DIY Banner card

1. Select your favorite large patterned paper and fold in half.

2. Center and Adhere the Large Pink Doily to your card front.

3. Write a cute phrase on a coordinating banner sticker, i.e. I (Heart) You, You Da Man, etc.

4. Adhere the banner sticker to a coordinating small patterned paper strip.

5. Place 3 pop-up squares  to piece #4.

6. Peel off pop-up backings and adhere to the Doily.

7. Adhere Pink Heart Paper Tape to the bottom of the inside of your card, Trim Excess tape.

8. Sign the back!

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Washi Tape Tag Card

1. Fold a piece of Pink Cardstock in half to create a 4.25x5.5” card

2. Center and Adhere a Large Pink Patterned Paper block.

3. Select and Adhere an Alternate Patterned Paper block to the front of your card.

4.  Adhere a Large Pink Doily.

5. Adhere a Paper Flower of your choice centered over the Doily.

6. Adhere a Heart Die Cut to the left of the Paper Flower.

7. Wrap the Small Tag Die Cut with a piece of Black Butterfly Washi Tape.

Wrap ends to the back of the tag.

8. Adhere the Tag on top of and to the right of the Heart.

9. Adhere a Pink Rhinestone Gem to the Tag top.

10. Adhere a coordinating Small Paper Strip to the inside of your card.

11. Sign the back!

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Red Velvet

Next in my series of How She Dunnits, I have the Red Velvet Cupcake Card.

Starting with a white cardstock base cut at 8.5x11" and folded in half, I adhered a 4x5.25" block of red and white polka dot patterned paper flush with the bottom edge. To this I added a pretty white doily I got for free in a large package of 144 doilys in four colors from a gal on the Key Peninsula Buy Nothing site. Boy, do I love free embellishments, and this card features four of them. 
I had a little bit of red velvet paper left from an art journalling class I taught at KPMS last October. A half inch strip of that, notched at either end, made a striking base for my next layer. I love the monochromatic red on red and white on white mixed together.
See that white cardstock circle stamped in red ink with "from the heart ♡"- both free, including the ink! Thank you, Queen & Co. for the circle, Phaedra for the Tim Holz distress ink,  and another Scrappy Sister of mine for the stamp! 
This was a simple card with a lot of impact thanks to that rich red velvet paper in the middle. Any sentiment or color scheme would have made this card design shine, but I think the Red and white were excellent for Valentine's! And no, there's no cupcake involved. .. this is the Organic Anna version lol
So what is your favorite color combo for monochromatic mixes? Better yet, what's your favorite Valentine treat,   spending time with your sweetie or a sweet to eat? Comments below welcome! 

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Silly Pocket Tag Cards h

My life has been pretty hectic the last couple months, leaving very little "me," i.e. craft time. Crafting isn't just a hobby for me, it is also a source of income and more importantly, a therapeutic activity which my mind finds solace in the act of doing. So, going without has a profound and multifaceted effect; my supplies go unused, my talents are not utilized for the good of my wallet, and my creative urges go unsatisfied, leaving me restless and distracted by my desire to MAKE.
I have two upcoming excuses, er, opportunities to Have to do just that; an upcoming Yoda themed birthday painting party for a boy turning 8-and 15 of his friends!- & the Key Peninsula Cooperative Preschool ' s  now annual CraftWithAnna cardmaking fundraiser at Blend, February 10th at 6pm.
I thought it would be fun to share the 6 cards I designed for the event and tell you how I made them, in case you are looking for some inspiration or just want to know, "how'd she do that?"

My first card to share starts with a white card base. To this I've added a pink doily, offset and adhered to the top of the card in the left corner. The placement does not matter, but the bottom will get covered up so leave a fair amount sticking up.
On a red tag I layered a pink square stamped with red hearts. Through the punched hole at the tag top I tied a bit of red Silly String.
Next I ran my tape runner all along the edge and down the middle of a strip of dark red cardstock. I cut about a forearms length of that same red Silly String from Queen & Co.  I got it at convention a few years back. It's stretchy and shiny and oh so fun to use! When I wrapped the string around, I made sure to keep both ends tight against a gluey area, then I ran some more adhesive over those ends, for good measure. Before I placed this wrapped piece on my card base, I slipped that tag in behind.  Another way to say this would be that I made a paper doily, tag, twine sandwich. .. anyway there is a lot of texture going on here.
You could easily replace the Silly String with any kind of fiber; bakers twine comes immediately to my mind. How about you, what's your go-to string of choice? Do you make your tags or buy them pre cut, tie in a knot or tie in a bow- you know I wanna know, comment below :-)

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Lisa E Design Blog: Valentine Giveaway Winner

Lisa E Design Blog: Valentine Giveaway Winner: And the winner of the Valentine giveaway prize is Anna  who posted on February 16 at 2:23 p.m.

"!!!!!!"

A beautiful conclusion to a terrifically scrappy weekend. Yesterday I met with friends for croppin' and taught a newbie how to create her own lovely mini album. Too much fun and just the right amount of wine :-)
Today I was given the liberty to continue playing with paper, and wrapped up about ten pages from my work-in-progress Christmas album. Sometimes it was just a title or a bit of journaling  that needed to be filled in, but there were quite a few blank page-turned-layouts as well.
Now this awesome contest announcement... what a wonderful way to end a fantastic weekend with my family and friends. Thanks for stopping by and sharing my bliss...

