Thank you to my friend Linda C of Turtle in the Sand for helping me navigate the world of blog design today; I hope you like the changes I made.  I had to have an animation and now I do.  She also loaned me her Doodlecharms Cricut Cartridge so I could stockpile some Easter baskets and eggs for my Easter cards. I probably have enough for the White House Egg Hunt!.  Thank you Linda; you are such a generous friend.  Good luck in your new/temporary job tomorrow!

My last valentine.  I used Cuttlebug's D'vine Swirls embossing folder in the middle of the pink paper and the Border Frills on right & left side.  The ribbon is from American Crafts, the hearts are Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Hearts and the lady bug is actually a button that I cut the back off of.  Onto the inside greetings then time to start Easter!

Purple Valentine

One of my last two Valentines.  I try to make cards in the colors that people like, in this case purple is my sister's favorite color. The bird sticker is from Susan Winget's Stitched Adornments collection from K&Co. and the heart is Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Hearts.

 I bought myself flowers last week.  I felt they were long overdue.  I only work part-time but I do work hard when I'm at home.  I was able to make two arrangements from one bunch.  One is on my end table in the living room and the other on the island in my kitchen.  I'm so happy they've lasted as long as they have.

Looks more like a Valentine with the hearts, don't you think?  I'll have to re-do the orange and tan one and replace the scalloped square with a heart.  This one I used Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Heart and Sizzix Architectural Accents and Decorative Swirls.  The butterfly is from K&Co Grand Adhesions and the stamp is from Artful Legacy.

I got this glass paperweight from somewhere and it had a company logo or some image I didn't care for.  Rather than discard it, I figured out I could peel back the felt backing to remove the image and I inserted a photo of my littlest one (he's the smallest but not the youngest).  His name is Espresso and we share the same birthday.  He's my little man.  Of course I helped him out with his hair style!

Birds of a Feather

I'm supposed to be teaching myself how to use my new Cricut Expression 2 but I've had this card on my mind for a week or so and wanted to publish it.  I was inspired by a youtube video I saw which was posted by Bona of  LiveLoveScrap.  I cut the birdcage from Spellbinders Bird Sanctuary collection which I purchased on line at Cut-@-Home as my local craft stores do not carry all the Spellbinders stock. I used it as a template and inked over the image with different colored earth tone inks then used that image as a shadow/background.  I embellished it with feathers, flowers, lace, raffia and Spanish moss.  I also embossed the background paper with Sizzix's Music embossing folder. I'm sending it to my sister's high school friend who we both "adopted" as our sister on her last visit over New Year's.

This is a fun technique I learned from a YouTube video I was linked to during Paper Craft Planet's Fran*tage Friday; it's called "emboss resist".  The stamp I used is from Artful Legacy who's storefront used to be located in Surfside Beach but is now in the Lugoff area.  Buck had a shop next door where he made his own rubber stamps.  Their shop is where I began my card crafting hobby. This one says "you are the sunshine of my life" in the upper left corner.  I used VersaMark on the stamp and stamped on white paper and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I stamped the various colors with a sponge and the finished powder "resists" the ink.  I placed it on green glitter paper cut with Spellbinders Small Classic Scalloped Squares and the heart from their Classic Scalloped Hearts. The swirl is from Sizzlit's Decorative Swirl Set and the flower on the heart is Spellbinders Shapeabilities Flower Bouquet.  The butterfly sticker is a K & Company Grand Adhesions by Susan Winget and their Cut-n-Paste Funky Stripe Paper.  Notice the heart brad in the center of the flower?  This is from Making Memories; I purchased this set last year at this time from Michael's.

Another step away from the traditional colors of Valentine's Day.  The sentiment is from Heidi Grace clear stamps, the butterfly from a 2-sided paper from Graphic 45's (my favorite!!) Botanicabella collection and the square was done with Spellbinders Small Classic Scalloped Squares and then embossed with a Sizzix Diamonds embossing folder.  Another favorite is the ribbon by American Crafts.  They just came out with assorted collections in a bag of about 16 or so for $14.99.  There is a nice holiday collection among the assortment.

 The white flower on this card is a Jolee's Boutique Dimension Stickers and the bird and joy stamps are both by Susan Winget for K&Company; the bird is from the Clearly Yours set and the Joy sticker from her Grand Adhesions set.

This started out as one of my Christmas cards but I decided to give it to my Aunt who will be 60 at the end of the month.  The digi is one of Karen Middleton's which I found on the Cuddly Buddly website; she's called Winter Fairy.  I used Liquid Applique and my embossing tool to give dimension to the snow she's standing on.  I colored her with my Fantasia premium artist colour pencils and blended the colors to give dimension with Gamsol orderless mineral spirits and the Cut-N-Dry pen nibs. Of course I had to use Stickles to enhance the holly berries, the flowers in her hair and her wings.  The use of the tulle was a technique I learned from my fellow crafter Jeni from Flip-Flop Creations.  The button I purchased back in the fall from Michael's Recollections embellishments.  I used them on some altered projects I did for Halloween which I will post later.  The large snowflake punch is by Martha Stewart and the swirls are medium Sizzlits from their Decorative Swirls Set which I used in my Cuttlebug.  Another example of me straying from the norm when using holiday colors.

My first post and my first Valentine's Day Card.  I love to use non-traditional colors on my holiday cards and I love the blue & brown and pink & brown color combos.  Here I used Spellbinders Scalloped Hearts and Bird Sanctuary for the cage.  The blue flower in the middle of the brown heart was aslo Spellbinders Shapeabilities Flower Bouquet.  The bird was from K & Company's Stitched Adornments sticker set and the accent in the upper left corner was a Sizzlit Architectural Accent.  I embossed the background paper using Tim Holtz's Sizzex Alterations (music notes) embossing folder.  The month and numbers was from an Inkadoo clear stamp set (months/days/numbers).