Happy Valentine’s Day ~ Cards

Went through my stash of old cards and found this bit of artwork to up-cycle on a Valentine card for Old Roady. I didn’t want fru-fru pink hearts or lace so stuck with browns and a muted maroon. I used a Cuttlebug die for the corners and Spellbinders Label Four die (S4-190) for the artwork.

This next card is more traditional. Screaming Valentine’s Day! The red glitter paper is from Stampin’ Up. (I think it was introduced in the Holiday mini catalog.) I cut out the hearts with my Sizzix dies. The smallest heart is stamped with a PSX stamp. (I understand they are no longer in business and the secondary market has some outrageous prices for their rare, collectible designs.) I stamped the image with VersaMark clear ink and embossed with red embossing powder. MS punch along the bottom is Doily Lace. The embossed background is done with the Craft Concepts Cottage Floral embossing folder.

HAPPY
VALENTINE’S
DAY

Sunflowers and a Sunflower Card

I love sunflowers and so do a lot of other folks. A quick search on line brings up loads of sites related to the cheerful sunflower. On-line stores, blogs, guides – you name it – all centered around one flower – the sunflower.

For me, this flower says, Autumn! That’s when the flowers are heavy with seeds that the birds will feast on if you don’t rescue them first. I didn’t know this flower originated in North America with the Plains Indians until I found www.sunflowerguide.com.

At the Tonic website, today’s blog is titled: Sunflower Power: How a Cancer Survivor Inspired Her Community. Be sure and stop over to read about Nancy Siegler of Sacrament, California and how she ‘combined the happiness of the sunflower with the awareness of breast cancer into an event to raise money for breast cancer research’. What she’s accomplished is truly an inspiration.

We made this sunflower card at Stamp Camp. The Sunflower stamp, by Stampin’ Up is big and bold. For this card, we used Versamark ink to stamp the image then shaded it with chalk. On a scrap of paper, we stamped the image a second time and punched out the center. This was mounted with Dimensionals on the center of the first image. An additional accent was added to the center using a ‘button’ from the Sweet Buttons Embosslits Die. I look forward to sending this card to someone who needs their spirits lifted.

The Tonic blog post closed with the following thought that has resonated with me.

“Imagine how you could turn your passion into compassion.”

Imagine! Then plant the first seed.