Crafty Julia

I might have already mentioned that one of my top 3 favorite holidays is Valentine's day. I adore everything about it...love, chocolate, flowers, friendships, hearts, red, pink, doilies... hmmm the list just goes on and on. As I went through my stamp sets I had a hard time figuring out which ones I wanted to use to make my cards with this year. I ended up playing around with quite a few before I got tired of making Valentine's day cards and moved on to my Christmas card.

OMG, yes, I have picked out my patterned papers, my stamps set, spellbinder shapes, designs, etc already for my Christmas card 2012! Okay, maybe I am boasting (??), but I am so thrilled I HAD to share...I just hope I am able to finish way before Christmas. Unlike 2011 where I was kinda last minute.

Okay, back to Valentine's Day. My first card was inspired by the SU demonstrators catalog. The front cover has a picture of a very similar card. I had so many issues getting the deminsions just right and it never really came together. I loved the idea of making a non-traditional Valentine's day themed card-- and being a tea lover, the doilies spoke to me! And, the colors of pink & orange is my Bestie's favorite color scheme. So I was playing around with it here. It is much prettier in person, I promise :

I just winged this card. I was trying to make a background out of one stamp set. I do like the way it came out. Again, it is prettier in person. Maybe I should stop taking pictures for my blog with my iphone. But, it is so much easier!!

Using the same stamp as above, I just made a few different changes. It's a cutie!

And, finally. This one took me forever! I mean FOREVER!! My husband didn't think I would finish in time to send it out before Valentine's day! But, a late night is all it took to complete it. The main struggle I had was figuring out what size to make the base card to fit into a medium size envelope. I wasted so much paper! And, good paper because my supply of "crap" paper has dwindled. Also, this card uses my NEW favorite accessory-- it's the pearly dots on the green scallops. Its from a pen and I purchased it at our Heirloom stamp show a few weekend's ago. I have used so much of it I need to find a place to buy it online to replace my pearl & possibly choose a few more colors! :))