Welcome to InKing Royalty's January Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes will be inspired by popular songs - the first is "I Think I Love You." Our Blog Hop today is jam-packed with projects that are perfect for Valentine's Day or that showcase love. How sweet is that?! We are excited to share our love-themed creations with you today. After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
I am so excited to see all the projects in today's hop!! I still have a couple of more cards to make and expect to get some ideas from all the projects today.
Today's card is my take on an idea that I have seen used in the past. Here is my card.
Hearts flying out of an envelope is a very cute idea for Valentine's Day and depending on the colors and papers you use it is an idea that can work for any sex, age or relationship! I lead a card making group that meets once a month and this is one of the cards we made last Sunday. The group all started out with the same materials, although they did make use of some leftover cardstock and hearts from the first card we made that day, yet all of the heart arrangements turned out very different!! I really love it when they get creative and don't just duplicate my sample.
We started out by stamping on the Crumb Cake card base with the Hardwood background stamp using Versamark ink. A couple of them were new to stamping and were very impressed with how the Versamark ink works. It really is a very versatile product.
Next we used the Envelope Punch Board to make a small envelope to hold our hearts. The Envelope Punch Board is a really fun tool to make envelopes of all sizes. The board has all the measurements for different sizes printed right on the board, although the smallest size envelope listed is 2" X 3 1⁄2". I thought the card needed a smaller envelope. Fortunately the manufacturers of the Board have a website with a calculator that will produce the measurements for any size envelope. I told the calculator I wanted an envelope that was 1 3⁄4" X 2 1⁄4". The calculator said I needed to start with a square 4 1⁄8" and make my first score line at 1 7⁄8". Then follow the standard punch board directions. This produced a perfect 1 3⁄4" X 2 1⁄4" envelope!! We made our envelopes out of a standard Very Vanilla envelope. I cut the front panel in a 4 1⁄8" square. You could also use cardstock or Designer Series Paper to make your envelope.
Next we cut out a bunch of hearts in a couple of sizes from Real Red cardstock, one of the gold prints in the Bundle of Love Designer Paper and the Wood Textures Paper Stack. My group all lives in a woodsy mountain area so this great paper with photographs of various woods fits right in. We have used it for many different cards. I found the best way to arrange the hearts was to first place them in the envelope with no adhesive and arrange and rearrange them until I was pleased with the design. I then used my phone to photograph the arrangement and used that image as a guide when adhering the hearts to the envelope. When I was ready to do the final placement with the adhesive I started at the very top of the envelope and worked my way down. Once I had all the hearts in place I adhered the back of the envelope to the card base. I did not adhere the flap. Instead I placed a tiny piece of Foam Adhesive Strip at the very top of the envelope flap. This helped give the illusion that the hearts were flying out as the envelope was being opened! You could also use Stampin' Dimensionals but they are only about one half the thickness of the strips. I did use Mini Stampin' Dimensionals, cut in half, to adhere the three tiny hearts off the top of the envelope. For those with thickness concerns I will tell you that the card will have no trouble fitting in its envelope for mailing and it should not require additional postage. I have had a package of Foam Adhesive Strips in my adhesive drawer since they originally came out and only first used them this past Christmas for a snow globe tag. Now I love them! I still use dimensionals but I also use strips.
You may not realize it but many of the Framelit and Thinlit Dies in the catalog contain a heart shape. For the hearts for this card we used Wood Crate; Mini Treat Bag; and Sweet & Sassy.
Hope that you see something on the Hop that makes you feel inspired to make a Valentine project or two.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Rachel Shedeed at Bluebonnet Stampin'. There's lots of inspiration to be found in his group - and you don't want to miss it!
Thank you for hopping along with us. If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
- Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
- Brian King at Stamp with Brian
- Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
- Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
- Louise Sharp at LouiseSharp.com
- Katie Ferguson at Cottage Paper
- Rachael Shedeed at Bluebonnet Stampin'
- Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
- Lisa Pretto at Ink Big Academy Stamps
- Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts
- Jennifer Spiller at Westside Paper Creations
- Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
- Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping
- Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
You can email me privately with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!
I ♥ comments and would love to hear what you think!! Leave your thoughts below!
