Cupid's Arrow by Laura C

This card starts with a 5&1/2" by 4&1/4" base of kraft cardstock.  I centered a Spellbinder Classic Heart Die in the middle of one side, taped it down to hold it in place, and ran thru my Cuttle Bug.  Then I used Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink to stamp the flourish from the Stampers Anonymous "Fairytale Frenzy" set, and embossed it in pink.  Then I inked this base in Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. The ticket is from the Stampers Anonymous "Love Struck" set, and is also embossed in pink, and then inked with Vintage Photo.  Cupid is also from the "Love Struck" set and is stamped in Vintage Photo Distress Ink on kraft. I added a little more Vintage Photo ink to fill in the image a bit, and then I sprayed it with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist.  I put a 5&1/4" by 4" piece of pink  patterned paper that was distressed with Vintage Photo Ink, on the inside of the card.  Then I layered in Cupid so his arrow was hitting the heart on the flourish stamp, and used foam tape to raise up one edge of the ticket....and added some Kaiserkraft
rhinestone bling. Cherry Chocolate Twinkle Jewels add a nice accent in each corner, and a bow and extra bling from my stash finish it off.  

So with a card this pretty....which special Valentine would you send it too??  

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Spellbinder Dies (Classic Heart)
Stampers Anonymous (Fairytale Frenzy and Love Struck)
Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo and Embossing Ink)
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Iridescent Gold)
Kaiserkraft Rhinestones (Light Pink)
Twinkle Jewels (Cherry Chocolate)

Tutorial Tuesday--Stickles Stenciling Lacey Valentine by Laura

Stickles is such a fun product with so many possibilities!  One is to actually use stickles with stencils or lace.  I used a wide floral lace and fruit punch Stickles.  I just laid the lace onto a plain white piece of paper, and then squeezed a generous amount of Stickles onto the lace and started to spread/pat it onto the lace, like this:

I continued until the lace was completely covered, then I carefully lifted the lace off of the paper (stickles were still wet!) and I made sure to save the lace too! The result was this:

While the Stickles dried, I prepped the rest  of my card.  I cut a 5&1/2" by 4&1/4" base of black cardstock.  I used the Graphic 45 (G45) 12x12 Le'Romantique paper pad and cut a 5&1/4" by 4" piece of the small butterfly print, used a distresser on the edges, and enhanced it with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. The butterfly tag is also from the G45 collection...I punched it out and also distressed and inked.  The small butterfly in the bottom right corner was cut from the G45 paper as well, slightly inked with the Spun Sugar, and embellished with pink rhinestones.  Once the
Stickles were completely dry, the lacey print was trimmed to 1&6/8" by 4&1/4" and inked with Spun Sugar, and black cardstock was cut to 1&1/2" by 4&1/4" and edges distressed, to lay underneath the lace piece.  The flowers in the lower right corner were cut out of the stickled lace for a pretty glittery accent.  A bow here a brad there, and it's complete! 

Give stenciling with Stickles a try.....so many possibilities!!  And link up your projects, we'd love
to see!!!

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Graphic 45 Le'Romantique 12x12 paper pad
Tim Holtz Distress Ink (spun sugar)
Stickles (fruit punch)
Kaiserkraft Rhinestones (light pink)

Framed Heart Valentine by Laura

Simple and sweet, this Valentine would
make anyone's Valentine's Day special!

The base is 5&1/2" by 4&1/4" white cardstock
that has been inked with Tim Holtz Victorian
Velvet Distress Ink and then Vintage Photo on
top of that. The center of the "frame" is cut
from white cardstock using Spellbinders Classic
Oval Small, and I inked it with Victorian Velvet
while it was still in the die.  I used Ranger 
Distress Stickles in Antique Bronze around the 
edge, and set it aside to dry.  The outer part 
is cut using Classic Scallop Oval Small cut from
kraft cardstock, and the edges inked with Vintage
Photo Distress Ink. The heart is from the Stampers
Anonymous "Love Struck" set, and it's stamped on kraft
in Victorian Velvet.  I cut around it, distressed the
edges, and added a little Vintage Photo ink to "pop"
the distressing.  The I applied a layer of Rock Candy
Distress Stickles to the heart....I used a heat gun
to dry it quickly.  I used some seam binding tape from
my stash to accent the "frame", then layered on the 
frame and used foam tape under the heart to give it
dimension.  Some little roses and bling from my stash
finish it off.  

More Valentine goodies to come....make sure you keep
checking the blog every day!!

