Heart Sentiments
Hello, and welcome to Heart Sentiments.
Throughout the year, or your life, there are times when sending a card to mark an event or share your feelings are so appropriate. Here at Heart Sentiments I understand that it’s all about what, and how you want to, say something. And I hope that the cards, projects and ideas you find on my site will help to reflect your style, values and personality in the cards you create.
If you’re not the creative type, feel free to contact me and share your vision, so that I might create it for you.
Read MoreMosaic Mood
I was asked to create a board of card samples using the Memorable Mosaic stamp set and coordinating Specialty Designer Series Paper for my upline’s Creative Retreat in June. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to photographing them, here is the board and some of the samples. Some were actually cased from samples I found on Pinterest and others are my designs.
First let me say that seeing the paper in the catalog does not do it justice. The paper is beautiful with glossy, embossing on one side of all the papers. All of the samples you see on this post were made using one half of the pack of paper. I admit that I was meticulous in my cutting it up, always choosing to get the most out of the specific designs.
So, that includes a scrapbook page, 10 cards, two 2″ samples of the papers, 12 note cards and a note card box. The cutie in the scrapbook page is my first grandson who turned 14 today. Where did the time go?
Finally, these are the note card samples and box, which includes my first ever shaker card. I never made one because I wasn’t sure I even liked them, but after making one, I found them really fun to make.
Tea Together
Here is a card we made at our June workshop. Not sure what to call it, maybe a type of easel card. The reason I’m posting is because I love how Stampin’Up! cut out the centers of the teapot and teacup stamps, allowing you to insert the floral images inside the space, so that they could be stamped all at once. I put the large floral inside the teapot stamp, and the rosebud stamp inside the teacup stamp. You’ll notice when you look closely at the marker coloring that it’s not perfect, and I did that purposely, so that it might appear like actual porcelain where the color modulates somewhat. Hopefully, the gold embossing shows up in the image, as I thought this was a perfect use for gold heat embossing.
The front of the card bears an embossed floral panel, flanked by floral washi tape, and the “Lovely Day” strip is washi tape on a vanilla strip of card stock popped up at the bottom of the inside of the card, so the front of the card can stand up. I hope you like it.
Read MoreSaying Goodbye to DSPs
There were so many papers in the this year’s catalogs that I simply loved. So, while Stampin’Up! is saying “goodbye” to all of these lovelies, I may have hoarded a few for personal use, so I can continue to play with them. But as we get ready to close the current catalog to make room for the new, including many new, beautiful papers, I thought I would share a few card samples with my favorites DSPs.
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Petal Promenade
Magnolia Lane Suite
This Stampin’Up! suite was a definite pre-order for me, although I couldn’t get it all, at least right away. As a retired florist, when I purchase a floral set, the stamps and dies have to be as realistic as possible. And this suite surely fits the bill.
There will be more card samples coming, and maybe even a shadow box or sampler, but for now, I just wanted to share this card I used for my new catalog swap. And I also wanted to share a happy little discovery I made while making it.
For the card base and envelope, I used the Magnolia Lane Memories & More cards and envelopes. The large stamp was inked with versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I then loosely colored in the petals with the chalk marker, and filled in a bit with the Petal Pink Stampin’ Write marker. Going back over certain spots with the chalk marker made some areas even whiter. I wanted to make sure I wiped away any marker left on the silver embossing, and grabbed the nearest thing on my desk, which happened to be a used dryer sheet. To my surprise, with a good rub of the dryer sheet across the image, the dull, flat chalk finish turned into a glossy, almost shimmery finish. While the chalk finish was certainly acceptable on a kraft type card base, I loved even more the contrast that the effect of rubbing the dryer sheet over it left. I know I will be using this technique a lot more when using the chalk marker. If I hadn’t created this card myself, I would have thought it was either made with shimmer paint or metallic gelato. Funny how you can use different products to get basically the same effect. One can learn a lot through experimenting.
Because these kraft card bases are not very think, I added white card stock panels to the inside and stamped the same image with Crumb Cake ink.
Butterfly Gala
Does this bundle of Butterfly Gala and Gingham Gala DSP speak Spring to anyone else? Oh my gosh! Of course, to complete the bundle you need to have the Butterfly Duet punch. At our last workshop we put a bunch of these elements together to create this version of Lisa Curcio’s inspired card. Pulling in some of that beautiful ribbon from this year’s Sale-a-bration completed the look for this card.
Here are a few more cards, using this suite of products, including the beautiful Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper, that was also a free Sale-a-bration item.
