Quick and Easy--non-mushy Valentine!

My son does not do Valentines anymore, but the last few years that he did he did not want anything that was mushy or lovey dovey.  With that in mind I decided to create a quick and easy Valentine that can just be printed, cut and assembled.  I hope you like it.  You can download the file with four to a page below. 

It was so easy to create too.  Print out the file from HERE, 

Cut out the fish bowls

Put into one of our clear envelopes or a baggie.

Add some gummy fish or even Fish Crackers

Tie up the top with a piece of ribbon and hang a tag 

Happy Valentines Day

(mine is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set)

Pretty easy right?!

Be sure to check out my sidebar for my newest tutorials--including one for the

 brand new Sale-A-Bration set See Ya Later.

That specific tutorial is HERE.

Happy Wednesday--half way to the weekend!

Mary Jo

Love Bug

I was looking through some old posts to get ready for my month by month top three card re-cap that I did each year and seen this cute but and though it was worth a re-post. Although the sentiment stamps are retired you could substitute or use MDS! The bug is just too cute not to share again! Who says bugs aren't cute?! This one sure is. What fun I had making him too. I needed a card that could be for any age and and any gender. Although it might be on the young side it is so cute I think it could be used for anyone--what do you think? Any way do  you want to know how I made it?  Here you go.....

These are the Stampin Up! Punches I used..

And this give you some details about what each piece is used for..

 I used thin strips of Basic Black for the antennas.  I just rolled them around the end of a paint brush and then added two small hearts to each end.
 

Stamps Sets Used:  Just Buzzin By, Love Defined and Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Pacific Point,  Basic Black, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red,
Ink: Real Red
Other: markers, end of pencil for rosy cheeks that don't really show up too well in the picture. Paint brush end to twirl antenna. Word Window Modern Label Punch

Valentime Coupon Book Tutorial

One month till Valentine's Day--Do you know what you are going to give your sweetie.  How about a handcrafted booklet filled with eight coupons each redeemable for a gift from you.  You will also make a matching card and a little treat holder since Valentine's would not be Valentine's without a little bit of chocolate!

The booklet has six pages and four pockets to hold the eight coupons.

Step by Step directions--lots of pictures--can be used again and again.

Automatically delivered to your e-mail after payment.
Full color step by step directions to create the booklet, card and treat holder.
Printable coupon sheet.

All for only $2.50

OK Smartie Pants are you feeling the love now?!

Hope you had a great Valentines day. I did. My hubby bought me the most beautiful roses! Actually this is the second time in eight days. Our anniversary was on the 6th--14 years and this is what I came home to....They were the most beautiful shade of pink I have ever seen.  Almost purple.  Loved them.  Then yesterday I got these beautiful red roses!  Can't decide which are prettier?  So yes, I am feeling the love, lol. 

Since we are talking about love and Valentines day I thought I would share the Valentines my son took to school this year.  They are the cutest little underwear boxes with hearts.  I added a strip across the top with the words smartie pants!  They are filled with smarties.  I used my bunny pants tutorial and just made them smaller.  Fun--although I was complaining about why I chose these when I was only half way done!  But the finished project was really cute.  I am just not one to re-do the same thing over and over and over--one time and then lets move on!  And the funny part is I just made wedding invites which of course were the same thing over and over again!  So I am done with that type of stamping for a while--although I was thinking I should make baby announcements for my niece???????    Anyway here are the Valentines ready to go to school with my son.....aren't they cute?

Hope you have a great day! Thanks for visiting my blog today.
Mary Jo

Last two from Valentine's Class

Both of these cards have something retired on them mixed with some of the brand new stuff from the Occasions Mini!  The designer paper on the first card and the Dude stamp on the second are both retired.  Love the card anyway!  First one will be for my Mom and second one is for my son!

