Stenciled Hearts Valentine Flip Card

It's not technically mid-January yet, but here I am with the first of many Valentine's cards to come!  I've been having fun this week playing with reds and pinks and hearts galore, so I wanted to share at least one of my creations.  Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting as good quality pictures as I'd like, and parts of this card just aren't as visible in the picture on my screen as I wish they were.  If you look carefully, the left hand side of the card features a strip of tiny little embossed hearts. 

Tips & Tricks

• What's my favorite part of this card?  The fact that I didn't use a single Valentine's Day set on it at all!  I don't actually have any current ones, so it was time to get creative.  I used several different products and techniques to get the holiday look I was going for.  So don't distress if you don't have stamps for a specific occasion.  Odds are that with a little creativity, you can come up with whatever look you need!

• The hearts on the right hand side of the card were stenciled on, using a sponge dauber and Crumb Cake ink.  I punched out the shapes using the littlest die from the Hearts Collection Framelits and the small heart punch.  You can easily make a stencil using scrap card stock and any punch or Framelits you have.  

Supplies

Stamps:  Oh Hello, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink:  Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler Classic Ink and Whisper White Craft Ink
Paper:  Naturals White, Crumb Cake, and Cherry Cobbler card stock
Accessories:  Big Shot, Circle Card Thinlit Die, Hearts Collection Framelits, Adorning Accents Embossing Folders, Bitty Banners Framelits, Small Heart Punch, 2 1/2" Circle Punch, Sponge Dauber

Stampin' Up! Regional Projects (Part 1)

 This past weekend I attended one of Stampin' Up!'s Regional events in Baltimore.  Aside from the very early morning, it was a great time.  I love these Regionals, because it's one day of learning from the pros.  We get to see demonstrations from Stampin' Up! employees, plus local demonstrators.  We also get to stamp, which of course, is the best part.  This is one of the projects we made on Saturday.  This card uses the Clockworks stamps set.  That's not a set I've ever been interested in, but I actually enjoyed using it on our projects.  Which is yet another reason why I enjoy these events so much...they get me to use things I might not otherwise ever touch.

This card shows off the simple technique of stenciling with an ink pad and a sponge dauber.  We punched out circles from a piece of card stock.  I did mine in a straight line, others did theirs in a random pattern.  They both looked great.  Since the piece of card stock was slightly smaller than the piece we were stenciling on, we were able to make a bit of a border with the Gumball Green ink.  Stenciling gives a great texture to the card, and it's such an easy technique.