It’s Valentine’s Day, and if you need to make a last minute Valentine card, this paper strip quilt valentine idea is very easy to make. It may look involved, but it is a good way to use up your designer paper scraps.  I happened to have a bunch of paper strips from a project with the Love Blossoms Designer Paper Stack. They are about 1/2″ wide, you can use whatever measurement you like. The basic idea is to lay down some strips of paper side by side on the cardstock and then trim off the overhanging strips.

I suggest starting with a piece of cardstock such as Whisper White, larger than what you ultimately want (to allow room for trimming). I adhered one paper strip at an angle that didn’t go all the way across. Then start adhering strips side by side (or leaving a margin in between if you want) going in different directions and varying the paper patterns. Where you end up with the eensiest empty space along an edge, you could color in with a marker, but if you make your base cardstock larger, you will be trimming the edges off anyway.

This is what your strip piecing will look like:

And then you end up with this paper strip layer that looks like a quilt perhaps!

It’s best to make this layer larger than the size you need so that you can trim it down and get rid of any little empty spaces along the edge.

If you wanted to make this look like a quilt or to add extra texture, you could now run this layer through the Big Shot with an embossing folder of your choice.

To finish the card for Valentine’s Day, I punched three Whisper White and three Rose Red hearts with the Sweetheart Punch. You can’t really layer the hearts properly but you can make it look a little bit layered by just staggering the punched hearts one on top of the other. The hearts are stamped with images from the Bloomin’ Love Photopolymer Stamp Set.

Of course this card is not just for Valentine’s Day.  You can do this paper strip technique for any occasion with any papers. It’s a great way to use up scraps with an impressive result! If you need a last minute Valentine card, try this paper strip quilt technique.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s February so here is an easy valentine card you can make! As long as I was punching hearts from the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack, I just punched some extras and made this card. The large heart is punched with the Sweetheart Punch and the smaller ones with the heart punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.

Since it is Valentine’s Day, why not have even more hearts on this card by using the Happy Heart Embossing Folder for the background?! First I made a card base with Whisper White and then embossed a layer piece of Whisper White with the Happy Hearts Folder, so we have white on white.

The banner is stamped from the Bloomin’ Love Photopolymer Stamp Set. I used Garden Green ink since that matches the Love Blossoms Paper.  You could also use Black or any other coordinating color.  The coordinating colors are listed on the front of the Paper Stack pad!  How handy! There are several greetings to choose from in the stamp set, so pick what you like. Then I just cut it out with my Paper Snips.  Paper Snips, rather than regular scissors, make really easy work of small trimming like this, so if you don’t have Paper Snips, I would put those on my next order.  Sometimes you don’t realize how much of a difference a certain tool can make until you use it.

Rhinestone Jewels always come in a handy for just a little bit of bling on the hearts!

Get out some paper and stamps and have fun playing to make some valentines!

If you need any supplies, check out my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE!  Let me know if you need a copy of the Occasions Catalog or Sale-A-Bration Brochure.  Remember, with every $50 you spend, you choose one free product from the Sale-A-Bration Brochure!

I found an old card in my stash that I really like with a bunch of hearts punched from designer paper, so I decided to just copy my own creation and make this Love Blossoms Punched Hearts Valentine Card. It could be a valentine card or it could just be any card! I even chose not to put a greeting at the bottom or somewhere on the card because I kind of liked it the way it way. And then I stamped a valentine greeting on the inside from the stamp set Bloomin’ Love. 

The card base is simply Whisper White. If you have the new Whisper White Thick Cardstock, that would be great to use. For the background layer, I used a piece of paper in the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack. There are some very pretty papers in this pack. Then I used the Sweetheart Punch for the larger hearts and the heart punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack for the small hearts to adhere on the card using various designs in the Love Blossoms Stack. Then for a little bling I added some red heart sequins from the Brights Sequins Assortment, even though it’s not the perfect color match and some silver sequins from the Metallic Sequin Assortment. And I tied a little Silver Bow as well.

It’s time to start making a few Valentines now that it is February 1st!  Can you believe it?! One of the greatest benefits of Stampin’ Up! products is the color coordination. The designer papers match the card stock, and now Stampin’ Up! even prints the list of coordinating colors on the designer paper package. And they’ve made it even easier for customers by selling a cardstock pack that comes with the main colors you need for each suite of products in the Occasions Catalog, such as the Love Blossoms Cardstock Pack that contains the colors Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake and Rose Red.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online for all your Valentine’s Day cardmaking supplies! There’s time!

The Shimmery White Cardstock is wonderful to use on a card like this Bloomin’ Heart Thinlit Valentine Card. Not only is it beautiful in and of itself with its subtle shimmer, but it works well for watercoloring. Not that I started this card thinking of watercoloring!  I just wanted to make the beautiful Bloomin’ Heart die cut with the Shimmery White cardstock. Then I decided to color in the little die cut flowers that come with the heart, and after that thought I would color the leaves on the heart die cut. That led to coloring the flowers too, doing it all very loosely, not trying to get every single shape colored exactly correctly and perfectly.  I used my Aqua Painter and ink in the lids of my ink pads:  Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango.  The Shimmery White cardstock holds up well to watercoloring like this, better than just Whisper White.

After coloring the heart and making sure it was dry (you can use the Heat Tool to quickly dry the watercoloring), I used the new Fine-Tip Glue Pen to apply glue to many of the tiny spaces on the back of this heart. If you don’t have this Fine-Tip Glue Pen in your arsenal, I really suggest you add it to your next order! I adhered it to a card base of Soft Sky cardstock. Next I adhered the die cut flowers to the heart and added Rhinestone Jewels for some bling!

The banner at the bottom of the card is a stamp in the coordinating stamp set, Bloomin’ Love Photopolymer Stamp Set as well as the words.  I cut it out the banner by hand with Paper Snips.

This Bloomin’ Heart Thinlit Die is just beautiful and can be used for more than Valentine’s Day. It cut out well with the Precision Base Plate by Stampin’ Up! I rolled it forward and back so that it went through the Big Shot three times. Then if you take the die with the paper inside and lay it on the foam and roll with the Big Shot Die Brush, almost all the little pieces some out and the die cut shape pops out easily.  You still probably have to poke out a few pieces with the Paper Piercing Tool or something similar.

If you would like to save 15%, purchase the Bloomin’ Love Photopolymer Bundle and get both the Bloomin’ Heart Thinlit Dies and the Bloomin’ Love Photopolymer Stamp Set.

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