Card in a Box Valentines

I've been dying to make one of these for a few weeks now - you wouldn't believe how many I have pinned on Pinterest!  I ended up making three of them because I found three different sizes on various blogs and wanted to see which I liked best.  I really don't think it matters because I like them all.  The first one on the left is from the Splitcoaststampers tutorials section and it's 5 1/2 x 6 when closed.  The other two are basically the same except that the middle one is a little taller so that it is 6 x 4 1/4 when closed and the smallest one is 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 when closed.

The basic box is very easy to put together and then the "filling" does take a little time, but well worth it.  I cut all the hearts out with my Silhouette, as well as the hearts flourishes.  The stamp is from my stash done in Firecracker Red embossing powder (SNS).  The white background heart is done with a white microfine glitter on sticky paper and the red heart on the right with Gypsy Red microfine glitter (also SNS).






Here is another view:

The second "box/card" has a birdcage to match the DP that was an SVG file from Bird's Cards. 

And the third "card/box" has two digi images in it that were colored with Copics.  The heart balloons are also from Bird's Cards and the little dog is from Little Scraps of Heaven (digis I've had for a while).

Thanks for visiting!

Gerlinde

Valentine Treats

This is my last year for preschool valentine treats!  Charlie will be in Kindergarten next year which means 25 or more students, which means something much simpler with no treats!  These are the Cute Critters from Jackie Topa's class that I made last summer and I still have lots more.  I wanted to make the treat holder matchbox style, but the critters were a little too large, so I had to make them 4 x 5 with just a ribbon holding it together at the top.  The hearts were cut with my Silhouette and the sentiments just an assortment from my stash.  
Here are a few more views and the variety of critters:

Aren't they the cutest?
Thanks for visiting!

Till next time.....

Gerlinde

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
To all my blogger friends - wishing you a wonderful, prosperous, happy,  and healthy 2014 !

As I sit here by my crafting space heater with 5 inches of beautiful, sparkling snow outside, I just keep looking at our pictures from last week on Anna Maria Island in Bradenton, Florida and think of the warm beach weather we left behind.  So I thought I'd send some warmth your way by sharing a few pictures of the grandsons at the beach.  We had a wonderful Christmas with my mother and sister's family who live near there in Sarasota.    I hope your Christmas was filled with warmth and family too!

We saw dolphins playing near the beach almost every day - it was so much fun!

And now I'd like to share some gift card boxes that I finished shortly before we left.   The boys' gifts we shipped via Amazon but the adults always get gift cards when we go - so much easier to pack!
I used the directions on Splitcoaststampers for the gift card boxes and a variety of Recollections, Teresa Collins, and DCWV cardstock packs that were on sale at Michael's at 60% off.  They were a nice heavy duty DP that lent itself to making boxes.  And the chocolate kisses inside are a nice surprise too. 

Thank you for visiting!
And since we'll be having 6 more inches of snow on Sunday, I know I'll be crafting away, so see you soon!

Gerlinde

Joyful Christmas Wishes

 I think I should be mailing cards instead of making them!  Oh but this is so much more fun!  I've combined Stampin Up's Joyful Christmas Wishes stamp set with Spellbinders' Curved Borders and went totally non tradional Christmas colors.  Oh! the things I could do with this stamp set in tradional colors!  But that will have to wait till next year.  I also needed some December birthday cards (Shhh!  I can't say whose!) and this card made a beautiful December birthday card too!  The poinsettia is embossed with Sparkle N Sprinkle's Pink Delight on vellum and the leaves and sentiment are embossed with SNS's Pear Star.  The colors were perfect with the Pink Pirouette and Pear Pizzazz cardstock by SU.  I also used some Vintage Pink Frantage on the front around the sentiment.  I hope you enjoyed!  I'm off to make
some gift card holders! 

Gerlinde

December Already!

Where did November go?  I think I missed it! 
I was crafting, really I was, but nothing new to show.  I finished a lot of special orders including six sets of note cards (6 cards each) and a set of 15 Christmas cards and here I am, finally!  This card is not an original - you can find it here, here,  here, and here - but I just love it.  I sponged the center with SU Pool Party and Memento's Danube Blue and Nautical Blue.  The snowflakes are an older SU set, but I think it worked just as well for the silver embossing.  I have to tell you, though, that for the first five cards I was trying to use up an old generic silver embossing powder but wasn't very happy with the results.  So for the last one, I got out my Sparkle N Sprinkle Silver Detail embossing powder and WOW!  What a difference!  Plus, I think I embossed the snowflakes before the sponged ink was completely dry and despite using the anti-static powder, some of the powder stuck to the sponged ink and left a very fine sprinkling of powder, which I think gave it a very nice shimmer.  Surprise, surprise! The inside was cut with my Silhouette as a pop-up.  Thanks for visiting and I will be back soon!  I have so many ideas and it's almost Christmas - I don't think they're all going to get done!

Gerlinde