Beauty Abounds
Who doesn’t love these butterfly clusters? Well, maybe I wasn’t sold at first, given that I already have plenty of butterfly punches and dies. Then I saw a card from France Martin. This is the version we made at our last workshop using several stamps from the Beauty Abounds stamp set and coordinating Botanical Butterfly thinlits. Oh my, how cute seeing these butterflies pop up when you open this card.
More Floral Romance Suite
So I promised more projects on this suite of products, so here are two cards from a recent workshop.
The vellum sheets in the designer series paper of this suite are simply beautiful. The dies are to die-for, and the embossing folder is stunning. And framing out the first card below with the new stitched rectangle framelits really makes the card stand out.
On the Mint Macaron card below, regular vellum was cut to the same size as the card base, and embossed in the lace embossing folder, making this a stunning card with little else needed to embellish it.
Floral Romance Suite
I fell in love with this suite at first site, and that was at OnStage in November of last year in Orlando. But it’s taken me a while to blog about, as I had so much fun playing with this suite. Plus, I also bought it in stages, getting the stamp set at OnStage, then the framelits when the Occasions catalog was opened to demonstrators, and finally the beautiful specialty designer series paper and embossing folder followed. The last two products I will feature in another post. As a retired florist, this was definitely a must have for me.
It became my first swap for the year seen here.
The colors used in this card are Pool Party and Calypso Coral with Very Vanilla. I will share more photos of other cards in another post.
Read MoreSnowflake Showcase
Oh my gosh! Here I was just stamping away and designing this year’s Christmas cards, and then Snowflake Showcase happened. Oh my gosh!
I have not been so excited about a set since joining Stampin’Up! three years ago. I have not been able to put the set away. It stays on my desk for when the next brainchild hits me. I’ve seen so many creative designs that have jump-started my month long love fest with this set of stamps and dies.
So I thought I would share a few of my cards with you. And seriously, I’ve only focused on cards so far. At some point soon, I’ll be moving on to 3D projects, because, well, that’s just how I roll.
Dashing Deer Luminary Tent Card
This month I participated in a card swap and this post will provide the measurements and details for this month’s swap card. All swaps were to be full cards with layers, using only current Stampin’Up! products, and highlighting items from the new Holiday Catalog. So I chose the Dashing Deer Bundle. Here are some photos taken in the dark to show how it looks with the tealight.
This card uses a 4 1/4″ x 11″ card base, scored at 3 1/2″ from one end, and 3 3/4″ from the other. I used thick Very Vanilla card stock. The Designer Series Paper I used is the Festive Farmhouse DSP which was cut to 4 1/8″ x 3 5/8″. Lining up the DSP and centering it on the center panel of the card base, and using the 2 3/4″ square die from the Stitched Shaped Framelits, the DSP and card base were run through the Big Shot together with a single back and forth pass. Vellum was cut to 4″ x 3 1/2″. Using snail (liquid Tombo will warp the vellum, so make sure to use a tape adhesive), layer the vellum piece between the card base and the DSP. Before stamping or adhering any die cut to the center panel vellum, you’ll want to orient the card, so the the smaller panel (the one scored at 3 1/2″) is your bottom panel. If you use a patterned paper that has a particular orientation, you will want to make sure to cut it and adhere it in the right orientation. Since I was using a plaid pattern paper, it wasn’t important to know top or bottom of the card until I was ready to stamp.
Since this is a tent card, you will need to stamp the top panel of the card so that it is in the correct orientation to be read when it is tented. See photo.
I used the Stamparatus to speed things along since I was making 16 cards. This also made it easy to stamp the garland at the top and the bottom of this panel by simply adjusting the stamping plate.
The other sentiment was placed on the other Stamparatus plate and stamped on the bottom inside of the card base.
The reindeer was die cut using a different pattern from the same DSP and the bundle die. This was glued to the center front panel with the Fine Tip Glue. Other options for adhering this would be to sponge tombo very lightly to the back of the die cut, or to use the Sizzix adhesive sheets.
The little flowers were die cut from the framelits and added with glue dots and finished off with gold pearls. These act as a stopper for the top panel when the card is tented.
I also stamped a circle from the Eastern Beauty stamp set to show where to place the tealight. See photo.
Since I was making so many cards, I found this was the best order for constructing this card: Cut bases and score (but don’t fold on the score lines until the end, after you add embellishments). Cut the DSP and vellum. Die cut the center panel and DSP. Stamp the top panel; I used makers for inking up the garland. Stamp the bottom panel. Then adhere the vellum sandwich and the reindeer. Stamp the circle, add enbellishments, and finally fold on the score lines.
I must say that I was quite happy with how this turned out. I love make luminary cards for Christmas or special occasions.
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Stampin’Up! Catalogs
