Valentine's Day was my father's favorite holiday. Thinking about it now, it seems just a bit odd, since he was a very undemonstrative father. I could easily count the number of times he told me he loved me, but I was knew I was loved. He gave gifts on Valentine's Day. When I was living at home, and even in college, he usually bought me a new outfit. He was a shopper, and he had excellent taste. I can only think of one time when he purchased an outfit that was totally inappropriate for me. I called to tell him, and he laughed, and said he thought it might be. All this to say, I still love Valentine's Day. This year I'm making more cards than usual since I have several friends who could use some Valentine's Day cheer as well as all the family. 

I've been working on them for a couple days now. The family ones won't show up here until later since some of them actually do read my blog. But here's one for a friend.

I cut the heart with a My Favorite Things die after watercoloring a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. The Sending die from Simon Says is one of my favorites, and I love it cut from gold paper against the ombre watercolored heart. The sentiment stamped on the vellum banner (Simon Says die) is from the accompanying "Sending and Wishing" stamp set. It's going to get a lot of use! Both the heart and the banner were layered on a Stitched Rectangle from Papertrey Ink.

I'm quite happy with this card and am linking up to three heart related challenges:

Addicted to CAS:  Hugs and Kisses

Fusion-"Heartful" – see the photo below:

And Simon Says Monday Challenge: the Letter H (in this case, Heart)

There will be more valentines coming . . .

A friend of mine was laid up for several months last year with a shattered wrist. She just got to the point where she could drive and get around pretty easily in November. Then early this month, she broke her heel! She's been told she can't put any weight on it for three months. She has a wonderful attitude, but when a mutual friend asked her what she needed she requested some thank you notes. In addition to sending over some meals, I thought I could contribute to the thank-you notes as well. I started with this sketch on CASe This Sketch.

I chose to score the horizontal lines rather than use a patterned paper.

The typewriter die is one of my favorites from Savvy, and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Live, Love, Life."

The inspiration for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is hearts. That's a theme that's hard to resist this time of year.

In my ongoing attempt to use products I've never used or haven't used in a long time, I whipped out the "One Liner" Love die. I've had this for a couple years, and I'm quite sure I've never used it. (There are two other words in the set, so it's not quite as bad as it seems.) Other brand new products include the sparkly tag which I picked up at 50% off at Paper Source after Christmas, and the gorgeous gold dot vellum by Teresa Collins in her 6X6 pad, "Studio Gold." I layered the vellum on a piece of Select White cardstock.

The red heart is the inside heart that pops out when you die cut one of the Stitched Heart dies (PTI), and the gold arrow is a die from Savvy. And the cardstock is my favorite, Pure Poppy.

This card also fits two other challenges: Less is More which is a sketch challenge this week.

And the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Have a Heart.

We're off to the movies to see "The Theory of Everything." I think it's close to the end of its run here. There are always multiple movies I want to see this time of year.

I need four birthday cards for guys by the end of the month, and decided to do the same design, with different papers and dies for all four. All four qualify for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: It's a Guy Thing," as well as for the CAS-ology Challenge: NBUS. That may seem a bit odd, but it stands for "Never Been Used Schtuff." All the patterned papers on these cards are from new 6X6 paper pads that I picked up while traveling, and I've never used the "Sending" die or stamp from Simon Says. 

There have been lots of cards in blogland recently with the design I used. I pinned this one by Laurie last month. On two of the cards I popped the panels out with foam tape.

Cardstock: Select White and Pure Poppy (PTI), patterned paper: "Stitched" Amy Tangerine for American Craft; die & stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

Cardstock: Select White, True Black (PTI); patterned paper: Kelly Purkey "Second City" for Basic Grey; die: "Wet Paint" (PTI); stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

On these two cards, I decided not to pop the panels. I like both ways, but I think the foam adds an extra element of interest.

