Easter Cards

Happy me that Mr. Mailman brought me Easter cards from other card makers! :0)   This first card is by Bonnie:

The card front is the backdrop for her decorated Easter tag - so cute with the greenery behind the bunny and the eggs on the grass. The bunny has a white pom pom tail and a crystal for the eye so this bunny has dimension. Light coloured tag also gives the grassy area dimension. Thanks to Bonnie for sending me this sweet holiday card!!

This second card was is from my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime):

This bunny is die cut from a piece of brown flocked card stock and he sits in the grass surrounded by Easter eggs. She used a Creek Bank die for the teeth marks on the bunny butt:

Cute card and the tie in with the stamped saying. Happy me to be on the mailing list of these two card makers! Love the cards and both have bunnies and eggs for the holiday. Thanks ladies for these two great cards!! TFL

Easter Card #3

Picked up a couple of the Impressions Obsessions catalogs at a stamp show I went to in Columbia, SC and when I came home I looked through the catalogs. Great samples inside using their newest dies and when I saw these "cutie patooties" I had to buy this Bunny Border die and I made a card as soon as they arrived for Easter:

I die cut the bunnies from white/GP. Die cut the green piece below the bunny border with the die at the top edge - this way the bunnies look like they are sitting on the grass. For the ears I used a small applicator and added pink chalk to those. The grass behind the bunnies were die cut using a die from the Stampin Up Basket Bunch die set. Checked print is from Echo Park. 

Die cut "Happy Easter" from scrap card stock and added clear Wink of Stella to that for some sparkle:

Die cut a piece of YoYo Yellow card stock using a rectangle scalloped frame die. Put that over the card front using foam strips. Used a Stampin Up flower punch for the two flowers in the corners and added white pearls to those. Love the bunnies ready to greet for Easter! TFL

Easter Card #2

For this card I used the Basket Bunch die set from Stampin Up:

Yo Yo Yellow card stock base, white is GP, checked is Doodlebug. Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set used for the greeting. Used aqua painter to add colour to the flowers and used brads for the flower centers. Over the bow and flowers I used clear Wink of Stella:

Cut out a bunny using brown flocked card stock and tucked him in the basket.... TFL

Easter Cards #1

Taylored Expressions Block Party Bunnies die for the bunny border piece. Card stock prints are by Doodlebug and Echo Park. Used the new to me Lawn Fawn tag die for the tag and stamped the Taylored Expressions greeting onto that using Memento black ink. Used an EK Success border punch for the teeny flowers to make the white bunny tail.

These cards feature a chocolate bunny look-a-like and more card stock prints from Echo Park:

Added scrap card stock bows die cut and covered with clear Wink of Stella for some sparkle and shine on the bunny. TFL

Thank You Card #3

This is a thank you card I recently made using the new to me Stampin Up stamp Off the Grid:

Card base is Stampin Up Crumb Cake cut and scored at the top. Used a piece of red card stock from Mikes for the card front. The stamped piece is Stampin Up Very Vanilla. Using the Stampin Up Crumb Cake ink I stamped the Off the Grid stamp on the left side of the cream piece. Using a dotted stamp from the Stampin Up Eclectic Expressions stamp set I stamped that with the same ink to fill in the blank spaces. Used a piece of floral washi tape and put that on the upper half of the stamped piece.

Using the ATG I put the stamped cream piece onto the red piece and then put these onto the card stock base. Using Stampin Up floral punches I punched out my two flowers. Put the solid red flower into a flower mold by Heartfelt Creations and ran that through the Big Shot machine to give it texture and dimension. Stacked the flowers and they are held together with a brad. Using a "Thank you" stamp from the Eclectic Expressions stamp set I stamped that onto the card front using Real Red ink:

Die cut leaves from scrap Crumb Cake card stock and put them in a lattice embossing folder to give them texture. Put the leaves piece onto the card front using glue dots. Using a large glue dot I put the flowers on top of the leaves. Like the red and the Crumb Cake together - gives the card a pop of colour. TFL

Thank You Cards 1 & 2

Thank you card #1:

