Happy Valentine's Day

It's been quite a while since I've blogged, but my good friend Linda told me about a fun challenge at the Die Cut Divas Challenge Blog. So I decided to join in.

This month's challenge is to make a fun fold card. I have to admit I think I've only ever made a couple of fun fold cards before, but after making one for the challenge, I think I'll be making lots of different kinds of fun fold cards from now on. So the card I made, using a z fold design, is a Valentine for my hubby.

Die - Renaissance Heart Fancy Die (Hero Arts), Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts) and Paper - Romantic Patterned Scrapbook Paper (Crelando)

I have a few different heart dies in my stash but one of my favourites is a Hero Arts die called Renaissance Heart Fancy Die. For this card I die cut the heart from silver glitter card and backed it with a light pink pearlescent card.

The z fold base was so quick and easy to make by just scoring the front of the card down the centre and folding it back on itself.

I used paper from a paper pad I found in Lidl over a year ago to cover the card front and inside. I left the centre panel blank so I could write my message on it. The sentiment was heat embossed using Versamark and silver embossing powder.

I thought the sweet little sparkly birds were so cute. There's lots more sparkle on the card but we've had cloudy day after cloudy day here since I've made the card, so I didn't capture it very well in the photos.

A Couple of Valentines

For the past number of weeks a few things have completely taken up my time and kept me away from card making but I'm happy to be finally back in the swing of things again to make a Valentine for my hubby. I ended up making two Valentine cards as I thought the first one might be too girly for him. The little glimpse below probably says it all really:)

I had some pretty wedding table sprinkles in my stash and thought they, along with some beads and pearls, would make a nice background for a couple of lovely die cuts my friend Linda sent me - thanks again Linda:) So the card came together fairly quickly once the glue I used for the sprinkles and beads had dried. This month's challenge over at Hero Arts is Fabulous Flowers so since there are flowers on the heart die and flowers in the sprinkles I'm submitting this card into the challenge.

Dies (Hero Arts) - Floral Heart Stamp & Cut by Lia and My Monthy Hero January Kit Add On

After making the card above I thought I'd try to make a more masculine looking Valentine using a favourite Hero Arts die and the inlaid die cutting technique.

Dies - Renaissance Heart (Hero Arts), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Alphabet (Docrafts)

Even though I was going for a masculine look I couldn't resist using glitter card in the heart to represent the sparkle hubby brings to my life - sorry for the soppiness but I think I can get away with it this week:)

I'm submitting the cards into A Blog Named Hero's is A Bit of Sparkle Challenge and the Die Cut Diva's Love, Marriage and Anniversaries Challenge.

Scrap Busting for a Valentine

Happy New Year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great one but it went by way too quickly.

This year I hope to do as much scrap busting as possible. I have folders full of patterned scraps, plain scraps and distress ink or experimental scraps left over from other projects and hope to reduce the pile considerably by the end of the year. So I pulled out some of my distress ink scraps in rainbow colours to make this card.

Distress inks - barn door, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salty ocean and dusty concord

Last week I got Hero Arts Renaissance Heart die and couldn't wait to make something with it! So I die cut the heart in black and then in rainbow colours, added a large sticky label behind it and after trimming used the inlay technique to complete the heart.

Dies - Renaissance Heart (Hero Arts), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

The stitched background was die cut using the rectangle from Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitched Shapes and the sentiment is from Hero Arts Celebrate Everyday set. The card is for my hubby so in order to keep it as masculine looking as possible resisted all temptations to add sequins, gems, or any other bits!

As I used something new in my crafty stash I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Something New Challenge and a2zscrapbooking's New to You Challenge. I'm also submitting it into The Die Cut Divas Anything Goes Challenge.

Happy Valentine's Day Honey

When I got the Hexagon Background stamp I thought it could make a great honeycomb and had an idea for cutting out a window in it for one of the cute bees from the Be Happy set. So this is the card my Valentine (aka my hubby who has been my Valentine for 21 years - those years have just whizzed by!) ended up with.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Hexagon Background, Be Happy & Celebrate Everyday

To start with I embossed the hexagons and cut out the piece I wanted to use as well as the little window for the bee. After stamping and colouring the bee I added little punched hearts to the antennae and stickles to the wings. Then I just added a scattering of hearts to the honeycomb and card base. I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge and The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog's Valentine Card Challenge.

Hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day! I've enjoyed a wonderful day with the four special men in my life (yay for midterm holidays falling on this week). We had a brilliant time in one of my favourite fairly nearby places, Glendalough and enjoyed a beautiful walk and some yummy food.

The Round Tower at Glendalough


A closer view of the Round Tower


A view back at the Upper Lake


On the Miner's Road on the way to the ruined miner's village


Some ducks battling the waves on the Upper Lake


The furry guy in my life enjoying his trip to Glendalough


Blogger seems to have a new way of uploading photos so I'm not sure why the photos from Glendalough are so small! If anyone knows how to change the size, I'd love to know:) Edited Thanks a million to Arlene for the tip on sorting out the size of my photos:)

Owl Love You

I wanted to try to make a masculine Valentine, so instead of the usual pinks and reds, went with kraft, black and white with some touches of red.



