More Valentine Cards

***Tab and Allison are the TAG winners.
Congrats ladies - enjoy your tags.

Valentine Cards
**Valentine give-away coming soon!!!

I am having trouble with my flash.
Sorry that thec olors in the pictures are a bit weird.




The above base cards were made with the homemade stamp below and acrylic paint. The yellow is a piece of styrofoam with 5 sticky foam hearts stuck one on top of the other and then a felt heart attached to the top. It took me a while to figure out how wet the felt needed to be.
The base paper for the embossed pieces was made by cleaning the foam brush I used to reink the felt heart. I made 5 or 6 sheets and did not need to add paint. I purposely left lots of while space and use a variation of swirls and lines. Below is the sheet after some images had been embossed before cutting.

Steps in Heart Card

Here are the steps for making the heart card from the previous post. It is a fun card to make because depending on the colors you choose and your painting, each set of cut outs will look very different.

Be sure to use a very wet embossing ink or the image will not be solid because the watercolor paper is bumpy. It takes lots of pressure on the stamp to get a good image to emboss. I used VersaMark clear and put extra ink on it. I used clear embossing powder but it looks a bit pink because my VersaMark pad is stained.

1. Emboss shapes on water color paper

2. Use water colors or reinkers as paint. Choose 2 or 3 colors that will blend.
3. Cover the entire surface of the papers with water. Let soak for 2-3 minutes. Don't let it dry!
4. Paint random areas of color- let the paint blend in some areas.



5. After painting, wipe off only the embossed areas. You don't want the paint to dry on the embossing.

Embossed areas should "pop" after they are cleaned.

6. Cut out shapes, leave a tiny border or non at all.
7. Finish the card- lots of possibilities!!
I used a cotton applicator to wipe left over paint on the edges of the card and stamped the word "Love".

The red is not part of the card, it is the background I used so the card would show up in the picture.

Making Valentine Cards

It's that time again. Time to make valentines. One Zillion Valentines is my favorite children's book for inspiring kids to make valentines. I found some cute ANIMAL VALENTINE PATTERNS. These were my first two attempts.

Steps for making this watercolor heart valentine are in the next entry.

And one more tag. I found a jar of fabric beads in the clearance bin. It is really beads mixed with glue. It works great on paper too. I wanted an uneven edge, but it would be easy to use a template to create a shape or straight line with the beads. It was fun to "play" with.

Tags in Action

Are you wanting your gift to look different than the rest???
Tags in action.

Check out the previous post
"Tags Tags and more Tags" and the tag give away!!


*** Check out Big Lots and Dollar tree.
I paid a dollar or less for each skein of yarn.

Tags, Tags and More Tags

Martha Stewart's Christmas magazine had a picture of gift tags with the person's picture rather than their name. I loved the idea and my wheels started turning with ideas for gift tags. In December I took a package of tags to my dentist when I had to go in on a Saturday morning for an emergency. Monday she told me they are still on her dining room table- too pretty to use or put away.

***See "Tag Give Away" at end of blog.

I baked muffins for the neighbors and attached the above tags with lots of curly ribbon and buttons.

Dollar General has packs of precut scrapbooking scraps perfect for tags. One dollar for the package. Paper is in 5 intense colors. The gold above is one of the colors.

These are ready to decorate. I usually put the yarn on after the tag is finished but we had to travel on Sunday and I needed a project for the car.

The buttons give the tags a finished look.

When I give them as gifts I will include an idea sheet for using them on packages.

I love the design of this card because you can make it in any colorand it is appropriate for anyone. The dots on the black were made with the eraser on a new pencil and Versa Mark ink embossed in black. The dots on the white were made with a black Dotta-riffic marker.

Happy Creating!!

For more tag ideas click on "My Studio" or "Snow Day".
Scroll down on each page for tags.

***Tag Give Away- Two readers will win a set of 6 tags. Names will be picked randomly from entries. To enter, submit a comment using the word "tag" in a phrase or saying. Names to be picked Sunday, at half time of the Super Bowl.