Used the Stampin Up Number of Years stamp set for the floral piece. Stamped the greenery stamp onto white/GP using Stampin Up Pistachio Pudding ink. Using a pink ink from SU I stamped the pink flowers over the greenery image. With stamping done I used an oval die from Spellbinders and cut out the stamped white oval. Used a stitched oval die and cut out an oval frame using Pistachio Pudding card stock. Put the green oval frame over the stamped white oval using TomBow glue. For the greeting I used the "Thank you" stamp from the new Stampin Up Eclectic Expressions stamp set. Stamped it on scrap white/GP card stock and used the SU Banner punch for both ends of the greeting piece. Printed card stock is also SU.

Cut and scored the green card stock base. Cut a piece of white/GP card stock for the card front and cut the printed card stock for the card front. Using the ATG I put these three layers together. Used pop dots to put the framed oval piece on the card front. Greeting banner was put on the card front using double glue dots for height. Used clear Wink of Stella and went over the pink flowers. Added a gingham bow to the base of the flowers using a glue dot. Used a multi butterfly punch from M Stewart for the butterflies and those are on the card front using glue dots. Added a pearl to the center of each of the butterflies. Here is a photo to try to show the Wink of Stella on the flowers:

For this next card I used inspiration from Dawn Griffith from a card I had recently made into a birthday card:

Again using the new Stampin Up stamp set Eclectic Expressions and Dawn's layout I used different colours for this card:

Thank you card #2:

This card is on a card stock base of Stampin Up Pool Party, white/GP used for the card front, lavender piece and then the white stamped piece is also white/GP. Used both Pool Party ink and the Lavender Lace ink for my stamped images. Used the ATG and put the stamped piece onto the lavender card stock. Ran lavender/white twine around this and used the ATG to put these pieces onto the white piece for the card front. With those done I then put them onto the Pool Party card base using the ATG.

For the "Thank you" that is a Spellbinders die. Cut out a piece of the Lavender Lace and used clear Wink of Stella over that. While that was drying I cut out a piece of the Pool Party using this "Thank you" die. Used TomBow glue to put these two word pieces together offsetting them as a shadow look. Again used the glue to put these onto the card front. Added sequins to the card front. Tied a small twine bow and put that on the card front over the twine. Here is a photo to show the shimmer on the "Thank you" die cut piece:

Thanks to Dawn Griffith for the inspiration for this card. Really like the Eclectic Expressions stamp set and am sure I will be using it often for other projects. TFL

Birthday Gift Bag

Recently bought the Our Daily Bread Designs Card Caddy and Gift Bag Bundle. Needed to make a birthday gift bag so wanted to use this new die set. Here is the bag I made:

Used Stampin Up Pink Pirouette card stock for the bag back, sides, front, and handles on my bag. As with other detailed dies I use the Cheery Lynn metal shim to cut out the bag front with all the details.  With the back, sides, and front of the bag pieces cut out I used a bone folder to crease the scored lines the die made. Then used 1/8" red sticky tape to put the bag pieces together. Put the handles on the bag using glue dots and punched out a small pink circle to put over the back of the handles to cover the glue dots that showed on the inside of the bag through the front cut out piece.

The "Happy Birthday" circle:

This die was a free die with one of my British card making magazines and I cut that out of a scrap piece of darker pink card stock. With that cut out I put a lighter pink circle behind it and used larger glue dot to put that on the handle on the bag front. Easy bag to put together and as with the other Our Daily Bread Designs dies this die set cut the card stock easily. TFL

Eclectic Birthday Card

When I bought the Stamparatus from Stampin Up I qualified for a free stamp set during their Sale A Bration ongoing special so I bought their Eclectic Expressions stamp set. Made this first card using this new set:

Needed a quick birthday card and this stamp set is still out on my work island so this is the set I used. I had seen this card made by Dawn Griffith on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUmfrvr9kII&t=70s

So here is my card following Dawn's video and instruction:

I used Stampin Up Rose Romance and Early Expresso for my inks. I did everything Dawn instructed except I did not stamp across the top and the bottom of my pink card base. I also did not have the "celebrate" die set she used so I used a Spellbinder die set for my die cut "celebrate" words. I cut out a pink word and a brown word and used glue to put them together. As Dawn did I also put clear Wink of Stella over my pink lettering:

Thanks to Dawn for sharing her fun card -- I love this stamp set -- thinking it will get used often like the Stampin Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set I have in the craft room. Two cute cards, totally different, but using the same stamp set.  TFL

Uphill battle - - -

Stampin Up has a special sale going on now where a customer can spend a certain amount of money and get some free products. I recently bought the Stamparatus stamping tool and a small item and that qualified me to get a free stamp set. I like the Eclectic Expressions stamp set and decided to order that. I had seen this card on Youtube and really liked it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oPdQ8iMRzs&t=227s

Thought it would make a nice birthday card or other card you could put together quickly yet it is simple enough to do. Thanks to Liz Y. for putting her video together and sharing her card. After work today I had to make a quick get well card to mail out and thought of her card. . . but for me? It was an uphill battle....

Will say I did use all the ink colours she suggests but my card is a regular sized card. Liz made a 4 x 4 card for her sample on her video. I took out the stamp set and all my inks and put them in the same order she uses in her video.... Inked, stamped, cleaned, and continued until all colours were on my card.... but uphill it went... :0(

Decided the only way to stamp it straight would be the Stamp A Ma Jig.... dragged that out and it was just what I needed -- probably being in a hurry did not help either --- but here is my second attempt at her card:

I tried to use all the colours Liz used on her card as far as card stock goes.  My "Get Well Soon" stamp is a wood mount stamp by Stampin Up in 1992 that I had in my stash. I used the chevron black and white washi tape for the card front. Used a M Stewart multi heart punch for the pink glittered heart. This card is for a little girl so I hope she likes it. Thanks to Liz for sharing her idea and card on her video. TFL

Egg and Ovals Bunny Revisited . . .

Just used my Easter Bunny Egg and Ovals Bunny pattern to make another version of a Tootsie Pop holder for Easter for this year. This time I used the Stampin Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch for the top of my holder:

For my holder I used Stampin Up Bashful Blue card stock. Cut that 2" wide by 8 1/2" long. With the long side at the top of the score board I scored this piece at 3 3/4" and again at 4 3/4". Used a bone folder to crease these scored lines. Opened it up and used the Stampin Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch (any of the tag topper punches would work) and I punched each end of the holder piece - one at a time.

With this piece punched I used the Stampin Up Basket Bunch stamp set to stamp the egg border stamp on the front of my holder using Stampin Up Bashful Blue ink. I wanted a softer stamped image so I inked the stamp, stamped off, and then stamped it on the front holder piece. Here is a photo to show the stamped eggs:

To make the bunny -- I used the Spellbinders Egg die set and cut out an egg from scrap white card stock. Used an oval punch for the two ears and a small oval punch from Marvy for the feet. Using Stampin Up Going Gray ink I sponged the edges of all pieces. Used a small circle punch for the pink pads on the bunny feet and a Marvy heart punch for the nose. Put the bunny together using glue dots. Used a fine black marker for the eyes and mouth. Used a pink marker for the toes.

With stamping done on the front of the holder I  held the holder closed and used a small circle punch to make the two holes for my twine. Opened the holder and put in the Tootsie Pop which has a glue dot on the top of it to hold it inside the holder. Used two glue dots on the upper corners of the holder to hold it closed. Tied my blue and white twine around the Tootsie Pop stick and trimmed the ends of that off:

Put the bunny on the front of the holder using glue dots. Easy Tootsie Pop holder to put together and it is free standing so it makes fun holiday table place markers and such.

