My Teenage Valentine

I used to be able to give my eight grandkids cute little valentines, but now most of them are in grades 7 to 12. When I saw the graph patterned paper in the new Heart Happy paper pack, I knew that would be perfect for one of my grandkids, especially if I die cut the right side with the torn notebook paper die instead of just a scallop.  The Color My Heart Color Dare was great for this one, too.

.I used Carolina, Peach, Smoothie, Mint, and Gold.  This weeks sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge was just right for adding a trio of hearts:

Here's a better photo of the Mint XO, hugs and kisses,  paper from the paper pack:

I die cut the edge with Thin Cuts-Decorative Borders, the hearts with the Stitched Hearts die, the arrow from Cricut Flower Market, and the sentiment from Cricut Artbooking.

Thanks for visiting! May you be blessed as you share your love with all the valentines in your life!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #302
Aud Sentiments Challenge #220 - Love or Valentines sentiment
Color My Heart Color Dare #329 - Love of Color
Craft Rocket Challenge #56 - Valentine
Cuttlebug Mania - Be My Valentine
Dream Valley Challenge #195 - Love and Kisses
Simply Create Too #146 - anything goes, option- use hearts

Verse of the Day:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5:43-45 KJV

Happy Valentine's Day!

I feel so blessed to have had truly loving friends all my life. I made several cards to celebrate this day. Here's the first:

The sentiment is my favorite part of this card. It comes from a long-retired CTMH stamp set:

"Side by side, or far apart, true friends live within our heart."

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafting By Designs - Be My Valentine

Crafty Gals Corner #159 - Add a Heart

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Add flowers

Deep Ocean Challenge #174 - Love Is All Around

XOXO Tuesday Morning Sketch

Valentine's Day is a special time to let others know we love them, but so are the other 364 days of the year! When my hubby and I first started dating years ago, some of our dates included riding bikes in the park. That was what I thought about when I saw this fun Cricut tags that's currently free in Design Space.  I really love last year's XOXO die from CTMH. It's bold and fun, perfect for this tag .  This week's sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches #438 was just right for this combination. I also used the theme and color combo from SumMore Fun. I added black for contrast.

 

I also love the CTMH cardstock with the white core. I embossed the little hearts and lightly sanded them.

I hope you'll let the others around you know that you love them, both by words and deeds

and cards!

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments #196 - Valentine or Love Sentiment
Bastel-Traum #61 - Valentine/Love
Creatalicious Challenges #132 - anything goes with option of love, anniversary, thinking of you
DL Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #221 -  Love
Scrap From Your Heart #18 - Mother's Day or Valentine
SumMore Fun Mood Board #21 - red, pink, kraft, white and love theme

December SOTM Blog Hop - A Little Bit of Pun

Welcome to our blog hop featuring the Close to My Heart December Stamp of the Month, A Little Bit of Pun! If you've come from Haley Dyer's blog, you're on the right path. To see the entire list of participants you can visit Melinda Everitt's post here.

The stamp set this month has 10 simple images that go with this set of fun puns! Knowing the group of ladies for whom I'd be making these cards, I chose to add a touch of elegance to the whimsy by using shades of pink and gray with a little something shiny. I used papers from the Basics Fundamental paper pack, Mink and Bashful Cardstocks, and Bashful, Silver, and Gold Glitter papers. Here are the five cards I'll be sharing with them:

Here's a better view of the Bashful and Silver Glitter papers, silver embossed gems, and the ones painted with Bashful ink and highlighted with the Clear Shimmer Brush:

The lightbulbs were stamped with Pixie ink. I colored in the center heart shaped coils with a waterbrush and Pixie ink.

The Artbooking alphabet Cricut cut was welded with a heart big enough to stamp the next one:

The last one was the music treble clef sign from the new YOU ARE HERE Cricut cartridge. It was separate from the words "Band Camp," so I slanted it a little and welded it to a rectangle background.

You may feel free to use my cut file for the last two cards if you have the two cartridges and use Cricut Design Space.

I also used the following Thin Cuts die sets:  Basic Hearts, Scallop Border, Basic Ovals, and Ribbon Border.

This fun stamp set is available only in December and is a special price of $5.00 with a $50 order or can be purchased for $17.95.  You can order this or any of the other supplies from your Close To My Heart consultant or on my website using the links above.

