Valentine's Day Treats

Happy Wednesday!  Valentine's Day is almost here, which makes me a little sad because I love Valentine's Day crafting.  My son needed valentines for his classmates this week and I found a fantastic tutorial for adorable treat holders, so I just had to make some fun little packages for his class.  A friend recently lamented that her child's school doesn't allow candy at their Valentine's Day class parties.  Oh, the horrors!  As a dedicated chocoholic, I cannot imagine this holiday without candy.  Thank goodness my son's school isn't so strict!!

Here's what I made:

The kids are asked to give signed but unaddressed valentines.  
I substituted my name for my son's name just for these pictures. 

Here's a side view, so you can see how they stand:

(I have to apologize for the quality of the pictures.  I finished them late at night and sent them to school with my son in the morning, so I had to photograph them without natural light.  Nothing like last-minute crafting!)

These treat holders come together very quickly and Angie's tutorial is really easy to follow.  The tutorial shows how to make a Halloween treat package, but as you can see it can easily be adapted to other holidays.  Here's the tutorial and video I followed, which includes measurements and assembly instructions: Chic' n Scratch. (While you're there, check out some of Angie's other tutorials.  She has over 400 of them!)

If you use an 8.5 x 11 piece of card stock for the base you can make three packages from one piece of card stock.  I also had some 12 x 12 card stock that I wanted to use, so I was able to get more packages from a piece that size.  I made 12 packages for my son's class and only needed one piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper (I only used the patterned paper on the front side of each package).  I filled them with the snack size bags of candy, which cost me less than 20 cents each.  I decorated mine by making a bow from baker's twine and attaching it with a mini glue dot to the tag, then attaching the tag to the package with dimensional foam tape (all things that I had in my stash of supplies).  This is a very cost-effective project!

I chose to staple the candy to the package to keep it in place, but forgot to staple it before adhering the patterned paper.  Quick fix: I adhered the tag over the staple.  Easy peasy!

I hope you're enjoying your Valentine's Day crafting!  Tomorrow I will post one final Valentine's Day card, so I hope you'll visit me again.  Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used:
Stamp: deadbeat DESIGNS

Paper: Red card stock (Bazzill); Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (Neenah); 
Candy Pile (EK Success, Ltd.) 

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!); Pure Black Writer (Zig)

Tools and Accessories: Small and Large Tag Punches (Stampin' Up!); baker's twine (Strands Etc.); 
mini glue dots; foam tape

Valentine for a Friend

Happy Thursday!  It's another dark and dreary (and oh, sooooo cold) day here, but I'm so excited that the weekend is in sight!

I created today's card for a couple of different challenges.  I used the sketch from this week's Card Sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  I am also entering the color challenge at Dynamic Duos:

The "dessert" option on the color challenge is to make a Valentine, but since I am sending this card to a friend I didn't want to use the traditional hearts and lovey-dovey sentiments.  I left the hearts and flowers behind and headed straight for the chocolate!

This card turned out very differently than I'd planned.  I ended up adding more and more and more layers until the card was so heavy I had to add a heavyweight card stock liner to balance it!  Have you ever heard the children's song, "This is the Song That Never Ends"?  As I created this card, I kept thinking, "This is the card that never ends!"  But I just kept adding layer after layer after layer.  I'll be honest, the creative process got a bit out of control last night!  

Here's my card:

(Isn't that candy image fun?  I went to my mailbox one day, expecting only bills, and was surprised to find a package with this stamp and two other chocolate-themed stamps.  A very sweet family member saw them and thought of me, so she bought them and sent them in the mail as a surprise.  Isn't that the best kind of surprise?  So very "sweet" in more ways than one!)

This is a square card, 5"x5", which I don't often make.  They require square envelopes and additional postage, so I usually reserve this size for cards I'm hand-delivering.  I started by stamping my candy images on Whisper White card stock using Real Red ink, then die cut them.  I used a deckled square punch to cut four squares from Real Red card stock.  I stamped the sentiment in black craft ink, added clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Then I started cutting layers (and layers, and layers!) of Real Red, Whisper White and Basic Black card stock and adhered them to the base.  I attached the images and sentiment (using dimensionals behind the sentiment), then covered the candy images with Glossy Accents to get the shiny look of the "real thing".  I added my heavyweight (balancing) inner liner and stamped it with the same candy images in the corners.  Then I searched my house high and low for some of that delicious chocolate candy, and doggone it, there was none to be found!  

