Love is in the Air. Cantaloupe, anyone?

Posted on February 1st, 2015

Welcome to Di’s Country INKers’ February blog hop.

Valentine’s Day will be here quickly, and love is definitely in the air! We have a fun lineup of projects that will inspire you to get busy stamping and creating cards and treats for those special people in your life.

The cards and treat bags I’m sharing with you today all feature paper from the Stacked with Love Designer Series Paper Stack in the 2015 Occasions catalog. The stack is packed with pages sporting modern designs in black and white, Calypso Coral, and Crisp Cantaloupe.

All my life I’ve assumed that valentines should be red and white. Make a valentine? Sure. Let me find some red paper and lacy white doilies. Oh, and some shiny gold paper for accent. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Stacked with Love pack to find red mostly used as an accent. As you can see, I quickly overcame my surprise and fell in love with the designs and colors!

Another product to love from the Occasions catalog is the new Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Die, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. These two bags were a snap to make with one 12″X12″ sheet of Crisp Cantaloupe from the InColor 2013-15 DSP Stack. The accent papers are all from the Stacked with Love pack. Stamped images are from the You Plus Me, Hello Life, and Perfect Pennants stamp sets. The bag on the left is ready to be filled with a sweet treat for a friend. Maybe a Ghirardelli Chocolate? A yummy homemade cookie nestled in clear cellophane bag? Whatever the treat, it will seem extra special in such a cute holder.

The treat bag on the right serves as an envelope for a valentine card. I layered a piece of Whisper White cardstock onto a sheet from the DSP stack for the card. (Because the DSP paper is two-sided, the back of the card is also pretty.) The larger hearts on the bag and card were punched out of another sheet of the DSP pack with a 1/2″ circle punch. I punched the smaller black hearts with the Confetti Hearts Border Punch. One great benefit of using a treat bag as an envelope is that a small chocolate such as a Ghirardelli square would also fit easily in the bag. While a valentine can be another color than red, not much says Happy Valentine’s Day better than chocolate. Would you agree?

I’ve also been busy making Valentine cards to mail to friends and relatives. Some of them are red and white, but here are two that feature Crisp Cantaloupe.

This first card does have some red accents. Notice how well the red and Crisp Cantaloupe work together. Who would have thought? Not me, but now I’m a believer! The honeycomb embossing creates a nice texture and frames the red cardstock hearts. The tag is a 2″x 4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock punched on both ends with the Tag Topper Scalloped Punch. The ribbon is actually a narrow piece of Stacked with Love DSP. The heart adorning the tag is stamped with one of the You Plus Me heart stamps punched out with the heart from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and popped on with a mini glue dot.

This last card came about from seeing the Freshly Made Sketch 170 last week. I ended up turning the design on its side and moving the shape. I didn’t come up with a card in time to share on their blog, but I had the sketch taped above my desk all week and inspiration finally hit. I would not have predicted that I would ever make a black and white valentine, but Stampin’ Up! papers have a way of stretching my creative boundaries to think about color and design in new ways. I make cards as small gifts of friendship and love. However, I also find that with each card I have also given myself a gift: the satisfaction of having creating something pretty and new from paper, ink and stamps. Have you experienced this rush of pride and satisfaction while holding one of your cards you’ve created?

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today! Next on our Blog Hop is Mary’s Dogg and Pony Show. Click on the Next button below to see what she has to share.