Love, Love, Love…

All you need is LOVE!

I had a fantastic time at my monthly Stamp Club last night!  We had several guests and I appreciated everyone who came, and braved the slippery roads, to participate in our ladies night out!  Our projects for the event had a "Love" theme in honor of Valentine's Day.  Here's the first card we did:

This is a non-traditional style of Valentine's Day card that I CASEd from Erica Cerwin at Pink Buckaroo Designs.  You can see a thumbnail of her card to the right. 

I'm not very into the red/pink color combination for Valentine's, and I LOVE purple, so this card really appealed to me!

Filled With Love

I used the Filled With Love stamp set (you know, the one that has a Bundle Promotion going on until January 24, 2011), stamped in Concord Crush, Rich Razzleberry, and Old Olive. Th is one of those times that a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig is a MUST for accurate stamp positioning!  Don't be afraid!  Here's a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig Tutorial.

I LOVE middle of the "O" being filled with the small heart stamp (punched with the Small Heart Punch) or the heart cluster image (punched with the 3/4" Circle Punch).  I think those details really make the card for me, especially when each has a bling of Basic Rhinestones attached! 

I also used this set for the "Be My Valentine" greeting.  I colored each line separately with Stampin' Write Markers, so I could have enough white space around the image to punch it with the Jewelry Tag Punch.

Designer Paper Stacks

The polka dot paper comes from the Regals Designer Series Paper Patterns Stacks.  Oh, how I LOVE this paper!  Whenever I need a quick patterned background for a project, I grab my Stack to find the exact color I need! 

They are available in each Color Collection (Subtles, Brights, Regals, Neutrals), plus a special In-Color assortment.  The $19.95 price may seem a bit much, but you get 40 sheets of paper, two each of two double-sided patterns of EACH color in the Collection!  That's only 50¢ each sheet!  A standard DSP sheet costs up to $1 each.  That's a huge value!

I actually used an Elegant Eggplant color design, because I don't have the In-Color Stack.  But, the nice thing is that the varigated designs work well with several shades of the same color.

I layered this decorative paper onto Concord Crush card stock that was edged with the Pinking Hearts Border Punch. 

Too Cool Scrunchy Satin Ribbon

We tried out a new technique on this card with 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon—it's called Scrunchy Ribbon!  I learned this little tip from Mary Fish at her Stampin' Pretty Blog.  She has a quick One-Minute-To-Wow video on it—Scrunchy Ribbon Tutorial.

Basically, you fray the end of your ribbon, so you can find a thread that goes through the center of the ribbon, then you gently pull that thread to perfectly gather the entire length of ribbon. 

The most difficult part is getting a hold of that piece of thread.  But, once you do, it creates a "snag" and the gathering comes together quite easily. You could get the same effect by sewing a running stitch down the length of the ribbon, but this is much easier—no tools needed! 

When you have the length of scrunched ribbon you need, adhere a line of Sticky Strip on your project and push the ribbon into it.  My piece started at 12" to get around the longer card, and I wrapped the ends around and adhere them to the back.

Scrunched Ribbon TIPS!

• Gently work the "snag" from the bottom toward the top.  When you only scrunch downward, your thread will more easily break.
• If your thread breaks, you'll probably end up needing to find another thread to pull, but your piece is not ruined.
• If you get to the end of your cut ribbon piece and continue to pull, you may pull the thread right out of the ribbon.  Then, you have to find another thread and start over.  To avoid this, simply keep your ribbon on the spool until you have scrunched the desired length.
• You can do this trick with other types of ribbon, too!  It worked great for the 1/2" Poly-Stitched Ribbon that I tried.  I haven't tried it with other styles yet, but try experimenting with your favorites!

Two Cool Card Comments

You know I love to make two versions of my Too Cool cards.  In the Comments Section, let's make a list of all the differences you can find between these two cards.  Only one "difference" per comment, please, I want lots of people to play!   How many can you find?!

Even if you don't want to play along, comment anyway…anyone who comments is automatically entered to win my Too Cool Secret Blog Candy this month.

Until next time…

Angie