Today I thought I would make a simple, easy to stamp valentine card using the Gold Vinyl Stickers! It’s time to start making some valentines as tomorrow is the first day of February! Making valentines is something that takes us back to our childhood – the decorated shoebox or lunch sack to put on our school desks, the handmade valentines with doilies and red construction paper, the bottle of white paste!  Wow!  Does that bring back memories??! Now we can be a little more sophisticated with our wonderful Stampin’ Up! cardstock, creative stamps, and beautiful embellishments!

This card starts with a base of Real Red Cardstock and a layer of Whisper White Cardstock stamped in Real Red Ink!  Basic red and white for Valentine’s Day with a touch of gold! I stamped the various hearts from the Heart Happiness Photopolymer Stamp Set. Just choose whichever ones you want and stamp away!

To add a little bit of pizzazz to this valentine, I used some of the Painted Love Gold Vinyl Stickers.  If you haven’t noticed these in the Occasions Catalog, it’s not your fault!  They are barely noticeable on the page. But now that you know they are there, go look on page 19 on the left edge of the page in the fold!  These are self-adhesive stickers in gold that coordinate with the stamp set Sure Do Love You.  However, they coordinate with lots of stamp sets and designs, so you can use them even without this stamp set.  The stickers are really good quality, not flimsy, and they DO stick….so make sure you know exactly where you want to put them because you aren’t likely to be able to move them once they stick on the paper! Don’t ask me how I know!

Since the stickers come on a clear sheet, you can hold the sheet over your project and see where you want to place a certain sticker and what it will look like.

Here are the Painted Love Gold Vinyl Stickers on page 19 of the Occasions Catalog.  Be sure to check them out!  They aren’t just for Valentine’s Day either!  They will go with any pretty card or project!  You get two sheets, so you might want to order an extra package or two to have on hand!  You will want to use them!

If you need any of these products to stamp an easy Valentine Card with the gold vinyl stickers, please visit my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE!

Make your own easy custom note cards with the new Stampin’ Up! Narrow Note Cards & Envelopes.  We’ve always had the Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes, but these are new in the Occasions Catalog on page 19.  They are very easy to miss at the bottom of the page! But you will find that you can do so many things with these Narrow Note Cards!

All it takes is a little bit of designer paper layered on the note card or a little bit of stamping, and you will have a quick and easy note card to enclose inside a gift or hand to someone. Moms put them in their children’s lunch box for a little encouraging note for them to find. Stick a gift card or cash inside. Having a package or two on hand will save you a trip to the store for a card or gift enclosure on short notice!  You WILL want more than one package on hand because they are fun to make once you get your supplies ready to go!  Good way to use up small scraps of cardstock or especially designer paper! Add a greeting and a few small embellishments or ribbon.

The Narrow Note Cards I made above only took minutes. I just used different patterns of the Painted with Love Specialty Designer Series Paper. This paper is so beautiful and artistic with its gold foil accents!

The top note card has a stamped greeting from the Labels to Love Stamp Set  punched out with a Circle Punch and layered on a piece of the Iridescent piece of paper in the Myths & Magic Glimmer Paper. I layered the circle pieces over a strip of Rich Razzleberry and added two light colored Glitter Enamel Dots.  Even though the greeting says “Love”, you wouldn’t have to only use it for a valentine, but if you wanted to, it could easily be for Valentine’s Day!

The bottom note card has another pattern of the Painted with Love Paper (love the little hearts!) and decorated with die cut hearts from the Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies.  I also tied a little bit of Gold 1/8″ Ribbon around it, tying the bow first!

Get yourself a couple packages of these new Narrow Note Cards & Envelopes on your next order and then sit down and play with a package of designer paper and a few embellishments at hand.  After you make one or two you won’t want to stop!  By the way, they come with the cutest envelopes! Check out these birthday note cards I made recently HERE.  You will love making your own custom note cards!

You will find the Heart Happiness Stamp Set in the new Stampin’ Up! Occasions Catalog, and what a fun stamp set to make a valentine or any occasion card like this Heart Happiness Thinking of You card!

At this time of year, with Valentine’s Day coming up soon, you might think this stamp set is great for Valentine’s Day……and it is!  But as you can see, hearts are wonderful for lots of occasions so this stamp set can be used year-round!  I could have chosen a birthday greeting or congratulations or other fun greetings to put on this card.