To make the base, I embossed the Looped Circle Pattern (I'm officially addicted to that stamp!!) on the back and front of the card and cut out some of the stamped areas to make a scalloped outline. Then keeping it fairly plain and simple I just embossed the branch and owls. I coloured the leaves with a gel pen and added little dots of white to the flower centres. The hearts were also embossed and covered in a layer of Glossy Accents for some extra sheen.

I'm submitting this card into the current Hero Arts Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Have a Heart Challenge

Sack and Cereal Box Valentine

I wanted to make another card for the Around the House Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and ended up picking things I never thought I would use on a card - a sack which had spring flowering bulbs in it (lol can you tell I'm a hoarder?!) and a cereal box.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Buttons & Celebrate Everyday

With these materials I thought I'd make a masculine Valentine. To start with I adhered the sacking to white card and die cut circles using my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities. I applied barn door distress ink to the inside part of a piece cut from a cereal box. Then using the same ink, I stamped the heart button on this and two other pieces of cereal box. These were all cut out and adhered together. I added some more distress ink around the edges and poked holes through the "button" with a needle. The sentiment is also stamped with barn door distress ink.



I'm also submitting this card into the Die Cutting Challenge in the Moxie Fab World and the current Hero Arts Challenge, Love and Hugs and Kisses.

My Fuzzy Valentine

I thought it might be fun to have a soft and fuzzy heart on a Valentine and the tutorial further down in the post explains how I made this faux chenille one.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Old Letter Writing & Tree Birds and Messages

For the top part of the panel I embossed the Old Letter Writing in white. I spotted a heart in a scrap of patterned paper (sorry it was only a scrap so I don’t have the name of it) and thought it would be nice for the bottom part of the panel. Then I added lots of buttons which had been recycled off old blouses\shirts. The buttons had been threaded with twine or white yarn (coloured with antique linen distress ink). Hopefully the yarn “x”s on some of the buttons look like little kiss signs! The sentiment is stamped with barn door distress ink.

I'm submitting the card into -

Double Dutch Challenge #61 - Love is in the Air.
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #35 - Buttons
Fab'n'Funky Challenge #59 - Tempting Texture

So here’s a tutorial for the heart. Cut 5 assorted pieces of red\pink cotton fabric to the desired size.


Stack the fabrics and tack together (I skipped the tacking bit!) to prevent them shifting while sewing. Then stitch a diagonal line across the middle. I didn’t bother marking lines but you can do so if you wish.


Stitch lines 3/8 inch apart on the diagonal across the whole surface.


Cut through the top 4 layers in the middle of the channels between the stitching.


To fluff up the fabric you can either wash the panel or if you’re keen to go like me fray the raw edges by scraping along them with your fingernails.


Pin one of the heart templates by Shari Carroll from Hero Arts to the fabric and machine stitch around the heart with a very small stitch.


Cut the heart out by snipping as close as possible to the stitched outline without cutting through it.


I was able to cut out two large hearts and two small hearts from the panel I made. I’ve order this Hero Arts sentiment set and will probably use the other hearts with the “sending warm fuzzies” sentiment.

Love You Hundreds and Thousands

This month’s challenge on Hero Arts is to make a card inspired by the 2011 catalogue or do some masking or something special with the inside of the card. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve gone through the catalogue admiring the stamps and making up my wishlist!

For this card I was inspired by all the yummy cards on page 27 of the catalogue. Last year Lisa created a scrumptious looking donut card using real ingredients like chopped nuts and salt. So I thought it would be fun to add some colourful hundreds and thousands to my card.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Have a Donut & Ancient Motif

I used scraps for the coffee cup. A little piece of blue card for the sleeve and on the pink piece I had applied worn lipstick distress ink to the Ancient Motif stamp, spritzed with water and stamped on white card. Then I added some Glossy Accents to the “coffee” for some sheen.



I thought the colours in the hundreds and thousands might run if I used Glossy Accents to stick them on the card so I cut heart shapes out of sticky labels and stamped another label with the donut for the topping. Hundreds and thousands are as bad a glitter – I seem to have them everywhere now!



I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Surrounded by Love

As soon as I saw Lisa’s post on the Hero Arts blog this morning I wanted to make a card. Lisa created an adorable card inspired by her super cute card on page 74 of the catalogue. I love these cards and decided to use them to come up with an idea for my hubby’s Valentine.

Lucy is sharing a sketch and card every day this week on her blog so I decided to use her sketch from Day 2. I may have strayed a bit too far off the sketch though!


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Heart Owls, Designer Woodgrain, Buttons, Flourish Background, Tree Birds & Messages.

The card came together pretty quickly. Most of the pieces on the card were in my pile of scraps - I really have to use more of them! The owls were coloured with watercolour pencils and I perched them on a twig which came from an old Christmas decoration. I made the heart wreath using the cute little heart shaped button from the Buttons set. The buttons were covered with a layer of Glossy Accents and some yarn threaded through the buttonholes. Thanks to Sue for the brown twine I used for the loop on the wreath. One of the scraps I used for the background had been clear embossed with the woodgrain stamp. On the other one I had applied walnut stain distress ink to white card and stamped, spritzed and spattered with water.