Best Friends Forever - Valentine's Day Cards

 Hello,

Happy Wednesday afternoon. I hope the day is going well for you. It's a beautiful clear and warm day in Southern California. The weather app on my phone is reading 77 degrees on the San Diego coast. I made a run to the post office to mail Valentine's Day cards to family and friends, then washed my car and when I finished with that, had lunch. 

Speaking of Valentine's Day cards, I mailed some of these today. This is a small group featuring the Taylored Expressions Gus & Gertie stamp sets and dies. Could there be any cuter BFsF?! These cards also fit Laurie's theme for this week's Paper Players Challenge.

Here is a picture of the group.

For my Paper Players Challenge card, I'm using the Ride or Die card. The perfect sentiment for Laurie's Friendship challenge. This is a 4.25 x 4.25 inch square note card. I stenciled a cloudy sky background using the SSS cloud stencil and a blending brush. Next, I stamped the red heart flowers from a long retired SU set along the bottom, then glued a piece of black card stock along the bottom. I cut it all out using the stitched square die from the GKD ML 3 dies set, and cut the mat from more black card stock. Using a white gel pen, I drew the lines for the bike path. Gus & Gertie are colored with Copics and cut out with the set die. I cut 3 extra die-cuts to stack behind the colored one for some dimension without using foam tape.

These next two cards I sent to two sweet little boys, one my new great nephew who was born just after Thanksgiving, and the other to a friends little boy, who is two. I made each of them a banner using the Mama Elephant Favor Bag Dog Dies. 

This one goes to my great nephew. I did an emboss resist using the stars in the background by first blending yellow ink, then using a sponge dauber with VersaMark and heat embossing with clear EP. The rest of the background is ink blended using lavender and blue shades. I replaced the stars in the die with hearts cut from holographic card stock. This is also a 4.25 x 4.25 inch square card. 

This one goes to the two year old. I used a TE heard background stamp with VersaMark and heat embossed it with clear EP, then blended very light shades of pool and mint inks over it. The white fence and border of flowers are old TE dies.

These are the banners that I made for the kid's rooms. They are made with felt and hot glue. They are basically the same, just different colors and ribbon.

The final card is a mini-slimline style. I used a wave cover plate die to cut masking paper, put that down on white card stock and ink blended many shades of blue ink. The top sun is a stencil from GKD. I added a few clear sequins randomly around the card front. 

I just got the February SCT Sampler package today, so I'm going to see what's there. Maybe make something. Thanks for checking in. Hope you don't mind such a long post.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamp: Taylored Expressions Gus & Gertie sets Best Buds, Ride On, and Gus & Gertie, Heart Bkg stamp,  and Valentine Defined by Stampin' Up    

Ink and Card Stock: Gina K Designs, Copics & VersaMark

Kat Scrappiness Holographic card stock

Other: Avery Elle Waves cover die, Simon Says Stamp Falling Stars and cloud stencils, Gina K Designs Sunshine stencil, Taylored Expressions Fence and Flower border dies, Avery Elle and Paper Smooches small heart dies, GKD Master Layouts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 7 die sets, SU clear embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, GKD Disco Ball mini sequins, Connect glue

Banners: Taylored Expressions felt, Stampin' Up Heart dies, Mama Elephant Favor Bag Dog Die set, hot glue and glue gun, ribbon, Big Shot