Valentine Explosion Card

Happy Friday, all!  Are you anticipating the big storm?  We're all ready, but I am so full of listening to hype about it I am thinking it might be a bust...you know how that goes!  Anyway, I had a wee bit of free time in my craft room yesterday morning and I made a project I have been wanting to do for a long time (like 10 years)!  I received an explosion box card from a friend for my birthday (my 60th!) and I have saved it all this time to make one like it!  So here we go with my Valentine version:

The card is basically an open-bottomed box with three flaps that hang down and the fourth flap stands up with a space to write a sentiment on the back.  There are two little inserts on the inside on which clear acetate strips are attached, and they hold the hearts.  Here's a side view:

I used some current as well as retired papers, dies and stamps...it was a fun project to create!!!

Here's the back view:

And it folds flat to fit inside a regular A2 envelope!

I offered this yesterday as a door prize to the ladies at the retirement community where we had a little stamping get-together!  The winner was really excited to receive it!  Thanks so much for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed! And stay warm and safe!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sealed with Love (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Bubble Bath, Strawberry Slush, Bubble Bath Shimmer, Sweet Sorbet (ret),  Red Glimmer (ret), White Glimmer (ret), Made with Love DSP
Ink	Poppy Parade
Accessories	Rhinestones, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Be Mine Dies (ret), Give It A Whirl Dies (ret), Love Die (Papertrey), Love Notes Dies (ret), Word Window Punch (ret), Country Heart Punch (ret), Small Heart Punch (ret)

HSS479 Sending Love

Happy Friday, all! A real quick card today using the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch:

I needed some samples for my upcoming hostess party using the new Made With Love DSP, and this was a great place to start:

I added an embossed panel of Flirty Flamingo to the DSP panel, a sentiment from the new Prayers & Promises, and a few stitched hearts and sequins:

A retired sentiment from Sealed with Love went on the inside:

These papers are fresh and fun!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Prayers & Promises, Sealed with Love (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Flirty Flamingo, Real Red, Made with Love DSP
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Sequins from my stash
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Give It a Whirl Dies (ret), Dotty Hearts Embossing Folder (ret)

PP721 CAS From Jaydee

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Jaydee is our Paper Players hostess this week, and she's got a Clean and Simple one for us:

 

How fun! I don't think we've ever had one of these challenge themes before! I admit that when I first started to create my card, I totally spaced on the "CAS" part!  So this may be a little more layered than I would normally make!  Anyway, here we go:

I pulled out the retired set Sealed with Love, along with the matching dies Love Notes, to create my card today. This set is one of my all-time favorite Valentine sets!  The new In Color of Petunia Pop seemed like a fun color to create my little love note:

I used the Petunia Pop DSP to create my envelope, added the little love note and the diecut hearts along the edge. I also embossed the white panel with the Fun Patterns EF.  A fun little sequin added some sparkle! On the inside a sentiment from Unity's November 24 Kit of the Month, along with a couple of other elements from the Sealed with Love set:

I hope you'll play along with our Paper Players challenge this week....remember to keep it clean and simple!  Check out what the DT created as well over at the PP blog!  Thanks for popping in today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sealed with Love (ret), Every Step of the Way (Unity KOTM 11-24)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Petunia Pop, Petunia Pop DSP
Ink	Petunia Pop, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories	Purple Sequins, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Fun Patterns EF, Love Notes Dies (ret), Banner Dies (Pretty Pink Posh)

CAS Valentine Love Note

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I have a CAS Valentine card (almost the last one, LOL!) today and it uses the sketch from Hand-Stamped Sentiments along with the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

I had several ideas in mind for a card but since the color challenge is a CAS challenge, I decided to go mostly white with a few accents in the challenge colors.  So here we go:

I used several retired products on top of my Stitched Greenery panels: the circular "wreath" and flowers are from a set called Perfectly Wrapped. The Mint Macaron leaves are from the Pierced Blooms dies.  The little envelope and love notes are from a set called Sealed With Love, along with the matching Love Note dies:

I added some rhinestones, colored with Blends, to the centers of the flowers.  And the inside sentiment and hearts are also from Sealed With Love:

It took a while for Sweet Sorbet to grow on me, but now I really love it! It's a pretty shade of red! 

And speaking of red, this little lady flashed outside my window yesterday but she flew away when she heard my camera...and I was inside!!!  The picture is a little blurry because I was taking it through the screen:

The male pileateds have a red moustache, so I knew this one was a female.  She's come to visit several times this winter!  Look at those claws!

Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Perfectly Wrapped (ret), Sealed with Love (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Mint Macaron, Balmy Blue DSP
Ink	Baslmy Blue, Sweet Sorbet, Mint Macaron
Accessories	Rhinestones, Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Greenery Die, Circle Framelits Dies (ret), Pierced Blooms Dies (ret), Love Note Dies (ret)

RRCB175 Sending Love

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Time for a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we choose some older stamps and show them some love!  And today's challenge is a "lovely" one, too:

I pulled out one of my all-time favorites, Greeting Card Kids from 2010, to create my little Valentine today:

I stamped this little sweetie on Shimmery White cardstock with Stazon ink and used reinkers to watercolor her in:

I also used a set from 2017 called Sealed with Love to give her a little love note!!  I diecut it with the matching die and added some diecut hearts and an arrow:

Since I am using the colors from Sunday Stamps, I embossed a Smoky Slate panel with a Fun Stampers Journey embossing folder, and added a mat of Basic Gray!  I also added a Poppy Parade ribbon that I recycled from a gift I received from a fellow stamper!  Can't let that pretty ribbon go to waste!

