Last Minute Cards Made Easy!

Hey, do you procrastinate making those handmade Valentine’s Day cards? Or are you like me, and you’re so busy, you just haven’t had time until now?  I have a bad habit of not making my cards until the day arrives, and I know there are others like me, so I wanted to send out a quick post to share a couple of ideas.  You could make these cards this afternoon, and no one would be the wiser!

I used products I had on hand for both of these fun cards, so it’s a great way to use up a few scraps! All you need is a pretty embossing folder (or two if you want them to be different), a background stamp, two different sized heart punches, a heart die (or use the large punch on both cards), some bakers twine, a bit of ribbon, your sentiments, an assortment of cardstock, and ink.  Oh, and don’t forget pop dots or dimensional foam adhesive to add interest.

I used mostly Stampin’ Up products for this, because that’s what I had on hand, including the papers, both punches, and ink.  I can't remember where the larger heart die came from.  The embossing folder was an old Stampin' Up folder called Elegant Bouquet. The background stamp was Gorgeous Grunge, which retired a few years back.  “Love” was from Close to My Heart’s #C1480 from the Roxieworkshop. “I HEART YOU” is from the Stampin’ Up And Many More set.

So what are you waiting for? Go make those cards!

Love is in the Air

Welcome to Crafty Neighbor’s “Neighborhood Gossip” blog, and welcome to The Craft Squad’s monthly blog hop.  The hop starts right here, so grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage, and get ready to visit some fun and fabulous blogs from The Craft Squad.  And be sure to read through to the end to find out how you can win one of the prizes we’ll be giving away on each of the blogs.

If you are new to Crafty Neighbor, my name is Cindy Murray, and I am the owner of Crafty Neighbor and Crafty Neighbor Travel.  I host crops, retreats, classes, workshops, and even scrapbooking cruises and garage sales, but my real mission is to bring crafters together and support the scrapbooking and paper-crafting industries by providing fun and unique opportunities to learn new techniques, scrapbook at different venues, and meet new friends.  I also run this blog, which I like to view as a source of news, tips, tricks, and inspiration for scrapbooking and paper-crafting of all kinds. 

Our February blog theme is “Love is in the Air”, and we are, of course, referring to Valentine’s Day, which is coming up in less than two weeks.  I decided this would be a good opportunity to use my time wisely and make my Valentine for my own sweet husband, Mark, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today.  I always like to make him a really special card, because he actually appreciates them.  And it doesn’t hurt that he brings me my favorite Valentine candy – Godiva Chocolates.  I just love those chocolates!  I love any chocolate, really, but the Godivas are so good, I have been known to buy them for him on Valentine’s Day just to be sure I got some!

This card is full of texture and color, but it was super easy to make.  I just cut a bunch of hearts of varying sizes from different papers, colored a Tim Holtz grungeboard “U” and glossed over it with Diamond Glaze, and stuck it all together.  A list of the materials used is available for download by clicking here.

I hope you liked my card.  If you would like to see some of my previous posts and projects, scroll down to the “Blog Archives” on the left, or you can search for posts by specific topics just below that.  Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!  You can also find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/craftyneighbor, on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/c1ndyluhu/, or on the web at http://www.craftyneighbor.com.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!  Be sure to subscribe using one of the links on the left to be eligible to win one of our awesome prizes! 

HOW to WIN:

Beginning today February 5th through February 9th, simply visit each of the sites listed below.  Become a follower of their blog or sign up for their newsletter. Read the post and look for a Valentine’s candy treat (a different candy will be mentioned on each blog). As you hop from site to site, you must collect ALL the candies! When you are done, you will send your name and candy list to:

TheCraftSquad@hotmail.com

Your email is your entry to win a prize from one of our seven participating blogs!!!!  The winners will be announced on Monday, February 10^th on each of the blogs.

Here’s the list of participating blogs

Crafty Neighbor
http://craftyneighbor.blogspot.com/2014/02/love-is-in-air.html

Stamp-Patty's
http://www.stamppattys.com/2014/02/love-is-in-air.html

Treasure Chest of Memories
http://TreasureChestofMemories.com/Love-is-in-the-air/

The 'Thrifty & Organized' Scrapper with I Finally Got It Right INC.
http://www.ifinallygotitrightproductsinfo.com/origami-owl/love-is-in-the-air-with-origami-owl

Roxie's Stamping Room
http://roxiesstampingroom.blogspot.com/2014/02/Love-is-in-the-air.html

Lisa T Loves to Stamp
http://lisatstamps.blogspot.com/2014/02/love-is-in-air_3.html

That’s it for now, so be sure to hop on over to the next blog: Stamp-Patty's at http://www.stamppattys.com/2014/02/love-is-in-air.html  Patty Chenail will have another candy for you to collect.

Don't forget to become a follower and Good Luck!!!

Anchors Aweigh!

Today is our first full day at sea aboard the beautiful Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, and we are all looking forward to some scrapbooking and enjoying all the amenities a cruise has to offer.  Last night we had a brief meet-and-greet before dinner to let everyone introduce themselves and to show them the conference room where we’ll be cropping on this cruise.  Then, while everyone was at dinner, the stewards delivered these to their cabins:

In case you are wondering why we sent them an obviously Valentine-themed gift, it’s because our theme on this cruise is “Cruising through the year”.  I kicked off the onboard gifts with this cute little gift sack which I filled with sweet treats. 

