Stampin’ Up! CTC Blog Hop – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hi All

Hello and welcome to this week’s CASEing the Catty Blog Hop.

This week we are being inspired to create a Valentine’s Day Project from any of the Stampin’ Up!s current catalogues – Annual, Occasions or Sale-A-Bration. That’s a lot to choose from!

Whether you’re joining the Hop here, or if you’ve hopped on over from the lovely Julia Quinn– a BIG hello!

Remember to click on through this week’s CTC crew to see plenty of inspirational projects that the crew have created for you – there’s a full list on the CTC blog page if you get lost along the way.

I’ve taken my inspiration from the Occasions Catalogue – I’m loving the Bloomin’ Heart Thinlits Die and like Julia – I chose it for my Valentine’s Day project!

In fact last week I ran a class where people purchased the Bloomin’ Heart Die and Bloomin’ Love Stamp Bundle and we made all the projects in the picture above! It was lots of work but was a fantastic way to get all those stamps inked and give the die a good work out! Trust me – the projects are even more stunning in real life than they are in the catalogue photo – and they look gorgeous there!

But back to the task in hand!

I CASE’d the one at the centre back – but decided I couldn’t really give DH (Darling Husband) a pretty pink card – so changed the colour palette.

I’ve used Pool Party for the card base and flowers, and matted the Love Blossoms DSP onto Crumb Cake.

Often if I am matting something that goes across the entire width of my card, then I will simply add a strip at the top and the bottom rather than use a larger piece of card behind the top layer. If I do need to use a whole piece of card to mat behind cardstock – then I will try to punch, or cut, out from the middle of the mat – no-one sees it and I get to use the shapes I’ve cut out on the project, or save them for another crafting day!

I stamped the flowers from the Blooming’ Love stamp set at the bottom of the cad in VersaMark Ink – I wanted the flowers – but didn’t want them to be particularly prominent.

And if you think the sentiment is blurry – it’s not! I stamped in Versamark ink first, then offset it a little and stamped in Crumb Cake to make it seem like a shadow. This is very easy to do with photopolymer stamps as you can see straight through them!

In the photo below you can see I did the same with the heart image on the inside of the card.

I also carried the DSP through to the inside of the card.

In the original card the heart was cut in Blushing Bride Glimmer paper. Gorgeous – but not what I was after! So out came the Dazzling Details Glimmer Paper for my heart.

The Glimmer paper can be tricky to cut using the thinlits. The paper has a wax-like coating on the back which can be a bit stubborn when it comes to running it through the Big Shot. If you are having trouble cutting the Glimmer paper here’s a couple of hints that I find helpful:

• Use the Precision Base Plate
• Run the paper and die through the Big Shot and back; then rotate 90º and run through and back again
• Don’t repeatedly place the paper and die in the same place on the Big Shot platform – it’s best to move cutting location
• You may need an extra shim under the Glimmer Paper. I put a piece of card directly under the Glimmer Paper which gives the die a non-waxy surface to cut into
• If it doesn’t matter which way the cutout is cut – you can turn the Glimmer Paper upside down – glitter side down and waxy side up. Don’t do this for words though!

In the photo below, you can see that I’ve added some glitter to the flowers – yes – it’s Wink of Stella again – clear this time! Such a great match for the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper!

I also just love the Bokeh affect the glimmer paper produced in this photo!

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my project for this week’s CTC Blog Hop celebrating Valentine’s Day!

And remember – this year, CASEing the Catty is running a monthly challenge – so you can play along too!

If you have been inspired by our projects and want to share your own, just click on the Join Challenge Button below and you can add your project at the linky you will find at the bottom of the post.

A winner will be chosen and announced on the first post of the following month. So do check out this week’s CTC Blog Post as well to see who won January’s Challenge.

Now hop on over to Simone Bartrum’s blog to check out her stunning project!

And remember if you get lost along the way – head to the CTC Blog Home Page where you will see all those involved in this week’s CASEing the Catty Blog Hop and make sure you haven’t missed any of the great creations!

As well as being the theme for this week’s CTC Blog Hop – Valentine is the “Just for Girls” word this week – #329.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy all the other posts in the hop!

Until next time

Jackie

I hope you enjoyed this post,

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