Aloha, all!
Do you realize that next week is February already?! Wow, and I usually try to send out a bunch of Valentine's cards – about two dozen more than I have made so far this year! And I usually send out about two dozen (smile).
So here's Number 1!
Do you see how many of the 2015 Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalog product I've tried to cram into this one card? Yup, three!
To begin, I wanted to use that fun new Happy Heart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for the background of this card. BUT I also wanted it to be in a landscape orientation – which is not how this embossing folder naturally works. So what I did was to texturize one side of the layer I wanted to texturize. Then I carefully set the already texturized back into the embossing folder, and ran the cardstock and embossing folder just about half-way through the Sizzix Big Shot, before backing it out again. This way I got both sides done with no line showing where either of the impressions started/stopped. OK – I know I should be doing a video tutorial about this. Once I get my own craft room back into service in March, I'll get back to that. Promise!
Then I used the Sweetheart Punch (not new with this catalog) to punch out several of the lighter colored papers from the Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack. I knew that I wanted five of the hearts to be centered both vertically and horizontally on this card front. But some of the designs had just too much white in them to make them stand out at either end. So I punched two of the Calypso Coral designs that are more of a solid to anchor the design at either end. Then I punched a stripe design, a heart design, and the other design that included a Calypso Coral print. This set of papers is SOOO versatile!
At this point, I decided my card was done. And it was. But, just in case one of the people in the class I held yesterday wanted a stamped image on the card, I added a strip of paper that included one of the sentiments from the Sheltering Tree Photopolymer Stamp Set. I trimmed the stamped image by hand, and made notches in either end for a bit of fun. But, as I told my customers today, "With that background (the hearts) and those punched images (the hearts), this screams, 'Valentine Card,' even without the sentiment." So you don't have to include a stamped image at all!
This project was my project for this week's Stampin' Up! Only Design Team Challenge. I so enjoy this challenge blog, and hope that you'll consider adding one of your own projects as a challenge entry. It's so easy, and we love seeing all the Stampin' Up! only projects that you and everyone else contribute every challenge. You really do NOT need more than Stampin' Up! products to make all the fun paper crafted projects you'd like to!
Here are the products I used for my own project today. Just click on any of the pictures to find out more about each product – and to order any of them from my very own Stampin' Up! store! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions!