Regal Easter

Stampin Up has an ink colour Regal Rose. Wanted to use this ink and card stock for some of my Easter projects but it is a strong pink shade so I decided to tone it down a bit. . . I had bought the egg cartons from Stampin Up when they were on the Clearance Rack and I spritzed some of the cartons with rubbing alcohol mixed with SU re-inkers to "paint" the egg cartons. For this egg carton I wanted to use it as it came - all natural. I used the Heartfelt Creations Classic Rose stamp and die set and their Rose Shaping Mold to make my flowers:

As I had done on other egg cartons I made for Easter I used the lattice die from Spellbinders and cut out a piece of cream card stock larger than what I needed for the egg carton top. Used a square frame die to cut out my frame piece. Laid the frame piece over the die cut lattice piece and traced around the frame using a pencil. Trimmed the lattice piece with the trimmer to fit behind the frame piece. Put the frame onto the trimmed lattice piece using red sticky tape. Put these onto the egg carton top using more red sticky tape. Using a white Pearls pen I put the pearls on the lattice intersections.

Stamped, sponged, die cut my rose pieces and leaf and vines pieces. For the rose I used a glue pen on the edges of the rose petals and added clear glitter to that. For my leaf/vines pieces I cut those out and then spritzed Pearls Shimmer Mist on them for a little sparkle. Put the leaf/vines pieces and my rose on top of the framed lattice piece using glue dots. For the greeting banner "easter greetings" I used a stamp from Reverse Confetti. Trimmed it to size and used the SU banner punch for the banner end. Ran it over the bone folder to give the banner a wavy look and put this on the egg carton top using glue dots. Added a butterfly I used a M Stewart punch for and I had spritzed the butterfly using Pearls Shimmer Mist also. Put the butterfly on the egg carton top using glue dots:

This photo shows the inside of the carton filled with a Cadbury Egg, a Ferrero Rocher Egg, mini peanut butter cups, and egg candies from Hersheys with paper shred from the dollar store:

I cut a piece of flower printed card stock to line the inside of the egg carton lid using a floral piece to tie in with the rose on the cover. For this next project I used a smaller rose for the front:

I tilted the Stampin Up Berry Basket I made to show the rose on the side and the embossing. Used the Berry Basket die and cut out my basket using the #110 weight cream card stock from Mikes. Wanted to add texture to the basket pieces and where there is a will there is Ebay....

Stampin Up has a special going on where a customer spends $50 and gets certain products free. In order to get their new Basket Weave Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder a customer would have to spend $100 and then the customer could get a stamp set with this embossing folder for free...... Could not justify spending $100 just to get to this embossing folder.... so went to Ebay. Found a seller and my embossing folder arrived today -- :0)

Just in time for my cream Berry Basket for Easter!  This embossing folder may or may not show up in any of their catalogs so I was happy to buy it off Ebay. This folder embosses deeply so you need a special "sandwich" to use when you are embossing with it. I used my Cuttlebug and I used the A plate, then the card stock in the embossing folder, and then the B plate. Each machine is different but this is what worked for me.

Once I had my basket pieces die cut and then embossed I put the basket together. Trimmed a white doily and put it on one side of my basket. This would be the front of the basket. Put the handle on my basket using brads. With the basket assembled I added my rose, leaf/vines piece, and butterfly using glue dots. Inside this basket are two mini Girardelli bunnies, peanut butter cups, and Tootsie Roll eggs with paper shred:

Here is a photo of the two treat holders together:

These Regal Roses are the third roses I have made using the Heartfelt Creations Rose stamps/die/molds set. One of the better stamping items I have bought for sure.... Also am happy I left the egg carton in the natural colour to help tone down the strong Regal Rose colours. Two more fun projects for Easter treats!  TFL

Easter Treat Holders

Made more of the treat holders for Easter using the Classic Rose Mold from Heartfelt Creations. This time instead of spritzing my flowers with Shimmer Mist I put glitter on the tips of the rose petals:

The egg carton on the back left side of the photo is from Stampin Up. I spritzed colour on it and set it aside to dry. While that dried I cut out a stitched frame die from white card stock and put that over a white lattice die cut piece using red sticky tape. Once the egg carton was dry I put the lattice frame onto the carton top. Used a white Pearls Pen for the intersections of the lattice piece. Used a greeting stamp from Reverse Confetti and Stampin Up Pool Party ink for the banner piece. Banner was made using the banner punch from Stampin Up:

For the rose and leaf pieces I used the Classic Rose stamp and matching die set from Heartfelt Creations. To mold the rose pieces and leaf pieces I used their Rose Shaping Mold. Pool Party ink was used for the rose and Pistachio Pudding ink was used for the leaf pieces. This time when I used the shaping mold I stacked two die cut pieces in the mold at a time so I could shape more flower pieces at a time. If you should do this be sure once the mold goes through your die cutting machine that you separate your pieces while they are still damp so they do not dry stuck to each other. For the shimmer on the leaf pieces I used Pearls Shimmer Mist.

