When I polled my January class attendees about ideas for February’s class, quite a few weren’t interested in traditional Valentine’s cards. And I understand that. Not everyone celebrates the holiday. And to be perfectly honest, my husband and I don’t really do anything special ourselves. We’re not unromantic by any means, but the holiday has become so commercialized (as are MOST holiday it seems) that we just decided a few years ago to not make a big deal of it. I get flowers randomly throughout the year, which I enjoy much more than a specific day of the year. And we tend to eat out a lot, so going for a “special” meal isn’t that enticing either. So, I wanted to design something that could be used for Valentine’s Day, if necessary, but could also be used just to celebrate friendship as well. And when I saw our new Someone Special stamp set in the Mini catalog, I knew it would be perfect! And we’ve just introduced coordinating dies to go with this set! See my previous post concerning the new coordination products 🙂 This card also uses products from the From My Heart Suite, which has a very traditional Valentine’s feel to it.
Here are the instructions for creating this card for yourself, and all the products used are listed below the instructions. I hope you enjoy this little guy with his bouquet of balloons!
Materials and measurements:
Real Red Cardstock
4 1/4″ x 11″, score at 5 1/2″
Whisper White – 4″ x 5 1/4″
Scrap for Nested Die – 3″ x 5 1/4″
Scrap for Racoon – 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
DSP
1 1/2″ x 5 1/2″
Real Red Ribbon
2 pieces – 7 1/2″ and 4″
Card Front:
Fold Real Red in half and burnish score
Wrap 7′ piece of ribbon longways around the strip of DSP. Fasten ends to the backside of DSP with snail adhesive.
Attach ribbon-wrapped DSP to the front of the Real Red card front, leaving about 1/8″ of red card stock showing on the left-hand side. Press firmly to make sure it lies flat.
Take 4″ piece of ribbon and slip it under the 7″ length and tie it in a knot. Just tie it once so that it doesn’t add too much bulk to the card front.
Racoon:
On the 1 1/2″ by 2 1/2″ of white scrap, stamp the Racoon Detail stamp using the Black Memento ink.
Ink the solid Racoon image with Smoky Slate ink and stamp it over the black detail image. You should be able to line this up perfectly since the stamps are photopolymer, which are clear. I started lining up with the top of his ears and adjusted where needed before firmly pressing the solid image to paper.
Using the Racoon die, cut the image out using a die cutting machine. Set the image aside.
White Die Cut:
Take the 5 1/4 x 3 piece of white cardstock and the Nested Die that measures 4 7/8 x 2 5/8, cut out,
Using the sentiment “For A Very Special Someone” and Memento Ink, stamp the sentiment as far down on the die-cut as you can.
Take the solid heart stamp from the Special Someone stamp set and stamp 3 hearts using Real Red ink. Position them so that they are near the top, righthand side of the die-cut card stock. I laid my Racoon image on the die-cut just to get an idea of the positioning for the balloons.
Using the Real Red marker, brush end, flick the brush against the marker cap to allow the ink to lightly splatter on the white area of the die-cut. You only want a little subtle color added, so don’t overdo it.
Apply dimensionals to the back of the Racoon and attach him to the left and above the sentiment. I used a black marker to hand draw the balloon strings.
Inside Card:
On the bottom right of the 4″ x 5 1/4″ white cardstock, tamp just a bit of the top portion of the Racoon using the detail stamp and Memento ink. Use the solid image and Smoky Slate ink to fill in the detailed image.
Add the sentiment of your choice. Attach the cardstock to the inside of the card.
Product List
