glossy heart. (In retrospect, this step was unnecessary but I didn't know this at the time!)

The heart was covered with a heart punched from Window Sheet which had been stamped with White Stazon ink to add the sentiment from the Groovy Kind of Love stamp set. I used Versamark, Heat & Stick Powder and finally Silver Glitter around the edge of the heart. This was done to hide the adhesive from the 2-Way Glue Pen.

Silver cord from my personal stash was wrapped around the panel and the heart adhered with Dimensionals on top of it.

The finished matte was adhered to a Blackberry Bliss card base. Both Frosted Finishes sequins and some Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh completed the front of the card.

For the inside, I adhered a Whisper White matte with sides inked in Blackberry Bliss ink. It was stamped with Versamark, using Love from the Seasonally Scattered stamp set, and heat embossed with Silver Embossing Powder.

Strips of Silver Glimmer Paper were die cut with a die from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies and were adhered at the top and bottom of the matte.

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Well, if you have made it this far you are doing well! Thanks for hanging in there to see my collection of Valentine projects! I had a ball creating them and hopefully they have provided you with some inspiration of your own!