Cardstock: Staples, Smoky Shadow (PTI), patterned paper: "Stitched" Amy Tangerine for American Craft, die & stamp: "Sending and Wishing" Simon Says

Cardstock: Rustic Cream & Kraft (PTI), patterned paper: MME Necessities: Wood,  
die: "Wet Paint" (PTI), stamp: "Happy" Simon Says

Cards for guys almost always take me a lot more time than usual, but these went together fairly quickly. They're all different, but I think it's a great design for a masculine card.

I was hoping to have several projects to share for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, but the days just got away from me, so there's just one. Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are on their way here from Chicago, and we're not expecting them until quite late, so maybe I'll get time to create another card before the hop closes. For now, I have the gift exchange tags that I make annually for the family Christmas. We'll draw names on Thursday during our Thanksgiving celebration.

This was the inspiration post for this month:

The theme for this month is snow!  Dig out your favorite snow stamps and snowflake dies.  Create the illusion of snow with glitter or mica flakes.  Make some snow filled shaker elements with beads or sequins.  Whatever you decide, get creative and create your own winter wonderland with your paper crafting supplies!    

Right now, we're expecting 17 for Christmas dinner, quite a few less than last year's record 27!  I found an set of kraft tags in my drawer that already had the strings tied on, and there were just enough. I love white embossing on kraft, so the snow theme worked well.

The snowflake stamp is from Papertrey's "Snowflake Serenade," and the embossing powder is appropriately named: "Winter Wonderland." Like the tags, the embossing powder has been in my collection for quite some time.

I tried adding a sentiment to the tags but I liked it a lot more without it. "To" and "From" are stamped on the bag, and I wrote each person's name in white pen.

I have a few minutes before I have to leave for an appointment, so I'm off to check out the contributions to the blog hop.

I almost always find lots to love about the monthly Simon Says Card Kit. Usually I tire of kit club subscriptions after a few months, but I've never been tempted to give this one up. It's a great value, and frequently they include some wonderful extras in additon to the stamp sets and papers. In October the theme was coffee and included a great stamp set ("What's Brewing?") and a really cute die. I needed a "hello, thinking of you" card as well as a thank you card, and it was easy to come up with the cards I needed with the kit and just a few other supplies.

I loved the patterned papers, all from Basic Grey's "Grand Bazaar." For this card, I stamped the coffed cup and cut it out by hand. I used the pocket portion of a new stitched tag die by Papertrey Ink to make a focal point for the cup, and stamped the "hello" on the cup.

Then I stamped the steam and embossed it with rust embossing powder. I loved how it came out. 

The next card uses the cute little cup die that came with the kit as well as a different patterned paper.

I die cut the cup six times, three with the patterned paper and three more with Doll Pink cardstock for the heart inserts. The great sentiment comes from a Reverse Confetti set "Be a Barista" which I embossed in gold. The cardstock for both cards also came in the kit.

A friend has invited two of us for lunch early next month, so the three coffee cups seemed just right, and now I'm all set with the thank you note. I'll be entering this one at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Thanks/Thanksgiving.

I had to take a break from my online class assignments this weekend to make cards for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and to send to some friends needing some encouragement.

Now there's a bit of fodder for future blog posts as well. Two of the cards used a silver metallic paper I bought last winter from Michael's for my Christmas Journal pages and I thought I'd get them posted (just under the wire) for the current Virginia's View Challenge: All Things Metallic.

I started out die cutting Papertrey Ink's Phrase Play #4 with the silver paper. After backing the "Enjoy" with black paper, and adding a strip of black and white polka-dot paper, I angled it on an Hawaiian Shores card, stamped the remainder of the sentiment and added a few sequins.

I then had the letter from the negative in the Phrase Play die, so made a second card with the same card base.

This time I used a black strip of paper to add some interest to the silver letters, a stamped ampersand from "Grand Ampersand", and "Celebrate" from "Wet Paint II" (all PTI).

I've always loved that ampersand stamp, but this is the first time I've been able to put it to good use.