& thanks, Lisa!

Late Night Love Life

One of my favorite holidays to design cards for, Valentine's Day is even more special for us because the day before is Sunday's birthday. Plus, I'm just a really lovey dovey kind of gal, and what better way to express that tangibly than with a handmade card? These were made with the My Mind's Eye woodgrain 6x6 paper pack. I also picked up a package of wood veneers to add to my stash and used the cupid one as I consider it to be the least versatile and therefore the first to go to the store in time for selling! Simple Stories chipboard and some foam adhesive built this embellishment cluster into a focal point of the card, but doing something as simple as adding gems to a pennant sticker really dresses up a simple embellishment. Feeling a little more advanced? Try layering trim behind a sticker as I did with the Be Mine card. Using grey lace, I did have to cut a little on the corners of the hearts to help the ribbon lie flat. Then over two border stickers, also layered, and to top off my fancy embellie, I pop-dotted that smaller heart and paced it slightly offset for some textural flair. Working from a 12x12 sticker sheet helped all of my cards coordinate, and I LOVE the look of each!
 

L O V E

Love is in the air, and lately I've been thinking of, well, things I love! Specifically, "things" I feel like I need. Things, that aren't really things at all; like my family, cuddles and snuggles, creative time and space, good nutritious food, healthy communication... all the important stuff that gets me through life in as effervescent state as is possible. But "the greatest of these... is Love."

It's all I really need.
 

Everyone knows that Valentine's is the perfect occasion for getting a loved one a little something, like chocolate, or perhaps a beautiful card, maybe dinner out at a fancy restaurant, or my dream: A DIAMOND :-o
However, there are a few people out there who look at this special day more as a marketing gimmick than as an opportunity to make it magical. Those kind of people believe in spoiling everyday, not waiting for holiday occasions, and I'm lucky enough to live with a guy like that.

My sweetie has always been great at making dreams come true. He is usually willing to pick me up a box of chocolate - it fuels my creativity- when he's at the store. He loves to spend an hour or more gazing into my eyes as we dine on an exquisitely prepared entrée while dining out. However! He is completely against the purchase of diamonds because of the hardship their extraction places on miners in impoverished countries. What a Bummer for me!

Enter... my new favorite website to wish list on! The considerate folks at BrilliantEarth.com offer Beyond Conflict Free diamonds, meaning, not only are they considered conflict free, mined ethically and with respect for people, but for the environment as well! According to their website, they even track their diamonds from the source to the store, ensuring they arrive without being entangled in the corruptive practices that can profit from these valuable stones. Brilliant Earth even goes so far as to incorporate recycled and reclaimed gold, silver, and platinum. Wow, I think that's an awesome way to create beauty out of what someone else can't use anymore.

Hmmm... maybe I'll just casually place honey's name on their mailing list...

Here's how I created my Valentine's layout:

 I find it easiest to mix and match patterns and colors when I'm using papers that are all from the same collection. I'm in LOVE with the SEI Alpine wood grain patterns and color tones, so I knew that a few of these tones and wooden textures would form the neutral base of my page. I had this idea of highlighting the "O" and using a heart shape instead. I found a cute double heart on the cut apart sheet, which gave me some more ideas about the colors and embellishment choices to come.

  I also envisioned polaroid style frames around my new Posterboard alphabet stamps by Close To My Heart. Stamped in Chocolate ink on this cream and red grid two or three times to get that dark solid outline, and then shifted the stamp slightly without re-inking to achieve the shadow effect. Then I used my square punch to create identical openings in three brown, kraft flocked rectangles.

I ended up with a lot of these little strips of paper and thought it would be cute to staple them all together and do ... something with them! My staples didn't quite work the way I envisioned, though, and I'd love for you to comment with a use for my little whatever it could be.

To highlight my heart shape even more I framed it in red gingham, and backed it with a square of red. There was a line border pattern going around the red square, and only one line of the box shows... and that is just fine to me! I fussy cut with my exact-o knife around the outside of the heart shape and popped up the outside border with two sizes of dimensional adhesive; thin at the top and bottom, and thicker pop-dots on the sides. I thought it would look more dimensional that it did, so maybe if you try this yourself, either leave off the thin top and bottom dots, or double up the side pops.

Once my polaroid style frames were adhered atop stamped-letter-topped grids, I considered how I would dress them up. Some of my ideas included tying twine around the edge or bottoms, or adding enamel dots or brads, but in the end I added some red chipboard arrows on top of a sticker that I cut into three edge pieces and stuck to the left of each letter. From what was left in the middle of the sticker, I punched two hearts and placed them at the bottom right of my heart's polaroid.

For contrast to all the warm colors, I added some silver Mr. Huey's ink to the background, and then layered silver ribbon, dots, and hearts stickers to each of  my framed groupings. A double dose of hand cut hearts and a peach woodgrain in between put the focus on "L O V E," and left me a little room for my handwritten title add on, "it's all I need."

It's true. Despite all the things I want (chocolate, more washi tape, and yes, Diamonds) and feel I need; time with friends, being surrounded by family, having a creative escape daily, it all boils down to the fact that without Love, I'd be lost.


Check out the upcoming March edition of Die Cut Crazy to see even more fun ways to use the heart shape, Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy a Happy Valentine's!

I love you, Law!