I love hearts and flowers and all the romantic stuff of Valentine's Day, but I have come to realize the value of my friendships with women.  This year as I'm celebrating Valentine's Day with my husband and children, I will also be thinking of all those wonderful women who've helped me get to this place of contentment in my life. Good friends are such wonderful blessings!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

Products Used:

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!); 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (for inner liner, not pictured)

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink, Basic Black Craft Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Deadbeat Designs (candy image); Hambo Stamps (sentiment)

Tools and Accessories: Nestabilities Standard Circles Large (Spellbinders); 1 1/4" deckle punch (McGill); 

clear embossing powder (Mrs. O'Leary's); Glossy Accents (Ranger); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

Cork and Chalkboard Valentine

Happy Monday!  I spent part of the weekend working on the reorganization project in my craft room, but I managed to carve out a little time late last night to put together a card for a couple of challenges at Splitcoast Stampers.  The Ways to Use It challenge asked us to use cork on a card.  I have a big roll of cork but I never think to use it on my cards, so this was a fun challenge.  

The other challenge I tried is a new one to me, the Fan Club Central Theme challenge.  This month's theme is "dirty laundry", and let me tell you, this one hits close to home for me!  The only way to access my craft room is through the laundry room, so I have to walk past Mount St. Laundry whenever I want to make a card!  One of the options was to make a card using color combinations from the clothes in our laundry baskets.  I surveyed my laundry and noticed a lot of black and red, so I decided to use those colors for this card (and white, in honor of the big pile of towels my kids used for their baths!).  

I also have a "dirty little secret" (another challenge option): I used a little piece of plain old Scotch tape to clean up the extra bits of embossing powder that stuck to my black card stock before I heat embossed it.  I've found it pulls away the excess powder much cleaner than the brush I usually use.  I also used Scotch tape to hold the twine in place on the back of my red panel.  That stuff is handy!

Here's my card:

I started by die cutting the cork to make a frame, then set it aside to make my chalkboard (to see more about the chalkboard technique, please see this post).  I stamped my image and sentiment in white craft ink on black card stock, then heat embossed them using white embossing powder.  I sponged white craft ink over the panel and rubbed it with a towel to create the look of eraser marks.  I adhered the black panel to the cork frame, then attached the framed piece to a panel of Real Red card stock.  I wrapped red and white baker's twine around the red panel and secured it with Zots and a decorative white button.  Finally, I attached the red panel to a heavy white card base.  

I'm really excited by this month's Fan Club challenges ("laundry" is normally a dirty word at my house, no pun intended!) and look forward to trying other options in the challenges.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Products Used:

Ink: Craft White (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Heart (Stampabilities); Be My Valentine (Hambo Stamps)

Paper: Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (Neenah); 

Real Red card stock (Stampin' Up!);  black card stock (unknown)

Tools and Accessories: Stampin' Emboss Powder White (Stampin' Up!); frame die (Sizzix);

Zots (Therm-O-Web); baker's twine (purchased from Strands Etcetera on Etsy); cork; button

Triple Time/Seamless Tiers Love Card

Happy Tuesday!  It's a beautiful day here and I'm feeling a bit spoiled by the brilliant sunshine and mild temperatures.  This weather is really unusual for us at this time of year.  What a blessing!

I rarely make New Year's resolutions, but this year I decided to focus my resolutions on the "creative" part of my life.  One of my resolutions is to try new techniques and projects this year.  I have developed a bad habit of seeing techniques I want to try and "pinning" them but never actually trying them.  So I'm going through my Pinterest boards and my gallery favorites at Splitcoast Stampers and pushing myself to try new things.  Here's to breaking out of my comfort zone in 2013!

