~11~ Love is in the air

Today, I spent a good amount of time playing around with my new Cricut cartridges, "Celebrate with Flourish" and "Lacy Labels".  With Valentine's Day just a little over 2 weeks away, I figured that would be the perfect project for this week's post.  Tonight's project also made me think about how Valenetine's Day is often known as the "Hallmark" holiday and is thought to have become more of a mass marketing extravaganza, instead of a day to acknowledge your loved ones and tell them just how much they mean to you.  Cue the alternate alias, "Singles Awareness Day". However, I don't think that Valentine's Day has to be thought of this way.

Love comes in so many forms and doesn't just have to be about romantic love.  We all have varying levels of love: love for our family, love for our spouses/significant others, love for our family-parents/children, love for our friends, even love for our pets.  So, why not use Valentines day to celebrate all of those loves, letting one of those ways be through a card? Even though cards are just a piece of folded paper, that often get thrown after a while, at the time of giving, they can mean so much.   When I create cards I really think about what type of person I envision the recipient being like-and work to match my design to that vision.  Each card I create is a labor of love-I put so much of my energy and heart into every card that I make, hoping that the person who receives it will feel that love the moment they open it.  (P.S. I also want to add that thanks to my Cricut, I have been able to spread love through cards, sans Hallmark, for over a year now!)

Tonight, I made 3 Valentine's Cards.  My first 2 cards I used just the "Lacy Labels" cartridge, and the 3rd card used a combination of several cartridges.  Even though my new cartridges are from the 'Lite' line of Cricut products, there are still a remarkable amount of images, and great layering options.  The first image that I was instantly drawn to was the heart, which I used as the focus on my card. The background papers are from my favorite cardstock pack, "The Whimsy Stack".  To add some separation between the 2 patterns, I used red ribbon with white stitching.  All items, including the heart were cut at 3".  (*Make sure that the real dial option is OFF to ensure that all items line up correctly) The final touch to this card was a "love you" stamp on the left side of the heart in black ink.

The second card I made was actually inspired by a heart I had cut out for my first card that I had accidentally cut too big.  Wanting to use my "Lacy Labels" cartridge again, I chose the 'You & Me' design.  I sometimes find it hard creating Valentines cards in a color scheme that is appealing to the eye, so to add a little contrast to the red, I used a light purple and shimmering silver cardstocks.  After I had all of my die-cuts in place, I felt that I needed something else to give my card some zing, and decided to use some adhesive rhinestones. Voila! My card was finished!

The last card that I made tonight, was also the most laborious.  I had seen a tutorial a while back about making a tri-fold shutter card, and wanted to give it a try.  I started with a 5 1/2" x 12" piece of marigold cardstock and scored it along the long edge using a bone folder at 2", 4", 8", and 10".  Marking 1 1/2" from the edge, I made a cut from the 2" score to the 10" score.  I did the same on the other edge.  Once my base was ready, I cut each panel design that I wanted to the correct measurements so that it would fit correctly in each section.
For the front panel, I used the same polka dot paper that I used in my "You & Me" card with a white edge between the yellow base and the patterned paper.  The design was the 'LOVE' image.  For the design look that I was wanting, I turned the base of the image a 1/4 turn and added the letters to the center.  (*Note I had to cut the letters a bit smaller to make them fit).


For the center a mixture of 2 images from "Lacy Labels".  I used the base image from 'thanks' and the word from 'sweet'.  The background paper is from the "All Dressed Up" stack.  The word IS was printed from my "George and Basic Shapes" cartridge in deep purple.  For each of the smaller corners in the center panel, I used images from "Wild Cards", and "Sweet Treats".

The last panel was from "Celebrate with Flourish".  This one took me a while to get just right.  Because of all the intricate and small cuts, it was hard to get this one to cut cleanly.  I determined that I needed decrease the speed, but increase the pressure and blade depth so that the edges came out cleaner.  While this card took A LOT longer than I thought it would, the end product, I think, looks amazing and I am so proud of how it came out.  Even though some of my cards take a long time from start to finish, the result and sense of accomplishment I feel when it's all done, makes it so worth it!

 

May love of all forms be in the air for you!

Until next time,