Once I made the roses I put a small amount of glue on the tips of the petals and sprinkled my glitter on each flower taping off the excess. Set these aside to dry. For the banner piece once that was cut out I ran it over the bone folder to give it some shape. Used glue dots to put the leaf pieces on top of the framed lattice piece on the carton top. Also used glue dots to put the rose on top of the leaf pieces. Tucked the banner piece under the leaves and rose and used glue dots for that.

This next treat holder holds five of the Hershey nugget candies. The box was made using the Gift Card Box die from Close To My Heart. I cut out the box from a sheet of Pool Party card stock. Wanted to stamp a design on this so I used the Stampin Up Something Lacy stamp and inked it with Pool Party ink and stamped my die cut box piece while it was still flat. I used scrap card stock so I could mask the die cut box piece so my stamped image would not overlap on the box. For the oval window on the box top I used plastic packaging and cut out the piece to fit behind the oval window. Put that on the die cut piece using red sticky tape. Here is a closer photo of the box:

and a photo of the bottom of the box to show the stamped image:

For the basket:

The basket was cut out using the Stampin Up Berry Basket die and I cut two pieces using Pool Party card stock. With the two basket pieces cut out I wanted to add some texture to the basket pieces. I used the Basket Weave embossing folder by Lifestyle Crafts and embossed just the sides of the basket die cut pieces. Cut a white paper doily from the craft store in half and put that on one of the sides of the basket using double sided tape. This would be the front of the basket.  Used red sticky tape and assembled the basket. Since I had two handle pieces cut out I put them on top of each other using the ATG to make my handle stronger. Put the handle on the basket using brads.

Used glue dots to put the die cut leaf piece and the rose on the front of my basket over the doily piece. Filled the basket with white paper shred from the dollar store and will add the candy treats closer to Easter. Still working on candy holders to put into the basket and the egg carton and will post those as they are done.

One of the BEST products I  have bought in a long time is the Rose Shaping Mold from Heartfelt Creations... WHO would have guessed making roses would be this easy and fun? Roses are perfect for Easter as well as Mother's Day so am sure I will be getting lots of use out of the mold!! Just glad that my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and I went to the stamp show last weekend so I could see the molds demonstrated at the Heartfelt Creations booth!!

FYI -- recent stop at Walgreens and I picked up egg shaped Ferrero Rocher candies. They have two flavors so I will be putting one of those eggs as well as a Cadbury egg in the egg cartons I am decorating for Easter. Had never seen the Ferrero eggs before so hoping everyone likes them. TFL

A rose is a rose . . .

Have always liked the cards, journal covers, scrapbook pages, and other projects that Heartfelt Creations creates using their rose and other flowers stamps and die sets. Watched a few videos on how to shape the flowers once they are stamped and die cut to make these realistic flowers... but for a card maker that mails out many cards putting flowers on all my cards would not work for me. . . I had bought a couple of their floral stamp and die sets and decided I could make flowers for tags or gift bags or treat boxes, etc. . .