I use my Big Shot most days when I am stamping, but sometimes it feels good to “just stamp” on your card, like this one! Honestly I didn’t really know what I was going to make for this card, just got out the stamp set and started with this particular heart stamp. I thought I would make a line of these hearts across the middle of the card but this is what evolved!

And sometimes when you stamp, you just love the look of a particular stamp. That’s how I felt about this heart stamp when I used it. That IS the way it is supposed to stamp – not completely solid all the way across – it’s the trendy watercolor look.  I really like it.  And I really liked choosing several colors of ink pads from the Brights Family and rather randomly stamping on the Whisper White card layer.  It seemed to maybe need a bit more, so I added the tiny hearts that are also in the stamp set to fill in the empty space.  I looked for a greeting that was a decent size to stand out, and I found this one in the Window Shopping Stamp Set.

I think you could make your own beautiful designer paper pattern by stamping these large and small hearts on a larger piece of paper, even 12″ x 12″ of Whisper White and then cutting it down for cards or using for a scrapbook page or whatever project.

If you would like this Heart Happiness Stamp Set, you will find it in the Occasions Catalog HERE.  The greeting is from the Window Shopping Stamp Set.

If you would like a copy of the Stampin’ Up! Catalog and/or the Occasions Catalog plus ME for your Demonstrator, I would be happy to mail you the catalogs if you are interested in Stampin’ Up! products!  Keep in mind that through March 31 is Sale-A-Bration, the Stampin’ Up! promotion that gives you a FREE Sale-A-Bration product for every $50 you spend!  Who doesn’t love free stuff?!  Just email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com with your contact information and any questions you have or anything you are particularly interested in. I would love to help you.

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My big order from the new Occasions Catalog came late last night so I finally have a multitude of new Stampin’ Up! products to play with!  This new Painted With Love Specialty Designer Series Paper is so beautiful in person and will make all kinds of fantastic cards and other projects. This Painted With Love All-Occasion Card can serve as a card for almost any occasion or a Valentine or birthday or anniversary or whatever you like.

The Heart Happiness Photopolymer Stamp Set is one that we will be able to use in many ways with all the hearts! I decided to stamp this flowery heart in Melon Mambo, one of the coordinating colors with the designer paper.  I die cut the flowery heart with one of the sizes in the Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies and then cut a larger heart out of Gold Foil.

The card base is Melon Mambo and then the striped pattern is layered on the other pattern with a thin Gold Foil strip in between.  The heart is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I could have added a greeting or more embellishment, but I just kind of liked it “plain and simple” like this. Now I can use the card for whatever I choose when I need it or still leave it plain and write my own message on the inside. It’s a good idea when you make a card similar to this Painted With Love All-Occasion Card to just leave it plain without a greeting, and then when you need a card, just stamp a greeting and add to the card.

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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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Time to make those valentines, and here is a Valentine Mini Treat Bag made with the Sending Love Glassine Sheets.  You can see on the photo that the glassine sheets have a small pattern on them! I used the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies to make the treat bag. I absolutely love that die, but it was a little difficult to use on the slippery glassine sheets.  However, I also need to use new cutting pads with my Big Shot so that made for a difficult situation. But I did it, and assembled the bag and inserted a card.

The card is stamped with stamps from the Sealed with Love Photopolymer Stamp Set.  So many stamps to choose from in that set! And you’ll be able to use them long past Valentine’s Day.

To decorate the Mini Treat Bag, I added a Red Glimmer Paper banner, stapled at the top with the Stampin’ Up! Handheld Stapler.  Stampin’ Up! is going to stop carrying this stapler when the inventory is depleted, which is a shame since I love mine. It is just a nice size.  If you need this stapler, don’t delay, order it while you still can!  The hearts are die cuts from the Love Notes Framelits Dies. I cut extras the other day so I was all set to add some hearts to decorate my bag!

If you don’t have the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies to make this project, you still use the ideas on a regular card with a banner and hearts or stamping like the inside of the card! Once you start stamping, the ideas will flow!

Have fun making some Valentines! Doesn’t it always take us back to our childhood?!

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