Thank you for visiting! Now you're ready to move on to Miss Carrie's Creations.

https://misscarriesctmhcreations.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/a-little-bit-of-pun-blog-hop/

Side by Side Sweetheart Cards

I had the flu this week because my egg allergy doesn't allow me to take the flu shot. I had to spend a lot of time in bed instead of crafting, but I had picked up an old 2011 CTMH Idea Book that was in a stack. I was inspired to use any extra Sweetheart papers to make more valentines and anniversary cards to send to my friends. When I finally felt well enough to come to my craft room, I found a complete unused package of Sweetheart papers. (I used to order extra packs of paper since I often had customers who would show up at the last minute wanting to join our workshops.)

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch to make the first card, then I altered it a bit and made several more versions.

The words were stamped using CTMH Soul Mates Word Puzzle and the Cotton Candy hearts aned flourish were from Card Chatter-Love from 2011.  Here are the other slightly altered versions with the same paper but different embellishments. I didn't think the pink circle was as effective as the white so this was the only one with pink:

After making a double page scrapbook layout and 6 cards, I still have 15 1/2 patterned papers and  cardstock pages left of the 24 in this paper pack, (not counting my consultant pack with 7 more pieces of two patterns). More Sweetheart cards and pages to come!

Thank you for visiting. May God bless your crafting!

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:

Crafting By Designs - Love and Romance

House of Cards February Challenge - Love Theme and/or colors

Little Red Wagon - Color Challenge #380 -  red and/or pink and black

Love to Scrap #94 - Who Loves You, Baby

Mojo Monday #483 - sketch

The Crazy Challenge #241 - Romance

The Paper Girls Challenge #121 - with heart

Use Your Stuff #250 - Love is in the air

I Woof You Valentine

I was thinking about my grandsons when I decided to make this valentine. Four of them definitely have had dogs all their lives. I think they'll get the punny sentiment. This fun image was a CTMH stamp last year. The paper is from last summer's Magic collection, but the hearts made it great for a boy's valentine. I colored the pet with Copics W1, W3, W5 and used a spellbinders die for the "hill."

Thanks for visiting! I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Cards und More #177 - pets and other furry friends

Crazy 4 Challenges #371 - animals
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Pets
Stampavie and More #279 -  animals

You Make My Heart Sing

My son and I share a special bond. One of the things we have in common is that we both played in band for many years. In fact, he'd learned to play viola in 5th grade, trumpet in 7th grade, and guitar in 12th grade. He learned them so easily and had a mom who was so proud of him at all of his concerts, especially jazz band performances. Music played a big roll in our church experience, our schooling and our lives.  So I naturally thought of him when I saw this sentiment from Close to my Heart: "You make my heart sing" printed on a zip strip on top of one of the patterned papers.

I thought a couple of notes and a treble clef would be the perfect thing to add to the circles on this week's Mojo Monday sketch. (And I think he'll forgive the pink patterned paper that I embossed and rubbed with white pigment ink since it's a Valentine!)

Here's a close-up of the sentiment and heart.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge #148 - Use a love sentiment 

Bitten by the Bug 2 - Valentine Hearts (Cranberry heart from Hannah Montana cart)

Craft Rocket Challenge #8 - Valentine/Love

Crafty Girls Challenge #14 - anything goes

Die Cuttin' Divas #252 -  Love (Die cuts include Cricut die cuts: Artiste circles, Hannah Montana music symbols and heart.)

Everybody Art Challenge #355 - Hearts

Mojo Monday #434 - sketch

Through the Purple Haze #95 - Share some love

Unicorn Challenge #6 - Lots of Love

Hug, Kisses, and Valentine Wishes

When I was young there was a song with the lyrics: "What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of." We certainly would have peace in the world if everyone followed the command to love God with all their hearts and love others as we love ourselves. It's really up to us to share God's love with our corner of the world. A kind word or deed here, a loving card there. What a better world it might be with just this community of crafters making a difference!

This valentine today was also made using my favorite paper for valentines, La Vie en Rose. The red floral paper inspired me to use the large flower from Beloved Bouquet, the retired January stamp of the month. I stamped the flower outline with Ruby ink and colored with several red and pink alcohol ink markers and the blender. I had the finished card sitting on the counter and looked at it from across the room. That's when I realized it looked rather plain and needed a touch of yellow in the areas I'd left white.  That made it more like roses I've raised.

