As I write this blog post on Valentine’s Day, we are having a very stormy morning here in Houston! There are tornado watches and warnings out and I have my hall bathroom ready for shelter if necessary, but I hope not! Under the circumstances and because if you are looking for Valentine ideas today, you need something quick and easy at the last minute! So here is my Quick and Easy Last Minute Punched Hearts Valentine Card!

To make this card, I simply made a card base of Whisper White and stamped the Valentine greeting from the Sealed with Love Photopolymer Stamp Set. Then for quick and easy hearts, I grabbed the cute Sweetheart Punch and punched out several hearts from the Sending Love Designer Series Paper Stack.  The only hard part of this card was trying to decide which way to lay out the hearts!

I always say just keep playing when you are designing a card.  If you don’t feel you’ve got it right, just keep moving, adding, taking away, starting over.  You will know when you get it!  I first started laying these hearts out across the top of the card, more or less, but it just wasn’t right. Then I decided to concentrate a little more on the empty left side of the card and that seemed to work better.  Then I wanted to pop up a couple of hearts on Stampin’ Dimensionals.  Now I could add some Rhinestone Jewels or Enamel Shapes or some other glitz, but since I was going for a super simple quick and easy Valentine card, I wanted to just stop before I went past that! Sometimes you have to know when to stop when you are doing crafty things!

If you need additional ideas, just put Valentine in the search box on the right side of my blog and some past posts will come up!

And now I think I will concentrate a little more on the weather reports! Once the storm passes, we should have a nice day! Right now it is just thundering a little, not even raining, but it is coming.

If you don’t get roses and chocolates for Valentine’s Day today, you might want to treat yourself to a Stampin’ Up! order!  But I hope your loved one(s) make your day a very happy one!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In case you are in need of some last minute class valentine ideas for your kids, here are some ideas I came up with. For several years now, two moms have asked me to come up with ideas for class valentines for their three kids and then we all get together and make all 75 of them for 3 classes! This year they were headed to a scrapbook retreat so I just came up with the ideas and gave them the materials and they made the valentines at the retreat the first night!

This year I decided on just 3″ x 3″ cards that were the card fronts only!  No folding required to save them time!  Just like the little valentines that you buy at the store and the kids sign on the back! I knew Elsie liked cats, so I came up with this kitty that can be made with the cute Foxy Friends Stamp Set.  This stamp set has SO many possibilities with all the animals you can make with so many stamps in the set. The kitty just fit in this Circle Punch and layered on a Scalloped Circle. Some of the punches and paper on this card are retired. You can adjust for what you own.

Here’s another class valentine designed for Carl using the Foxy Friends Stamp Set. This one has a fox instead of a kitty, and I printed out the greeting on my computer and printed it out on Whisper White cardstock.

There is also a coordinating punch, the Fox Builder Punch, that goes with this stamp set. If these moms had wanted to, they could have stamped and punched out the animals or maybe just part, like the head or tail.  However, this is something to consider when you are making multiples of something, like 25 valentines! You want to keep it as simple as possible! So just stamping worked out just fine!

And for Wyatt, a baseball player, a baseball valentine card was perfect for him.  I dug out an old sports stamp set for the bat and a retired set with these cute stars. The baseball is a punched circle, sponged a little and the stitched lines are stamped with a set that came in a Paper Pumpkin Kit!  Again, I printed out the greeting on the computer and printed on Whisper White cardstock and punched out with a circle punch.

These class valentines really show that you don’t have to have official “valentine” stamp sets or paper to make valentines! Just look through your stash and see what you have and use that!

You can see the valentines we made last year if you need more ideas in this post HERE.  Again, nothing that would be labeled as a valentine stamp set! Just think of your child’s interests of things they like and go from there!

If you are helping your child make some valentines for their class, enjoy!  These years pass by much too fast!

For your own valentine pleasure, shop at Stampin’ Up! Online (after you get those valentines made!)

Time is getting short, so you might want ideas for quick valentines such as these easy valentines to make with the Sending Love Paper Stack.  These valentines are quick to make because I just used a 4″ x 4″ Whisper White card base (4″ x 8″ folded in half) and added a pattern from the Sending Love Designer Series Paper Stack, each piece cut 3 7/8″ x 3 7/8″.

The greeting is stamped in Real Red Ink with a stamp in the Sealed With Love Stamp Set. If you don’t own this stamp set, you probably have another “Happy Valentine’s Day” stamp somewhere in your stash or something you can use. On three of these greetings I used the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies which I love! And then on two of them I added a layer behind the Stitched Shape. The other one, the circle on the top card, I left plain. The die cut heart is made with the Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies with a larger heart layer out of Silver Glimmer Paper underneath. On the other card, the squares are made with the Layering Squares Framelits Dies.

If you need to make a bunch of valentines, it’s easiest to pick one design and make it assembly-line fashion. Assembly-line fashion means you cut all the card bases – then you score all the card bases – then you fold all the card-bases-then you cut all the paper layers then you stamp all the greetings- and so on. Do not make one whole card and then start on the second one, if they are all the same design.  It’s almost like you get muscle-memory when you are cutting or stamping or folding and it goes really quickly.

For a little extra embellishments, on the heart card I added three little Rhinestone Jewels just for a little extra pop.  On the square, I tied a little bow with the new Sending Love Ribbon Combo Pack in the Occasions Catalog and stuck on the top of the greeting with a Glue Dot.

If you set up your little stamping station, you can make a bunch of valentines similar to these easy valentines pretty quickly. Don’t just rush though, enjoy the moment! Enjoy doing your stamping!

If you need any of these supplies, please visit Stampin’ Up! Online. Let me know if you have any questions!  And don’t forget about Sale-A-Bration!  Spend $50 and get a free Sale-A-Bration product!

If you haven’t started already, it’s time to get busy making valentines. Valentine’s Day is a week away so you might want to make some easy valentines with the Sealed With Love Stamp Set like this valentine. Essentially I made my own designer paper by stamped two different hearts all over the Whisper White layer on my card. The hearts are from the Sealed With Love Photopolymer Stamp Set in the Occasions Catalog. This set has a great selection of stamps from which to choose, and its use doesn’t have to stop at Valentine’s Day.

When you stamp like this, start with your largest image and stamp randomly on the paper. Years ago I heard a tip to stamp kind of in a triangle. I don’t know that I always follow that, but you can try it. In the end, although the stamping will be random, you want to try to have it look somewhat balanced.  You will know if it looks right or not! After you have stamped the large image, then go to the smaller ones. This makes it easiest to fill in the empty space.

This monochromatic card was easy to make because I just used a Real Red card base and stamped with Real Red ink. You could also do an assortment of colors and have it be very pretty as well.

For the greeting, I chose the one in the photo above from the Sealed With Love Stamp Set, stamped it on Whisper White and then die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. They are available again after being so popular when they were first released! And for a layer underneath the greeting I chose the proper Layering Ovals Framelits Dies to put a scalloped layer underneath.

And a little ribbon was in order, so I chose the Real Red 3/8″ Stitched Satin Ribbon.  There is a narrow red ribbon in the Occasions Catalog but it didn’t show up as well with this background so I chose the wider ribbon.

How simple is this valentine?  Go stamp a few in whatever colors or combinations you like and choose your own greeting! Valentine’s Day is February 14th as you know!  Make some valentines and send them to your friends and loved ones!

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