Went to a stamp show last weekend in Columbia, SC and Heartfelt Creations had a booth there of all their products and project samples:

Had recently seen that Heartfelt had a new stamp and die set for Poppies so I picked that set up while I was at their booth. Lots of shoppers there so while I was waiting in line to check out I was near the demo table and I saw them demo their new flower molds -- these molds do all the molding of the flowers for you so all you have to do is stamp, die cut, and run your floral pieces through your die cutting machine in this new mold and your floral pieces/stems all will have creases and lines for dimension and your flowers can now be assembled. . . .   Sounded too good to be true to me but when I got home I watched this video by Cheryl B on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaGnB0oCpTM&t=985s

This video not only shows how to use the flower mold but it also shows how she layered and decorated her card front. I watched the video for the molds and came away with lots of tips from Cheryl.  Many times when you shop the vendors at these stamp shows they will give you a coupon for a discount on your next online order from them which Heartfelt did. Once I had seen Cheryl's video I ordered my Rose Mold from Heartfelt. They shipped it the next day and by Thursday I had my new floral mold. They have a couple different flower shaping molds for sale but my first one is for roses since I have the Classic Rose stamp and die set:

Here is their new Rose Shaping Mold:

the back of the packaging shows how this is used:

You stamp, die cut, and colour your flower pieces and leaves/stems and then put them in this mold. Lightly spritz it with water -- put the top on the mold and run this through your machine. There is only one way for the lid to the mold to go on the base so it is very easy to use. Once your pieces have been molded you can set them aside to dry -- does not take long. Then let the layering begin.....

Here is a photo of my first roses I have made using my new Rose Shaping Mold:

With this being my first set of flowers I decided I would use white/GP (Georgia Pacific white card stock sold at Walmart). Was not sure if this card stock would work in the molds with the shaping and such but it worked beautifully with no rips or tears. To make this project I used the egg cartons I bought off the Clearance Rack from Stampin Up and spritzed blue ink onto it using a spritzer filled with rubbing alcohol and re inkers:

Just did a light layer to add colour to the egg carton and set that aside to dry. The paper they use for these egg cartons is very porous and you have to be careful not to get them too wet.  Stamped my flowers using the Stampin Up Bashful Blue ink and cut them out using the matching die. I did this twice so I would have two full sets of flower pieces since I was not sure how many flowers I would be making. Once the flower pieces were stamped and die cut I inked the flowers and edges using the Bashful Blue ink and a sponge. Set those aside. For the leaves I stamped them using Stampin Up Old Olive ink and before I cut them out with the matching die I sponged the stamped images using the Old Olive ink and then die cut them out.

Liked the card Cheryl had made for her video. She used a detailed oval die from Heartfelt Creations for her birthday card but I do not own that die. (How did THAT happen???? haha)  But I liked the lattice work on her card and so I used her ideas for that for my egg carton top. For my lattice piece behind my frame I used the Spellbinders Fancy Lattice die and cut out a piece of white/GP.  I cut out a full piece of this lattice die. For my frame on my box I used a stitched square die for my white frame:

Laid this frame over the die cut lattice piece and using a pencil I traced around the square frame so I would know where to cut my lattice piece for the size I needed -- I trimmed the lattice piece inside the pencil lines so this would not show on the edges of the frame piece. I used thin red sticky tape around the back of the square frame and put this onto my trimmed lattice piece:

With the lattice piece behind the square frame piece I put wider red sticky tape on the back and this will hold this framed piece onto the top of my egg carton:

Peeled off the red strips and put this framed lattice piece onto the egg carton top gently pressing down to get the red sticky tape to stick to the carton top. I laid the two leaf pieces I was using for the carton top  over the framed lattice piece so I would know how much of the framed lattice would show. Using a white Pearls pen I added white pearls to some of the intersections of my lattice piece. Cheryl had used Nuvo drops on her oval framed piece but I like the sparkle and shine of the white Pearls pen on mine.

With all my floral pieces shaped from the mold I began to put them together. I used Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky glue to put my floral pieces together. Decided to make a large rose and two tiny roses for my egg carton top. With those glued and shaped I set them aside to dry.  Using scrap white/GP I stamped "easter greetings" from Reverse Confetti using the Bashful Blue ink. Used a ruler and pencil to make a line above and below my stamped greeting. Trimmed this piece on the pencil lines and used the banner punch from Stampin Up to punch the banner end. Lightly sponged the blue ink on the banner piece and ran this over the bone folder to give the banner a 'wave' look.