I cut the white mat using Cricut Artbooking (p. 84). I changed the size proportions by unlocking them in the edit screen on Cricut Explore. Then I made both height and width 4." This design with the hearts still looked OK proportionately.  I liked the way they let the floral paper show in the hearts. The Cricut cut out the center rectangle so I embossed it with Tiny Hearts embossing folder and mounted it on a black mat to cover the rectangular hole.

Thank you for visiting! May God richly bless you as you share love with your world

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs - Hearts!
Crafting for All Seasons #119 - Love is in the Air
Crafty Creations #308 - Hearts
Creative Card Crew #106 - Love
Creative Moments #86 - Anything goes with optional Twist: Romance/Love
Fan-Tastic Tuesday #106 - Anything goes with a twist - So in Love
Little Red Wagon #328 - Happy Valentines Day
Mod Squad Challenge - From the Heart
The Paper Shelter #235- Be My Valentine

Valentine Swing Card

Valentines Day is such a good time to openly share your love with those around you. I also believe that it's a reminder to us to bless others with acts of kindness and love. In this lovely on-line card-making community we have so much inspiration to do this with lovely cards. I've given a valentine to an adult before who said she hadn't gotten one since she was a child.   I usually like to write a lengthy personal message inside, but sometimes just a simple expression is all that you need to make a difference in someone's life, so a swing card is one of those. This one is meaningful but not gushy.

Reversible papers are so perfect for swing cards if they have the right combination of patterns. Here was a quick swing card using Cricut Artiste, (p.52), Artbooking (p.80), and paper from La Vie en Rose paper pack, my absolute favorite for valentines (see my others here) and scrapbooking wedding photos! You can get my cutting file here if you use the Cricut Explore and these cartridges.

The tricky part of stamping the inside of a swing card is to get it under the top layer so it doesn't show when it's closed. I embossed the inside with the hearts folder, leaving a space in the center for a sentiment by using a circle diffuser.  Then I placed the stamps on the area to be stamped, closed the top to be sure the heart covered the sentiment. I layed the clear block on top of the acrylic stamps, lining up the edges of the square block with the edge of the white mat so I could line I up again after inking.

This sentiment came from the January Stamp of the Month, Beloved Bouquet, and the gold embossed hearts were from a long-retired set (CTMH So Lucky) that I chose because they fit the hearts on the mat perfectly. The final touches are the black and gold ribbon and the gold epoxy heart (Treasured Puffies flat for mailing!) on front.

Thank you for visiting! May you be blessed with loving relationships and bless others with your overflowing love!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations #149 - anything goes with twist of Valentine

Bitten by the Bug 2 - Valentine Hearts

Cards in Envy - from the heart

Dream Valley Challenge #124 - Valentine's Day

Fantabulous Cricut #269 - Valentine's Day

Get Creative #32 - Hearts

Heart 2 Heart - Favorite paper pack

Love to Scrap #71 -have a heart

Hello, I Love You with Share the Love

I was inspired again by the Share the Love stamp set to make another Clean and Simple card that I'll use as a Valentine. (My first two cards are here.)  I was really glad to get this stamp set because with my purchase, $7.00 of my purchase price went to Operation Smile, providing free surgeries for children in over 60 countries around the world. What a difference those surgeries make in the life of a child.

I thought the phone and the speech balloon would be enhanced by the card on Cricut Artfully Sent that has two cut out speech balloons (from page 1). 


I backed the speech balloon openings with a very subtle floral pattern and added a thin strip of arrows, both from the Charlotte paper pack. I embellished with a thin strip of red glitter paper, silver sequins, and red enamel hearts.


I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
AAA Cards #57 - "Love Me Like You Do"
Brown Sugar #184 - Valentine, Love
CAS on Sunday #76 - Valentine
Simply Create Too #102 - Love or Valentines
4 Crafty Chicks #284 - Love

Love Ya Silly Valentine

I've been wondering what color combo would be best for the valentines I'm making for five grandsons. I recently got some monster stamps with great sentiments that I planned to use for the boys. Pink and red didn't seem right, at least not alone. When I saw the combo at ColorQ this week, I knew that adding that pumpkin pie orange to the pinks and reds would be more masculine. I had some pieces of reversible Black and Sunset with the tiny words "ha ha ha" all over.  Here's their color swatch:



I used this sketch from Deconstructed Sketch 187:

Here's my card. I cut the hearts on the Cricut.

