Love is all you need.

With all these scrap papers I previously cut I was bound and determined to use them up, and I found heart dies that were stashed inside another die package so it was kind of like getting new product because I didn't even know you had it. Again another quick 5 min card. 

Tickled Pink

After doing all these quicky cards lately I felt like I wanted to do a little more. I whipped out my watercolors and created the background and knew this little piggy would be a perfect use for the card. Most of everything just needed to either be stamped, colored and die cut, or just die cut. 

I was going to find a Valentine's Day sentiment but when I saw the tickled pink I figured it was more of a perfect fit. 

Sweet Love

I really really wanted to do something with this heart die plate I had from Papertrey Ink. I love that it cuts all those small hearts out but in this case I really wanted to keep them in, I just wanted a few left out, but I had to decide which few. I knew once I had one out that it would look cool with a color in the background and also popping the die cut card would look cool, but I didn't want to die cut a second card panel when I only wanted a few hearts and in different colors.

Once I figured out I wanted a trio of three I thought to emboss the base card using the same die plate, I just had to sandwich it in my cuttlebug for embossing instead of die cutting. Now it would be simple to just use the three hearts I picked out and to realign them behind the panel. I felt smart.
I used double sided tape on the back to keep all those hearts in their place, after all I didn't want any falling out on me.

Now what to color those three hearts with, I thought about pressing them in ink, eh too messy, perhaps coloring them with copic markers then I spied my Tim Holtz distress crayons, after a test run I realized these would work. Whew much easier to color and use my finger to smear the color around.

I then thought I wanted to stamp something in the hearts but I spotted this cursive love die that I think is from Papertrey Ink, I like that look much better. I then stamped a bunch of loves in different paper till I found the one I wanted and used all the extras to stack together and make my word thick so I wouldn't have to pop it up. Then found this tiny sweet stamp also from Papertrey Ink and lastly a enamel heart from Doodlebug and finally the card is complete.

Love You

Here I am again using up more old pp. I really like the pop of pink those arrows give to the overall look of the card.

I die cut the stitched heart then after figuring out I wanted the triple arrows in pink I decided they would look good embossed in white, then after that I thought the card would look better with a smaller heart and all that was left was to mount it all add the diecut love and a quick you stamped and added. This is definitely pushing the 5 minute card but can be done.

The stitiched heart dies are from Lawn Fawn the triple arrows from Papertrey Ink and the LOVE diecut is from MFTS. The tiny you was also from Papertrey Ink.

Birthday Card for the Little One

Well it's that time again, birthday season. Luckily I already made one card last year for my bff so now I need 3 for the boys and sadly not one for my FIL, I will miss making those.

I saw these fun sports cars from Echo Park and figured the boys would too. I then succumbed and bought the Lawn Fawn road die since the craft store near me was going out of business and everything is of course on sale.

It does seem a bit busy but I think it works.

Jar of Hearts

While doing a little retail shopping I found this cute little jar to be too cute to pass up. It's from Lawn Fawn and comes with jelly beans but they also make some other adorable stamps and dies to go with it, like these conversation hearts, I couldn't resist.

And with new goodies in hand you know I had to go and play with them. Another simple card.

Simple V-Day card

As I was going through my Valentine's Day paper stash I noticed I had a lot of 12x12 pieces that I used for another project and seemed weird that I had all these scraps, so I cut them all down into 4.25 x 5.5 as this is my main card size.

I then decided they needed to be used, thus a simple die cut, a stamp, a cut little bow and bit of heart shaped bling and I had a card in under 5 minutes, hard to beat that.

Valentine's Day Project

It's been a bit busy at my house, we have managed to replace our kitchen flooring, I reorganized and decluttered my kitchen, fixed a ton of items that were broken and had been waiting to be repaired forever, replaced a broken window covering and now am in the beginning process of repainting my oak cabinets as well as repaint my kitchen. It was time for a refresh.

Being that I was busy and watching kids full time my creativity side took a back seat until this past weekend when I unleashed the beast as they say.

I had admired this adorable bauble tree by Paula Cheney using some Tim Holtz items and I pursued my objects elsewhere except for the paper pad because I was smitten with that one for sure. I found these no hole pearls that came in a mix of 3 sizes and used them as a substitute to Tim's baubles.

So after I realized I had zero time to peruse this project any longer as Christmas had come and gone I was thinking a lot about birthdays and of course Valentine's Day. I then thought perhaps I could use this bauble idea as a heart rather than a tree and then I sat down and tried my hand at it.

I diecut a piece of chipboard and used that as my template, I then followed Paula's instructions and cut strips which I curled a bit to help them bend, I fit one inside my heart cutout and trimed it to fit, then cut a second piece. I found taping the two ends together with some double sided tape worked so that they could then make the V shape and again at the top to create the inverted V. I then diecut another piece of chipboard so I could use it as a stencil for the modeling paste and used my other piece to hold my heart shaped strips, otherwise they wouldn't hold their shape.

Here are my 3 templates.

As you can see that heart shape looks nothing like the diecut, so I inserted it into a second diecut heart to fill my pearls into. I found taping the edges on both templates helped them to keep from moving.

I tried various inks but alas the only thing that stuck was indeed alcohol inks and I used what I had on hand which I quickly realized was not in the colors I envisioned. In fact, after a bunch of trial and error I realized just dye the pearls and adding only some micro pearl was ok anything else left a chunky look to the pearls.

I bought a frame at Joann's that I painted only to find out I painted the back side instead of the front, so I then painted the front but the painting was horrible so I sanded it a bit to give it the shabby chic factor.

I also used some Martha Stewart glitter instead of Tim Holtzs because one the white was too transparent and two I liked the vintage look of MS. I also poured on my glitter ensuring it covered the outline of the heart, in hindsight I almost wonder if you could spinkle the glitter on the heart then glue the baubles on one by one, perhaps too tedious but definitely more control of the placement overall. As you can see I gave my heart more dimension than Paula's tree.

I glued on many baubles or pearls after my initial placement and left the left side a bit lower so I could add the flower. I also had to bleach my flower because it was pink and I thought the white just worked better in this situation. I also added a bit of extra glitter and used a banner across the heart.

The pp was from Graphic 9 and is about two years old, again just using what worked with the colors I could create with my alcohol inks. And not being happy my brain wants to try making these pearls with some looking glass spray paint but I want to have more pink than purple so I ordered 2 new inks that I hope will give me what I am working towards so stay tuned for a second heart bauble project.