This card starts off exactly the same as yesterday. I wanted to take the very quick, clean and simple card and take it up a notch whilst still keeping it clean and simple.

After stamping the elements from Watercolor Words in real red on whisper white card stock, I trimmed the excess white space quite severely. I’d had a piece of real red embossed with hearts using the Happy Heart TIEF on my desk for a few days and it was definitely the inspiration for this card. Of course that piece of real red didn’t work here, so the original inspiration piece is still there. Waiting!

After I’d embossed a fresh piece of real red, I put it right in the centre of the thick whisper white card base. I tend to use the thick whisper white for bases and the ordinary for everything else. I then realised that I needed a thin real red border around my main focus. Once I’d added that I popped up the matted sentiment with dimensional and positioned it on the card. Not in the centre, that was just too predictable, but slightly more to the right. In my opinion, it brings it to life. I again added the dry embossing to the envelope flap, as I did yesterday.

So, here are the two side by side. Which do you prefer?

Here’s the, again, short list of supplies needed to make this card

Don’t forget to pop over to CAS Colours & Sketches to check out this week’s challenge and enter your card. There’s no pressure, change a friendly challenge to help you stretch your card making skills.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

When I was creating the card for my 400th post on Tuesday, I also made this one. It’s clean and simple in the extreme but I love how effective it is. And yet again, it underlines my surprise that Watercolor Words wasn’t on my first shipment from Stampin’ Up!’s current annual catalogue.

As long as you don’t manage to get red ink on your fingers and add a fingerprint smear, it’s a very quick card. For some reason, I find that the red ink has more affinity for my fingers than any other colour! It’s just a quick stamp of the sentiment in real red on whisper white card stock and then a couple of hearts in the same colour. Glue this to a real red card base and you’re done. I did of course play with the envelope as well.

I dry embosssed it using the Happy Heart TIEF. Because of the way that the folder is created, you easily can have the hearts the right way up, but you can only have 6 hearts in width. I rather like the border around the hearts even though there’s no avoiding it!

As I reminded you, on Tuesday was my 400th blog post and I had some blog candy to celebrate. The closing date for comments was midnight last night.

Using a random number generator, I got that #3, Nicole Garabrant won the candy. She said:

“400th post, you go girl! This card is gorgeous and perfect for Valentine’s day. Thanks so much for a chance to win the blog candy! :)”

Contact me to give my your address Nicole, and I’ll get it sent to you pronto.

As for Sandra and D’Ann – contact me as well with a US address and I’ll send you a little thank you of a few of my cards for taking part in my celebration.

It’s a very short list of supplies to make this card today – and even shorter is you just use a plain envelope, or just stamp on it.

If Watercolour words didn’t make it to your wish list, I hope that today’s post has changed your mind! If not, stop by tomorrow for a variation on today’s card. Actually, stop by anyway!

See you tomorrow,

Liz

I’m as stunned as you. I had no idea that I’d get to 400 posts, mostly daily, and still be going strong. But making cards is so much fun. Finding that I do actually have a creative side is quite a surprise. I bet you have one too. Even if you didn’t think that it existed. And it’s so much fun to let it out. Today especially since there’s blog candy on offer!

The last time that my sister was over, she introduced me to post it tape. Very cool stuff, and it sat in my bag. But yesterday when I was making cards, I decided to actually use it. Martin’s comment is that this is very Japanese. I don’t know. It’s definitely clean and simple. I put down some post it tape at random (although ensured that it was square with the edges) and then stamped the heart from Watercolor Words in real red at different angles on whisper white card. Then I stamped the sentiment (from the same stamp set) in real red also. I then mounted this on a real red card base. The envelope is embossed with the happy hearts TIEF to coordinate.

As I mentioned, this is my 400th post (wow!). So to celebrate, here’s some blog candy that one lucky commenter will win.

That’s an enormously popular stamp set from last year’s Sale-a-bration, Lotus Blossom, bermuda bay sequin trim (use it as a ribbon or take off single sequins) and the current happy heart TIEF and jewels basic rhinestones. A fun package. All you have to do for a chance to win is to comment and tell me what is your favourite item in the Occasionals catalogue (which includes the Sale-a-bration brochure). Since it’s my four hundredth post, I’ll give you four days. So comment by midnight Friday (EST). Sorry, you have to have a US shipping address to win.