I made these sacks from a mixture of Stampin’ Up and Close to My Heart products, which I’ve listed below:

Stampin’ Up:

Glassine Bags (discontinued)

Doilies

Best Friends Forever stamp

Rose Red ink pad

Red Glimmer Paper

Hearts A Flutter Framelits die

Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine

Decorative Label punch

Close to My Heart:

My Reflections – For Always patterned paper

You’re the Sweetest Thing stamp

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge – rolled flower

Also used:

Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Walnut

Jewelry – head pins

Pearl beads

That's it for today!  Thanks for stopping by!  Now go make someting!

Last Minute Valentine Card

Well, the day is upon us, so I thought I would share one last Valentine card.  This is one that we made in our 3rd Wednesday Stamp Club with Sharon Armstrong.  It uses the Stampin' Up! treat cups.

If you are in the Dallas area, you should consider joining us.  We have a lot of fun, and Sharon is a FABULOUS Stampin' Up! demonstrator!  I've learned tons of techniques from her over the years!  Our next meeting is next Wednesday, February 20.

Until then, enjoy your Valentine's Day and go do something creative!

Hearts in Motion

Last month, our stamp club made these cute mobiles with Stampin' Up!'s Hearts Collection Framelits for the Big Shot die cutting system.  I love these nested dies, and this mobile was really cute and super easy to make.

Our stamp club is lead by Sharon Armstrong and meets on the 3rd Wednesday of every month.  If you'd like to join us, please drop us an email so we can send you the details.

Be My Valentine

It's amazing the things you find when you clean up!  As I mentioned before, I did a little housekeeping in my photo files and found some folders of projects that I intended to post to the blog, but apparently never did.  One of the folders contained several Valentines cards, so today I thought I'd share a trio of them that were all made based on the same design.

All three of the cards are very similar.  I tend to repeat myself whenever I have to make several cards for one occasion.  It's a lot faster to do it that way so that I don't have to design each card.  To personalize the card, I'll mix up the colors or even change the stamp or some other element.

These cards were really fun to make because I was experimenting with my Glimmer Mists.  The big heart was stamped with a word stamp, then distressed, and finally sprayed with the mist.  The smaller heart is patterned paper over chipboard.  The patterned paper in the background of the card is flocked.

That's it for now...I'll go see what else I can dig up!

Loads of Love

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than by sending a card to someone you love?  Here is a trio of cards I made for my nieces using the Stampin' Up! Loads of Love stamp set.  I love this versatile little set because it can be used for a lot of different kinds of cards.  I colored my trucks with Copic markers and Glaze pens.  I really like using my grey Glaze pen on the bumpers and other "chrome" parts of the trucks because it gives it a glossy sheen.

Be My Copic Valentine

I have to apologize for the absence of posts the last couple of days.  I’ve been working really hard to make sure there is a blog entry every day (a new goal of mine!), but as I was digging through the 1.7 GB of pictures on my hard drive, I got confused on which pictures I had used on what blog date, and whether or not I had used this or that card, so I just had to take a day or two off to get organized!  The good news is that I found several cards that I thought I had posted last year, that never got posted at all, so now I have bonus cards to share with you over the next few weeks leading up to Valentines Day. 

For today, I’d like to share two cards I made last year as part of a Copic Marker class I took at Personal Scrapbook with Frank Vento.  I really love the Copic markers for their blending qualities, and the sheer number of colors available makes it possible to color-match just about anything.  If I remember correctly, we even colored some of the cardstock on these cards.  Apologies for the photo quality of the girl card; I used the scanner to capture the image, and didn't realize the quality wasn't good until after I'd already put it in the mail.  The stamps used for these cards are “Marci” and “Luka” from La-La Land Crafts.

I {Heart} Words!

We are very close to posting the dates for our next scrapbooking cruise! Maybe even later today!  In the mean time, I saw this post on Pinterest and thought it was a great idea!  I can't wait to implement it.  I'm thinking I might use this technique to do a page for my wedding album!  I've had supplies to start it for years, but have never been inspired enough to do anything about it (and more than a little afraid to mess it up!)  But seeing this made me envision a photo of my wedding singer along with the words to the song she sang.  I'll post the results when I'm done, but for now, here's the inspiration!

Source: sidebysideblog.blogspot.com via Candy on Pinterest

And here are the instructions on how to do it from fellow blogger, Maggie at
Black and White {Side by Side}.

http://sidebysideblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/create-digital-valentine-art-without.html.

What other uses can you think of for this great trick?

Last Minute Valentine's Day Cards and More...

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a procrastinator!  So I made all these cards a few weeks ago, and then forgot to mail them.  I was going to post them on my blog to give you some card ideas, but I postponed that, too.  Ooops. But I know I'm not the only procrastinator out there...there's bound to be dozens of people right now frantically searching the web for some cute Valentine's Day card ideas.  So in case you are one of them, like me, here ya' go... a few very quick and easy cards, plus a few other cute things...enjoy!

A matching envelope:

And here's a few quick crafts you can do.  All of these take just minutes to make:

Bubble wand party favors:  tie some ribbons around the handle of bridal bubble wands.  Add a drop of pink food coloring (or VERY diluted red).  Voila!

Post-it pad Clipboards:  Cover a chipboard coaster with patterned paper.  Distress.  Add post-it notes and clip with a binder clip.  Add ribbons.

Flower pens:  Pull bottom plug out of Bic pen.  Insert small, rolled up strip of patterned paper into tube.  Hot glue flower to open end.  Wrap with ribbon.

Holders for flameless votives:  The base is a scalloped circle punched from cardstock.  Clip the scallops apart and bend upward to form the base.  Wrap with velum you have stamped with desired shapes and colors.  Add a strip of cardstock around the bottom to frame the base.  I decorated this set with punched hearts around the base.

Be My Valentine

Quilling: