It is time for the February Gorgeous Tags Instagram Hop 2026! I used The Greetery's Mini Boxwood stamp and die set with Concord & 9th pink and orange inks for a Valentines-y little heart tag. The optional detail is the heart this month.
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It's full speed ahead with Valentine crafting these days so I looked around for a color palette that I don't usually use...and I found a store-bought card online with trees and flowers (a Valentine) and took its color combination for my card today. For Just Us Girls #809 it's Die Week and Sue chose "Use a Heart" as an added requirement, so I cut a heart-shaped card base and went from there. Be sure to use a heart-shaped die somehow on your card that we can easily see. Be sure to check out all of the team blogs and that of our February guest, Denise Morgans, for lots of great ideas!
What I used:
Hello again! I hope you are warm and surviving this crazy winter weather. Let's switch our thoughts to Valentine month with a Pick Two for our next challenge #306 at Time Out! You can choose from these timely words:
Sparkle, Red, Heart, Pink, Aperture, Twine
I am using a new-to-me product from The Greetery that I have admired for a very long time. This Mini Boxwood Heart stamp and die set creates beautiful leafy wreaths with multiple colors using a two-step stamping effect. The die perfectly cuts around the leaves and cuts out an opening in the center. I stamped the accompanying sentiments on the center cut outs then stacked three wreaths high for each heart and replaced the center piece so it is recessed in there. I chose the words sparkle, red, heart, aperture.
You can tell that it's February with all the decorations up in stores and handmade Valentines online! I ran across some adhesive-backed fabric with a Valentine print that I just had to use this week.
Sometimes you just want to make a treat or surprise of some sort for someone...a coworker, a neighbor, your offspring...filled with a note, little cookies, candies, a trinket. I went looking for a box or bag tutorial and stumbled upon this cute paper-folded pouch. It took minutes to make. A piece of patterned paper, adhesive-backed patterned fabric and glitter cardstock. It could be set on the breakfast plate or by the coffeemaker for a sweet surprise.
I am playing along at Simon Says Stamp where the Monday Challenge is Add Some Texture and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes! The fabric is a very different texture than the smooth patterned paper, and the crinkled paper strips are a texture all their own. And finally, the glitter paper of the die cut stamp has a soft gritty feel to it!
Here is the tutorial from Miss Tracy Creates for the pouch. I used a Simon Says Stamp circle die to cut the top of the heart (folded double to cut both curved adges at once). I used my Concord & 9th Sweet Sayings Dies for the white sparkly postage stamp that imprints XOXO on it. I added a piece of hot pink cardstock behind it to fill in the cutout of a heart that this die makes. I added the fun adhesive-backed fabric (so old I don't remember the source) on the inside because my black patterned paper is not a two-sided design.
Happy heart season! Thanks for stopping by.
Carol
Hello and thanks for stopping by! Here's a card I made for our Just Us Girls #808, CASE a DT challenge this week. Each of us makes whatever we want and you Copy and Selectively Edit what inspires you from one of our cards to make your own project. It is so much fun seeing how creative the cardmakers are who join us!
It is Stencil Week at Just Us Girls #807 and I just happened to receive dies, stencils and stamps from the Snow Angel collection at Waffle Flower for Christmas. A special person picked them out herself, not being a stamper, and these perfectly matched gifts were so cute that I could not wait to use them! The trees, hills, snow angel and paw prints in the snow, and the cat are all stenciled. We hope you will get out a stencil or two and share something you make with them.
For our second challenge of the year at Time Out #305, we have an Inspired By challenge asking for a Favorite Technique. This is a great challenge topic for learning how others make their cards. My current favorite "technique" is using bundles that include coordinating stamps, dies and stencils to create cards. It is so much fun to stencil or stamp first, then die cut from the same coordinating products. The best part for me is that I can stencil instead of using markers to color in the images. Sometimes my coloring needs practice, so that's the "technique" part I like best!
My card uses all three products from this bundle by Concord & 9th. These City Block stencils are easy to use and by just changing the colors, you get a totally different feeling from them each time. Using these stencils I always get the feeling of vacation or downtown somewhere, or even a brand new shopping/living development.
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