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo)
Spellbinders Dies (Classic Ovals Small and Classic Scallop Ovals)
Ranger Distress Stickles (Antique Bronze and Rock Candy)
Bazzill Simply Smooth Cardstock (White)

Vintage Valentine with Laura

Do you love the vintage/distressed look?
For some reason, I think a Valentine lends
itself to these types of techniques!!  

This Valentine started with a 5&1/2" by
4&1/4" kraft cardstock base.  I used Tim
Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink around the  
edges, applied with the inkssentials applicator
and foam pads. Next, is a 5&1/4" by 4" piece
from the gorgeous Graphic 45 Le' Romantique
12x12 paper pad.  This was inked with Victorian
Velvet and then distressed on the edges.  Then I
inked it with Vintage Photo and adhered it to the 
base.  I used the Spellbinders classic heart dies 
(die #2 and 3 starting from the smallest) to cut
two kraft cardstock hearts.  The larger was inked
with Victorian Velvet, then distressed, then inked
with Vintage Photo, and then sprayed with Iridescent
Gold Glimmer Mist (GM).  The smaller was very lightly
inked with Vintage Photo, sprayed with the Iridescent
Gold GM and then put Flower Soft Glue around the edge
of the heart, and used the new gorgeous Gold Flower
Soft.  While that dried, I stamped the love ticket 
from the Stampers Anonymous "Love Struck" set in 
Vintage Photo ink, on the kraft cardstock and used
more Vintage Photo ink to distress it up. I added 
Kaiserkraft "Light Pink" bling to the left edge. the
little flower stamp is also from the Graphic 45 paper
pad.  It's cut out, and distressed on the edges, and
then inked with Vintage Photo. The large heart is 
attached to the card with adhesive, and then the other
items are all added with foam tape to give some 
dimension.  The larger rose is a Prima Fairytale Rose
inked with Vintage Photo and sprayed with Iridescent
Gold GM, the smaller rose is Prima as well.  Last touch,
three more of the Kaiserkraft rhinestones next to the 
large heart.  

And that makes for one sweet little vintage Valentine!
Keep an eye out.....more to come!!

Available at Cutter's Creek:

Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Vintage Photo and Victorian Velvet)
Graphic 45 Le'Romantique 12x12 paper pad
Spellbinders Dies (Classic Heart)
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Iridescent Gold)
Flower Soft (Gold and flower soft glue)
Kaiserkraft Rhinestones (Light Pink)
Prima Fairytale Roses (French White) 
 

Very Vintage Valentine with Lori

I decided to make a Valentine that looked truly vintage, so I started with the awesome Crafty Secrets Homespun Cotton Scraps in the Romance theme.

 I cut out the image I wanted, leaving a border, then peeled it off the backing sheet.  Did you know that if you pick at the threads with your fingernails, you can unravel them?  I like to unravel a few rows to give it a little older feel.  Next, I mounted the Cotton Scraps on a coordinating cardstock mat. 

Next, I used my handy Make The Cut software with a free SVG file to make that super cute doily heart.  I altered the original SVG a little to remove some extra cuts, and it's only one layer of a complete card.  This particular SVG file came from Paulo's blog.  He is an awesomely talented artist who chooses to share his work with the rest of us!  I distressed the cut some by using some distress ink direct from the ink pad - the Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads work great for this.  (I particularly recommend Old Paper, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain for maker paper look aged.)  Finally, I pulled a "Valentine" stamp from my stash and stamped the upper center of the heart.

I made a 5x7 card base from cardstock, then a 4.75 x 6.75 panel from a darker color.  I embossed this panel using my Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder.  Now, because this folder is an A2 size, I embossed the left side (horizontal orientation), then the right side.  This folder is really easy to line up the design for this technique!  After embossing, I ran my distress ink pad over the raised areas and along the edges.  I then used an edge distresser tool along the edges of the panel as well, and adhered it to the front of my card base.

On top of the panel, I adhered the heart doily and the matted Cotton Scraps image.  Finally, I pulled out my Fired Brick Distress Stickles to accent my sentiment and fill in all of the little heart cut-outs on the edge of my heart doily.

Valentine's Card with Chris

I challenged myself to use several supplies that I have been neglecting like my Copics and Spellbinders.  I started with a Dustin Pike image and printed it twice.  I decided that I would do a paper piecing, Copic coloring, use my Spellbinders, and make a homemade bobble head (can’t wait for Kim to get those new bobbles). I’ve been reading up and watching a lot of Copic videos and love the Copic FAQs section on the Design Team’s Blog. and To try and improve my shadows I decided to use the tip of putting an object to represent the sun. Hopefully you can tell that I had one in the upper left side of the image. I used C1, C3, C5, and C7 for the elephant. Again I experimented and colored darkest to lightest; I usually do the opposite. The toenails, eyebrows, and hearts are RV04 and RV02. I colored the second head and heart using the same colors. To shadow outside of the elephant, I started with T5 in the darkest areas like under his body and his left ear. I laid that down in short strokes. I then used T3 in a circular motion and extended the shadow around and blurred the T5 line. I repeated this a bit further out with T1 and then used the blender pen to blur the last line.

