Valentine's Day cards!

With everybody out of the house tonight I knew it was the perfect time to be alone and make valentines for my guys.

With the guys, they appreciate my handmade cards, but they don't have to be over-the-top fancy. Phew!

With that in mind, I was able to crank three out in just a couple of hours.

The first one is for my husband:

I have seen variations of this in the past so I thought it was time I had made one myself.

Using the owl punch, I simply punched the bodies and put them on the branch from the "bird on a branch" punch. Using dark card stock (in this case it's Basic Gray), I was able to create a silhouette effect against the "moon".

The colors are Rose Red, Blushing Bride, Basic Gray and whisper White. I added Blushing Bride "candy dots" on the greeting. I ended up hiding a mistake with the silver glimmer paper heart above the owls' heads. That came only after the harsh realization that applying glue and silver glitter with the shaky hand does not work well! 

Good thing my husband doesn't tear the card apart to see my errors!

Next, it was time to make cards for my boys. I knew that they couldn't be something real mushy, but a kind of generic, fun valentine that a mom might give it to a son. 

The first one goes to my junkfood junkie.

Appropriate, huh? Believe me, if he could unwrap and eat these for real, he would!

The "kisses" are made from silver glimmer paper using the retired Build a Blossom punch. It's the largest pedal with the ruffled edge cut off!

The three sentiments are all from Teeny Tiny Wishes. They are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on vellum card stock and cut out using the Itty Bitty Banners framelits. The colors are: Real Red and Chocolate Chip with touches of white and silver - perfect!

The last card I made was for my oldest son. This card fits right into his vocabulary these days:

Leave it to the Yippee Skippy stamp set to have the word "freakin'" in it....

A basic Whisper White card with a layer of Basic Black underneath and Real Red ink is all it took. I used a small heart from the owl punch in the red glimmer card stock.

The neat thing on this card is that I embossed the double hearts using the heart framelits!.You can use your framelits to emboss as well as cut if you do it a certain way.

I used two hearts, one slightly larger than the other. Here is how I layered it on the Big Shot:

•Multipurpose platform, one tab flipped open

•A card-size piece of card stock acting as a shim (you might need two - you have to play with your own machine - you just want to get it tighter!)

•A clear plastic cutting pad

•A silicone pad  This is the squishy one, not the firm crease pad

•piece of card stock to be embossed

•The framelit, cutting-side up

•The second clear cutting pad

Usually, I would caution you against putting the cutting side of the framelit upwards towards your clear plastic cutting pad. But since you are using the squishy silicone mat underneath it, it absorbs the framelit into it - away from the clear pad - as it is passed through the machine, so it doesn't get stuck. It just leaves the impression (embossed) image instead! 

I flipped the card over and used a smaller heart framelit and performed the same procedure . So, I have one heart that "sinks" inward and one heart that is "puffed" outward.

Pretty cool!

Pretty simple cards.

Hope they like them!