I had fun stamping the little monster. I used Sunset ink then rolled the top edges in my oldest ink, Holiday Red, the style used by CTMH before they made acrylic stamps. After I cut him out, I used a 0.3 pigment pen to outline his heart and a few features. All of the materials are from CTMH except the red glitter paper, which is unknown. All of the papers are old, mostly VERY old (the boys don't mind!). I've cut multiple hearts and paper strips so I can make the other four "boy" cards when I scrapbook with friends this weekend. The other images and sentiments can be seen at the end of this post. Along with their sentiments, they're a hoot!

Thank you for visiting.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

colorQ #278 - above

Crafting for all Seasons #95 - Have a heart

Creative Moments #61 - anything goes with option Love

Cuttin and Stampin #7 - Masculine

Deconstructed Sketch #187

Dream Valley #99 - Valentine's Day

Just Inspirational February Challenge - Love

Shopping Our Stash #187 - use your oldest ink (Holiday Red, oldest style)

The Male Room #3 - Valentine (for a boy)

Tuesday Throwdown #230 - monster mash

Love Ya Silly stamp set



Quick Lollydoodle Valentines

When I was a teacher we took personality tests in a workshop one time that revealed amazingly accurate results. Then they divided us into four groups. I was the only female in a small group of four men. Dozens of other women were in two main groups in the front of the room. One of my characteristics given in the results was "files in piles." How true it was. I had stacks or piles of papers of many different types. I usually knew where something was when it was in one of many piles. However, if I tried to be neat and put things away in cupboards or drawers, I'd completely forget about them or wouldn't be able to find them. The other day I started cleaning out a drawer and and discovered a large set of really old Close To My Heart card bases from 2005 that I'd filed away and never used.





Here are two quick valentines I made for grandkids using the new Close To My Heart paper, "Lollydoodle," with its whimsical flowers, combined with those old striped card bases. The two papers seemed made for each other.

 Shelly's Images has a challenge to use two hearts with red and/or pink. The two hearts above were cut with the Cricut. I added contrast with the white heart  by sponging Twilight ink on the edges so it would match the large flower. I added a red Recollections heart sparkle on top. The black heart border below was cut using a Martha Stewart punch. I added some tiny CTMH pink sparkles on the valentine greeting.

I'm sharing these cards with the following challenges:

Crafter's Cafe #50 - must have Hearts
Oldie But a Goodie - Valentine
Papertake Weekly - with a Heart
Scrapbooker PhD #7- Hearts, red or pink
Shelly's Images - Use two hearts with red and/or pink (first card)

Ariana Vintage Love Card

I feel so fortunate to have had amazing friends all throughout my life. Each one has blessed my life in many ways. I was reading 1 Thessalonians 3 last night and found this thought in verse 12:

and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;

This has become my prayer, that my love for others would increase, not just for my friends and family, but for all people, even the unlovable.  Valentines Day is a great way to let others know how much we love them. In fact, we should be ready to share messages of love any day of the year. Can you imagine what an amazing place this world would be if everyone loved the way Christ loves us?

Here's one of my cards made with Ariana paper that has a vintage feel.  My favorite part of this card is the message of this Skylark stamp set.

I used black pearls, instead of the usual white ones,  and a black sparkle flourish for contrast. The baker's twine bow on top of the lace bow has a metallic gold thread which adds a little more sparkle but doesn't show up in this photo.

Thank you for visiting. May God bless you with friends who share their love with you and may you find more ways to show love for others!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations - anything goes/Valentines Day
Bearly Mine monthly challenge #119 - Vintage Romance
Card Mania #40 - Love is all around
Eclectic Ellapu - From the heart - have a heart on it
Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Valentines Day
Papertake Weekly - with a heart
Scrapping Everyday Miracles - Love is in the air
Shopping Our Stash #130 - use something shiny (pearls, sparkle flourish, gold thread in twine)
Stamp and Create February Challenge - Love is in the Air
That Craft Place - Valentine Love



Swinging Bunny Valentine

How lucky I am that God has blessed me with eight amazing grandchildren! Five of them are boys, so pink hearts and valentines are out for them!  My quietest grandson is seven years old and very artistic. When he was in kindergarten, he had a strong drive to draw pictures much of the day. As soon as he'd get home from one of our excursions, he went straight to the paper and markers and began to draw things he saw. I gave him a marker, crayon, and paint set that he loved. His first comment was that it had so many "greens." Green has been his favorite color, so I made this masculine valentine card for him using an older Nutcrafter's digi image, colored with Copic markers, and a new paper pack from Close To My Heart, "Lollydoodle."

