Valentine's Day Card
With Valentines Day approaching, I thought we should do a Valentines Day card. There are some really cute card designs with the owl builder punch, love bird kind of designs, but I thought this was more useful for people who wanted to use the card for non-romantic love (mother, child, best friend) as well.
To make this card you need:
Glue or adhesive
A back ground stamp (I am using an old stock stamp called beyond the basics but there are many current suitable options from Stampin'Up!)
You could use the Texture Boutique (which is smaller and cheaper than the Big Shot) and some of it's embossing folders for this same design, but I have the Big Shot because it does everything (cutting, embossing, texturing, framelits) so that is what I have used for this demo.
Cut your red card stock in half, if you are making an ordinary style card (the card on the right in the picture at the start of the blog), and then fold it to make the base of your card.
If you want to make a bi-fold card (shown on the left of this picture), you need to card the card stock in half length ways.
The bi-fold design has less room to write a message, which may not be suitable if you want to write a long something to your spouse, but I think it looks nicer so choose what suits you. In the photo I have shown the open bi-fold card (at the top left) next to an open normal card (at the bottom right) so you can see what I mean by less writing space.
This is cutting the card in half length ways for a bi-fold card.
If you are making the bi-fold card, fold one side over until it touches half way. You can measure it if you like but actually, it is not necessary. In the photo at the top of the post, the card on the top left was measured to exactly half way, the card on the bottom left I just approximately folded at half way.
Fold the other half in, it is important that, regardless of whether you measured the mid point, you fold the right hand half until it touches the left hand half.
After this point, the process for completing your card is largely the same regardless of whether you choose a bi-fold card, or a normal design of card.
Cut yourself a 1/4 sized piece of white card stock.
You will then need to trim the white card further, so that there is a red border. I have shown the off cuts to remind you that you need to trim off a piece twice as side as you want your border to be, though if you don't trim enough off you can always trim off more.
Place your white card stock in your textured impressions embossing folder.
Place it into your Big Shot, there are detailed instructions on the Big Shot itself but for an embossing folder you don't use any of the tabs on the Multipurpose Platform (that is flip them all over to the left in this photo).
You put the embossing folder between the Cutting Pads (the clear hard sheets) and on top of the right side of the Multipurpose Platform (which would be on your right if it was facing you so you could read it).
Put your 'sandwich' of Big Shot items into the Big Shot, threading the left hand tabs through first. As you are sliding it in and you reach the middle (where it gets thick) the handle will turn slightly, note the direction the handle is turning in and continue to turn it that way until the whole thing cranks through.
If it is difficult to crank your project through you are probably doing it wrong, you probably have too many layers. Stop and start again. If it was too easy and the paper wasn't embossed, you probably had too few layers, review your instructions and try again.
If you are using a normal card base, stick your white card down on your card base.
If you are using the bi-fold card base, mark with a pencil the approximate point where the two halves meet, once you roughly centre the card.
Once you have marked your card with a pencil, slice it with your paper trimmer, now you are ready to stick it down. Because the paper is now raised you may find your paper trimmer doesn't cut all the way through and you need to finish off with your scissors.
It may look noticeably uneven at this point, don't worry, it won't be noticeable once we put everything on top of it.
Cut a 1/8 piece of your pink card stock, I do it by cutting in half, in half again, and in half again, as shown.
Also cut a 1/8 piece of your white and red card stock. You will need to further trim these down, but it is easier if you start with equal sized pieces and trim off some edges.
How wide you want your border to be is totally up to you, this look was achieved by cutting off approximately 1cm from the long and short border.
Use your background stamp to put the heart pattern on some white scrap card. Cut a heart out of the white, pink and red, using your Sweetheart Punch.
I also used the background stamp on the small red piece of card, though it is probably hard for you to see the effect in these pictures.
Arrange your three pieces of card and your hearts in a fashion you are happy with, and then glue them down (if you are using the standard card).
For the bi-fold card, don't glue down the whole thing or you won't be able to open your card, put glue on the left hand side so the card opens naturally like a book.
If you want to purchase any of the products that I have used to make these cards, I have linked them to the relevant page on the Stampin'Up! website next to the second picture setting out what you need for this card, but I will also repeat them below, and you can email or Facebook me with any questions.
You could, rather than buying individual card stock, buy a mixed pack of card stock to get a range of colours. The two colours linked above are part of the ''Brights" colour collection:
If you don't yet know what colours or card designs you prefer, this pack of mixed colours is a good place to start.