I need to gear up on my Valentine-card-making, because it will be here before we know it!  It's already February, yikes!  I hope you'll pull out some of your older stamps and create something "lovely" with them!  Then share them with us at the Retro Rubber blog!  Just make sure your stamps are at least a year old, and tell us their (approximate) age!  See you there!

Here is my little (not so little anymore!) Valentine sweetie:

Thanks for popping in today...enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Greeting Card Kids (2010 ret), Sealed With Love (2017 ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Shimmery White, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Poppy Parade, Real Red
Ink	Stazon Black, Poppy Parade, Real Red, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Bumblebee, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Dimensionals, Poppy Parade Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Love Note Dies (ret), Cozy Knit EF (Fun Stampers Journey)

Three Little Projects

Hi stampers!  It was a quiet day yesterday...we had a little snow and I got up early, got my chores done and was able to stamp several things, three in fact!  The first one is a little Valentine treat holder using the colors from Hand Stamped Sentiments:

Again, like so many SU products, this Little Treat Box die did not get near enough use last Christmas, so I brought it out again, along with an older Papertrey set called Tiny Treat Valentines, to create a special gift for a special little someone:

I diecut the box from Bermuda Bay cardstock, then cut two more panels of Blushing Bride and trimmed them down and adhered them on the front and back.  Little pup was stamped in Memento ink and colored with some blends, then diecut and layered with some Real Red and Blushing Bride circle diecuts.   The sentiment was stamped in Bermuda Bay and diecut with a Stitched So Sweetly die.  I just happened to have this big red glimmer heart laying around on my desk so I threw that on there too and closed it all shut with a pretty satin real Red Ribbon!

My next super-easy card is a Valentine for a special someone!  I have had this gold-printed vellum from SU for years and finally got around to using some!  It uses the sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday:

And here's my card:

I diecut five gold foil hearts from the Stitched Be Mine dies and layered them on the vellum, then added a gold foil sentiment diecut from Love You More Than dies.  The vellum was folded over and attached at the back on a Very Vanilla card base.  Here's the inside, using one of my all-time favorite Valentine sets, sadly retired, called Sealed with Love, stamped in Gold Encore ink, also retired:

Finally, a Christmas card that uses the colors from Christmas 24; the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, and is also for Krafty Chicks, since this is Christmas week!

And since I had just cut a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, I used the second piece like this:

I dug out some washi tape that I have had forever, stamped some greenery from W+9's Merry & Bright, then added a Gold Glimmer paper "merry" diecut with a Spellbinders Small Die of the Month die, and finally a wee little deer from a Poppystamps die:

Just to add a little more interest to my CAS card, I rounded the edges with the Detailed Trio punch.  Thanks for indulging me and popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

IB110 Date Night

Hey peeps!  It's time for another Inspired By challenge....look at this fun photo:

I don't have any "girly" stamps, but the Best Dressed DSP papers have lots of girly-girl images, so I used a bunch of them to create a wee bit of a busy (for me) card:

I began with the sketch from Hand-Stamped Sentiments:

I fussy-cut the images out and layered them on a Whisper White panel, adding some Wink of Stella to a few of them:

I added a sentiment from Bonanza Buddies, then this lip image from a past Valentine's set!

I added a birthday sentiment on the inside, along with some "sparkles":

Even though the card is a little more busy than my usual style, I think the recipient will like it!  I hope you'll play along...the design team has "fashioned" a plethora of fun creations...be sure to stop by the Inspired By blog to check them out!  Thanks for visiting today!

A little trip to a local restaurant last night had us playing some menu games!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Bonanza Buddies, Sealed with Love (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Basic Black, Best Dressed DSP, Petal Lane DSP (Bo Bunny)
Ink	Lovely Lipstick, Blushing Bride
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Wink of Stella, Stitched Circle Dies (Lil'Inker), 7/8" Scallop Punch (ret)

IB109 XOXO

Happy Thursday, stampers!  Boy, love is in the air, there are Valentines everywhere!  Check out Laurel's pretty Inspired By challenge photo for today:

I went big and bold for my card today, pulling out the colors of pink, black and white...with just a hint of gold:

The papers do most of the work here!  In fact, there's no stamping on the outside at all!  I diecut a couple of "XOXOs" from some Basic Black cardstock, diecut a few hearts, and the rest is all patterned paper!  Even the "loved" banner was from a Simple Stories I Am...pad:

My card base is some retired Strawberry Slush cardstock, and I stamped my favorite sentiment on the inside, along with another gold heart!  Did you know that the Trio of Tags dies has a cute little double-heart die included in the set?!  It's adorable...one solid heart, and one with an outline and inner heart....just a sweet little bonus from that great set of dies!

Hmmmm.....I wonder to whom I should send this card?!  We'll have to wait and see!  I hope you'll find some inspiration from our photo today and share your creation at Inspired By!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sealed With Love (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Strawberry Slush (ret), I Am...DSP (Simple Stories), Cute Girl DSP (Crate Paper)
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Gold Shimmer Trim Tape (Close to My Heart), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Trio of Tags Dies, Circle Card Thinlets (ret), Stitched Circle Dies (Sissix)