This week's Try a New Technique challenge at Splitcoast Stampers gave us the opportunity to try one of the many challenge techniques from 2012, so I chose to try Triple Time Stamping (also called Seamless Tiers) for my card.  I have seen so many magnificent cards using this technique, but it involves a bit of measuring and I'm more of an eyeballer than a measurer.  Thankfully, many wonderful bloggers are willing to share their recipes and measurements and they've taken all the hard work out of this technique!

Here's my card:

And here's a link to the tutorial I followed at Jan's Stamping Creations.

There are many wonderful tutorials online and some of them include videos, so you can certainly find many options for this beautiful technique.  I've seen lots of different measurements for the layers and I may try other combinations in the future.  You could easily cut the pieces for several cards at once and then construct them as you have time, or make several of the same card assembly-line style.  I was truly surprised at how quickly this card was completed. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Products Used:

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Real Red, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Field Flowers (Stampin' Up!)

Glittery Embossed Christmas Stocking

Today's card incorporates a fun technique that I'm excited to share with you!  I created this card for this week's Try a New Technique Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  We were challenged to use the Glittery Embossing technique, which uses dry embossing, glitter glue and a brayer.  What fun! 

Here's my card:

I decided to use a square card to accommodate my large scalloped circles, so I cut a 5 x 5 card base from Real Red card stock.  I cut a 4.75 x 4.75 piece of Whisper White card stock to layer on top of the base (in this photo it looks more like silver than white, but it's actually a white square).  I die cut a piece of silver card stock and a piece of Real Red card stock with scalloped circle dies.  For the glittery embossing, I dry embossed the red circle with the Snowburst embossing folder in my Big Shot and set it aside.  I squirted some some Stickles (glitter glue) on a piece of scrap card stock and spread it out a bit, then ran my brayer through the Stickles until it was completely covered.  (I used Star Dust Stickles to create an icy look, but it's hard to see in this picture.)  I ran my brayer several times over my embossed red scalloped circle to deposit the glitter glue all over the embossed piece, then set it aside to dry. 

Next I stamped my stocking in Real Red on another piece of white card stock and die cut it.  I added silver glitter glue to the top and tiny rhinestones to the center of each snowflake.  I set the stocking aside to allow the glitter glue to dry overnight.

The next day, I adhered the layers to each other and attached the stocking with dimensionals (I added a bit of Tombow Mono Multi glue on top of the dimensionals because I find that helps adhere things to embossed backgrounds).  I curled the edges of the red embossed piece to add even more dimension.  I added a rhinestone to each corner of the card and a white liner to the inside panel.  Easy peasy!  Although it took two days to create this card (to allow the glitter glue to dry), I didn't spend a lot of time working on it at each session. 

I have a few tips to share with you today, all based on my own mistakes while making this card.  First, if you are going to die cut and emboss a piece of card stock, be sure to cut first, emboss second.  If you do it the other way, your embossing will get squished.  Second, if you smudge your ink, there are ways to fix it.  I smudged the red on my stocking onto the white area around it (in a very small place, but it really bothered me) so I used a white gel pen to cover up the red marks.  If you layer it on slowly, it usually works.  I got a little too ambitious, however, and ended up getting the white gel ink on the red stocking...grrrr.  So I used a tip I learned from another blogger recently: I grabbed my blender pen and some Real Red ink and blended the red ink over the white marks.  It worked like a charm!  I can't remember which blogger shared the tip, but she successfully uses her blender pen to fill in gaps on stamped images that have "bald spots" where the ink didn't transfer.  This is a pretty handy trick to have up your sleeve!

I hope to try the glittery embossing technique on some larger panels that I can use to make my own background papers.  There are many options and variations on this technique, and I hope you will give it a try, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products Used:

 

Ink: Real Red Classic Dye Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Real Red, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!); silver card stock (unknown)

Stamp and Matching Die: Hero Arts Stamp & Cut Christmas Stockings set

Tools and Accessories: Nestabilities Scalloped Classic Circles Large (Spellbinders); Star Dust Stickles (Ranger);

Silver Glitter Glue (Studio G); Big Shot (Sizzix); Snowburst embossing folder (Sizzix/Stampin' Up!);

Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Mono Multi glue (Tombow); rhinestones