With my roses dried from gluing I spritzed them and the leaves pieces using Shimmer Mist Pearls to give them all some sparkle and shine:

With those dried I now could put my pieces onto the top of the egg carton -- I used glue dots to put the leaf pieces on and glue dots to put the flowers on top of the leaf pieces. With those on the egg carton I then tucked the greeting piece under a leaf and put the greeting piece on also using glue dots.

LOVE the flower mold -- can not believe I made a rose!! :0)   The mold is very easy to use -- I have the Stampin Up Big Shot machine and I use the mold with a clear plate under it and a clear plate on top of it and it went through the machine with no problems. Each machine is different and Heartfelt Creations has a list of machines and "sandwich" for using their molds on their website so you can see how to use these molds in your machine. Can not believe how easy and FAST these flowers went together..... now trying to figure out how to put a flower on the birthday card for DH for July.... haha. A BIG thank you to Cheryl B for sharing her video and how-to's for this great new product from Heartfelt Creations...  off to make more flowers in all colours.... ;0)

Two Valentine Cards

Clearing out photos on the camera for our trips this week and realized I did not post these two Valentine cards on the blog -- so here they are:

Card stock base is #110 weight black card stock from Mikes. Heart print is the Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby as is the polka dot card stock.

Cut and scored the black card stock with the scored line at the top of the card. Cut a piece of the black hearts print to the size I needed for the card front. Set that aside. Used a holiday saying from the MFTstamps stamp set Homespun Hearts and stamped that onto scrap white card stock using Stampin Up Real Red ink. Used the Stampin Up banner punch for the two ends of the greeting banner. Cut a piece of the black polka dot print to fit behind the greeting banner. Put the polka dot print across the black hearts print  near the bottom and put these onto the black card stock base using the ATG.

For the Tic Tac Toe board I used the Tic Tac Toe die set from MFTstamps that I recently bought at the Paper Muse store in Matthews, NC.  Used scrap black and red card stocks to cut out the grid, X's, O's, and red hearts. Cut a piece of white/GP larger than the black grid piece and used a glue pen to put the Tic Tac Toe board together. Cut a piece of red card stock to fit behind this piece and put the two pieces together using the ATG. Used pop dots to put the Tic Tac Toe piece onto the card base. Used glue dots behind the Valentine greeting banner to put on the card front.

This next card -

Lots of stamps used for this card:

Card stock base is Stampin Up Crumb Cake card stock scored on the side. Red is from Mikes and the cream card stock for the card front is Stampin Up Very Vanilla.

Cut and scored the card stock base. Cut the red card stock to the size I needed. Cut the Very Vanilla for the card front. On the Very Vanilla piece I first stamped the Stampin Up Cheesecloth background stamp using the Crumb Cake ink on part of the card front. Then stamped various stamps from the Stampin Up Work of Art stamp set as well as their Gorgeous Grunge stamps again using the Crumb Cake ink on the piece randomly. Used a small heart stamp from my stash and inked that and stamped off and then stamped the Very Vanilla piece. After all stamping was done I put the stamped card front onto the red card stock using the ATG.

With all the background stamping done I wanted to add twine to the card front.  Problem is when using twine it can make your card front have a bump on both sides where you have your twine attached. I wanted to minimize that bump so I taped the twine to the back of the card after I untwisted the twine - only on the back of the card - on each side. There is still a bump but it is flatter now than if I had not untwisted the twine on the back of the card front:

With my piece of twine across the front of the card I then stamped a stamp from PSX "with love" onto scrap Very Vanilla card stock using Real Red ink. I only wanted to use the word "love" from that stamp so I covered "with" with a piece of painters tape and inked the stamp. Peeled off the painters tape and stamped the "love". With that done I used the Stampin Up Bitty Banners die set and cut out the "love" banner. Sponged the edges of this banner using Crumb Cake ink. Cut off one end of the banner using scissors and put this onto my card front using the ATG:

Cut off another piece of twine and tied a bow. Put the bow onto the card front using glue dots. For the three larger hearts on the card front I used the Stampin Up Hearts A Flutter stamp set with matching die and stamped and cut out my hearts. Sponged the edges of those. Using stacked glue dots I put these hearts onto the card front:

Both cards were easy to put together using dies and stamps. TFL