Year of the Dragon

I love dragons, so I had to do at least one Year of the Dragon card.

The metallic gold part is from a box of chocolates.  Everything else is from the pile on my desk.

Challenges:

Clear It Out - scraps

Cards and Things - sketch

CCEE Stampers - Lunar New Year

Rainbow Lady - Year of the dragon

Bling it on - new beginnings

Cat valentine

This card features two things that I've had for a ridiculously long time but never used.  the first is this adorable stamp from My Paper Moon.  It was just so cute, I had to have it, but for some reason, I have never inked it before now.  The second is this little cat-shaped tag.  I don't even remember where I got the tags, but it seemed horribly important to have them at the time.

  My little "friends" stamp just barely fits!  It's not strongly valentine-ish; I suppose I could use it at other times of the year.

Challenges:
Cupcake Craft - all you need is love
Nettie G - pastels/spring colors
PanPastel UK - two of something
The Paper Players - CAS with a tag
The Squirrel and the Fox - critters

Shabby sympathy card

I was tasked to create a sympathy card for the ladies in my bowling league to sign - one of our members lost her sister.  Since I had the Shabby Vintage paper handy, I decided to use it for a background.

The Certainly Celery cardstock picks up the Peeled Paint color in the background.  the paper in the center rectangle is the reverse side of the larger background piece.  The stamp is an old TAC stamp - I always like to use butterflies on sympathy cards, or dragonflies if it is for a man - they are so symbolic of death as rebirth, a very uplifting thought when one loses someone special.

Challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges - animal
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies
2 Sisters - embossing
So Artful - colors
Twisted Sketches - sketch (and this is the first time I've used the blue in this paper stack)

Swallow Valentine

I bought some dies from AMuse recently, and thought I would try them out.  One is the swallow, which comes in a set of two (the other swallow is small enough to fit on an inchie!), and the sentiment is stamped on one of the vintage labels set.

The paper is the same Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage, only this is the design on the back of the paper I used yesterday. The stamp is out of the dollar bins at Joann.  those acrylic stamps don't hold ink well but if you tap them in Versamark before the regular ink, they work okay.  The ink is the Fired Brick distress ink, which really warms up the cool colors of the Shabby Vintage.

Challenges:
Craft Us Crazy - valentines
Crop Stop - vintage/shabby chic
Delightful Sketches - vintage/distressed
Moving along with the Times - things with wings
The Craft Garden - monochrome
Cardabilities - sketch

Shabby Vintage valentine

I love the Tim Holtz paper lines.  I love the colors and the designs, but what I hate about them is that they are such beautiful, strong, assertive designs, I can hardly bring myself to cover them up.  I bought this Shabby Vintage paper pack almost 2 years ago, then despaired of using it, and stuck it in the back of my scrapbook paper file, where I had forgotten it until I was searching for valentine paper.   I don't want to make a card that is just a background paper and a sentiment, but what else to put?

I punched the heart from white, then dry embossed it with a cuttlebug folder I had forgotten I had.  I used the reverse, so the fleurs des lis would stay white, then lightly distressed heart with distress and gold metallic inks, a red heart offset helps it stand out. The sentiment was a leftover from when I was testing my new stamp earlier this week; I got the fancy cut on the ends by weaseling it into a corner punch.  a little gold organza ribbon seemed to tie the whole thing together.  None of it is bold enough to outshine the Tim Holtz paper, though.

Challenges:
 Scrapbook Sisters - sweet Valentine
Gingersnap Creations - Favorite paper
Truly Scrumptious - something forgotten
Alota Rubber Stamps - heart
Artistic Stamper - vintage

Punchart Valentine

I occasionally try to submit my cards to "Clean and Simple" challenges, but they always get rejected, because I always do too much.  Even if it's a single layer card, I do too much coloring and embellishing.  For this card, I really tried to rein it in.

Except for the sentiment, there is no ink on this card.  All the design is punching, or in the case of the scallops, hand cutting (AMuse has a die that makes a big scallop like this, it's on my wish list).  The heart was first punched out of red cardstock, then I punched a flower out of the heart, and then I punched a swirl to make the stem.  I cut the scallops out of the card base and punched the holes (I punched a hole in red for the flower center; I glued a strip of red to the inside of the card.  So there you have it - three pieces of cardstock (four if you count the flower center), no coloring, no embellishments.  If this isn't clean and simple, I give up.

Challenges:
Crafty Bloggers Network - monochrome
Lollipop Crafts - no embellishments
Penny Black - love and hearts
CAS-ual Fridays - scallops
The Stamp Man - red

Phone book flower Valentine

I'm determined to make these valentines - if only there were people that I love. (just kidding)

I'm really loving this color palette.  It is so much more elegant than almost anything with pink.

 I used old telephone book pages for the flower and under the ribbon.  I did the faux stitching to pick up on the real stitching on the ribbon.  I can believe that with all the border punches I own, I hand cut the scallops.  I did punch the heart with a new heart punch, though.  The word on the heart is from a stamp that has "Happy Valentines Day"; I only needed the one word.

Challenges:
Crafty Catz - Something new (heart punch)
Fun with Shapes and more - no black lines
Polka Doodles - vintage
Phindy's Place - Embossing, ribbon, sewing
Paper Play - stitches