 I used some older sentiment stamps from CTMH. The inside has two stamps combined to make the message I wanted for him.

Thank you for visiting. May God bless you as you create and spread a little love with your own cards!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Cards Galore Encore #2 - add gem, glitter or candi
Catered Crop - heart of the matter
Crafty Bloggers Network - all about boys (my masculine valentine)
Desert Islands Crafters #71 - use 3: (#4-twine, #7-3 patterned papers gray+ leaves, multi-colored dots, aqua with tiny white dots; #8- 3 different embellishments: twine, button, enamel dots)
Just for Fun - Love is in the air
Kreativeinkauf Challenge #11- hearts (mine says "Cutie Pie")
Nutcrafters #61 - A little bit of love
That Craft Place - love/valentine

D.P. Kissy Lips Valentine

Happy February! This is the month for so many celebrations, but in this house Valentine's Day gets the biggest celebration. We always go out for dinner in a nice restaurant on that day. My husband has been asking me for over a week what I wanted for Valentine's Day. He keeps telling me that all he wants is a card. In this family, cards are one of the important ways that we give each other special messages. I've been madly in love with this man for many years and am so glad that the feeling is mutual.

I will be posting a number of cards in the next two weeks. This card will only be for my hubby.  If you have a hubby or significant other that likes this kind of card, I'll try to explain how I did it. I used the computer and Photoshop to combine images and sentiments from Doodle Pantry's Kissy Lips image set that was introduced in January.

I wanted the outside of this card to be CAS (clean and simple). I cut out an array of lips that I'd designed for the envelope flap. Three extra lips cut out individually were pop dotted over three of the lips in the array. The sentiment was printed in the corner before I embossed the white panel with the Paper Studio "Tiny Hearts" embossing folder. The finished white panel was matted with black glitter paper, my only embellishment.

The inside has one kissy lip rotated 20% counterclockwise using Photoshop. I copied and pasted 4 of the sentiments onto a 4" x 6" page. I added two half-inch strips of the black glitter paper on the inside.

I ran my red envelope through the printer, printing the S.W.A.K. on the back. I had reduced the size of the kissy lips to 1" width and copied and pasted repeatedly into the pattern below onto a 4" x 6" page. In photoshop I always flatten then save the entire document as a jpg. After printing it on regular printer paper, I traced the envelope flap around the image and cut out. I actually designed the envelope flap first then printed it two more times to make the portion I cut out for the front of the card.

If you like these images or sentiments, you can find this set here at Doodle Pantry.

I'm sharing this card and envelope with the following challenges:

A Creative Romance - show us some love
Aud Sentiments Challenge #99 - sharing the love
C.R.A.F.T. #244 - Love/Valentines
Fun with Shapes -#153 - Valentine
Jellypark Friends - lots of love
MilkCoffee - Valentines/Love
PaperCrafting Journey - emboss that
SweetPea Stampers - Valentines/Love
Totally Papercrafts #204- Clean and Simple

Bird Song Love and Honor Valentine Card

Chinese New Year is later this week. This is another chance for me to make an Asian card using Graphic 45's Bird Song collection. I think the papers are beautiful and easy to use. The two birds in the picture I chose remind me of LOVE BIRDS, so I stamped the words "Love" and "Honor" to go with the illustration. I designed this card to be a masculine valentine (no pink, lace or hearts).

I used the design I found at Mark's Finest Papers Oriental Sketch Challenge #21:

I used a 3" circle punch to cut the bird picture. I have a few Asian stamps that I've collected since my son and his wife like to decorate with all things Chinese. I stamped the two squares with words from the Technique Tuesday Far East stamp set. I tied black crochet thread around the striped panel. The black doily is glittery, so I matted the two words on black and then gold metallic cardstock. You might be able to see the black glitter and gold shine in this photo:

You can find many Chinese card sentiments with a google search. Here is the Valentine sentiment I chose from a set that included the English translation. This is from Chinese Phrases for Greeting Cards by Hongyang in this pdf file.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Hiding in My Craft Room #134 - For a loved one
Oriental Sketch Challenge #21 (mfpspeedytv) - Sketch used
Pile It On #4 - Animals
Ruby's Rainbow #71- use a Doily (black Wilton doily)
Sentimental Sundays #191 - Lovey Dovey
Simply Create Too #53 - Valentines or hearts
Stamplorations January Challenge - Feathers (bird pictures) and stamping (Chinese & English words)
Word Art Wednesday #116 - anything goes with uplifting verse