I cut my base card from white cardstock to be 4.25 x 5.5 inches, scored it with Scor Pal and then cut a pink mat from Core’dinations paper. I used my Spellbinders Impressabilities Flourish and ran the paper through my Cuttlebug. A bit of sanding with my Tim Holtz sander and the design popped up. Before gluing it to my base, I took a piece of black ribbon from my stash, tied a knot on the left side, Scor-Taped it to the back of the pink paper, and glued it to the card base.

Using my Spellbinders Deckled rectangle (2.75 x 3.5 in.), I cut, embossed, and sanded a gray Core’dinations mat. I cut the elephant using the “out of the box” method and a smaller deckled rectangle (2.25 x 1.75 in.). I turned this rectangle so the longer edge was along the bottom of the elephant and marked a line just below its trunk on the left and ear on the right. Then I cut slits so I could slide the elephant’s head outside of the cutting area of the nestability. I inked the edges with Tattered Rose Distress Ink and used my Scor-Tape to adhere him to the gray rectangle and Scor-Tape to adhere the gray mat slightly over the ribbon and onto the base.  I then took a pop up to lift the second heart and colored its edges with RV04 so the white didn’t show.

Again digging into my stash I found a small frame under which I put a scrap of cardstock and wrote my sentiment. Both got glued down with Glossy Accents. (Love that stuff!). To finish the card I needed to pop up the second head piece and I knew I wanted it to bobble. So taking 2 strips (10 inches by one-half inch) I glued one end of the two strips at right angles to each other and kept alternately folding the strips over each other until I had a paper spring, which I glued (again glossy accents) from the middle of the head on the card to the middle of the back of the second head. I hated the white being such a stark contrast, so once again I took my C5 copic and stuck the point end in between each fold to shade it gray.

Last but not least I stamped the back of my card with an Image Trees Handmade stamp.

Tutorial Tuesday Stickles and Valentines by Chris

Editors Note: Chris does a great job here showing us a fun use for Stickles - decorating your die-cut images "to the max" as we used to say!

I decided to make paper piecing monster valentines from Lettering Delights SVGs and SCAL. I knew I wanted an easel card but one shaped as a heart and about 5 inches square. It took me awhile, but I finally managed and at the end of this entry are both the scut and svg of the card for your use. Using SCAL, made making this a piece of cake. I just chose my colors put them on my mat and cut. I scored by hand (I couldn’t get it to “stick” in Inkscape) using my Scor-Pal. I used the center dip of the heart (at the top) and measured down about 4.25 inches (this should be right along the top of the heart base and the halfway point of the card). I then scored again at 2 inches from the dip of the top heart. Then I followed the directions on Splitcoaststampers on how to make an easel card, just substituting hearts for the squares. On the turquoise monster card, I made the edge that would hold the card open by punching out several hearts from a cereal box and gluing them together over a ribbon. I then covered it with paper, colored the raw edges with my RV04 Copic, and stamped on my sentiment. The other card’s stop, I made with my Cri-Kit Pens and SCAL. I then re-cut the banner out of fun foam, glued them together with my Xyron and adhered it to the card.

Once the cards were together and the Monsters adhered with Scor-Tape, I got my Stickles out and began to decorate. I used both Distress Stickles and regular Stickles so you could see the difference. The turquoise monster has Icicle Stickles knees and nose, Pink Stickles spine and spots, and Copper Stickles horns. These were all added by just squeezing a bit out of the bottle—easey peasey. The heart in the sentiment also has Pink Stickles. The green, three-eyed monster is covered with Scattered Straw Distress Stickles. The distress glitter is slightly larger than the regular Stickles, but dries to a glassy sheen. I squeezed a glob onto the shape and used my finger to dab and spread it around. I did the same thing to the heart background using Distress Tattered Rose. Then the monster was highlighted with Orange Peel, Dark Blue, Lavender, Patina, and Black Diamond Stickles. A monster can never be wearing too many stickles!

Resources from Cutters Creek

Distress Stickles—Tattered Rose, Scattered Straw

Stickles—Black Diamond, Copper, Icicle, Orange Peel, Lavender, Patina, Dark Blue, Pink

Xyron

Scor-Pal & Scor-Tape

Copics

The SCUT file is located HERE and the SVG file is located HERE.