Card 1 Supplies:
Stamps: Messages for Mom
Paper: Soft Suede, Basic Black, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black
Other: markers, Heart punch, Heart framelits, Edgelite Dies and embossing folder

Card 2 Supplies :  retired Dude stamp, PS I Love You, misc sentiments
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Other: markers, circle punch, hearts embossing folder, heart framelits, ribbon, white gel pen.

Have a great day!
Mary Jo

Two more Valentines

It is always so fun to move on from Christmas cards.  I love Christmas but I really get tired of seeing the cards after awhile, lol!  Fun to move on to Valentines--Love it!  Here are the next two cards in the Valentine series.  Hope you enjoy! 

Card 1 supplies
Stamps:  I Love Jumbo Wheel, small heart stamps are from PS I Love You
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Well Worn DP
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Other: Hearts Framelits, Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit

Card 2 supplies
Stamps: Sweet Centers
Paper: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Real Red, Basic Black
Other: markers, dots embossing folder, faux brads

TGIF with a three day weekend!  Yippee!
Mary Jo

Well, the doctors were not aware of my plans....

So I know that I said Iwas going to start my sketch challenges again on Monday but no one informed my doctors, lol!  They have had me busy with lots of test and such--so I guess we will start the challenges back up on the 16th--Martin Luther King day.  I am ready to go but want to give you guys the full week.  I do have some cards to share with you today though.  I had my all occasions class this month and the main focus was Valentines--so I have six Valentines to share with you.  I will post them two at a time over the next three days.  Here are your first two...

Both of these cards are using the new PS--I love you stamp set.  I am so sad because when making these I lost the p.s. I love you stamp!  I think either the dog or the cat may have gotten it.  There is still a chance it may show up but I doubt it.   I hope you enjoy these first two Valentines.  The first one also fits the Latenightstamper's challenge for this week (yea, been a while) to use some type of fruit image on your project.

Card 1 Supplies
Stamps: PS I love you, retired You're sweet sentiment
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Other: markers, chocolate ribbon, hearts embossing folder, circle punches

Card 2 Supplies
Stamps: PS I love you
Paper: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, DP
Ink: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Other: hearts embossing folder, word window punch, heart punch, circle punch, corner punch

Happy Thursday!
Mary Jo

Wow, what a nice break I had! I made my own digital stamps!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours was great, although with all the chaos we never even got a tree up. So on Christmas Eve we put up a Charlie Brown tree in an empty room that we have been doing some work in and that was our tree!  Kind of fun actually.  My son said it really don't matter about the tree mom--it's important that we are together and celebrating Jesus birthday!  How heartwarming that was to hear!  I am excited about the upcoming New Year!  I know it will be better than this year.  Too much sickness and death this year.  Here's to a healthy , happy and prosperous 2012!

I have not stamped in weeks and had time today but couldn't even get motivated to do it.  Even though I have lots and lots of brand new stamp sets.  So I decided to try out my new Bamboo writing tablet and make a few of my own digital stamps.  It is not so easy to draw on these.  I will need to practice a lot but though I would share the first three images I drew and the cards I was then able to make with them.  Nice and simple cards--hard to get back into the swing of things, lol.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to draw so I just started with a Santa!  I tried to make him look like he was sorry about the gift he brought.  Don't ask why, just thought it would be fun for my first try at drawing on this tablet.  Here is the card with the image...

 Then I asked my son what I should draw and he said a tiger so this is what I came up with.  Pretty silly but kind of cute...

Then finally I decided to try a penquin how hard can that be--ha ha..

I think they are kind of cute especially since it was the first time ever to use a writing tablet and try to draw.  I will make a few cards with them and who knows maybe I will get better.  My problem is thinking of what to draw--any ideas??

All stamp images are drawn by me--all other supplies are Stampin Up!

Happy today!
It's good to be back!
Mary Jo

What kind of underwear does your bunny wear? Boxers for valentines!

Ahhhh, Friday. I love Friday's not only because of the weekend but because I get to participate in the blogger's challenge.  And the cool thing is that you can too now that it is a blog hop!  This week Lisa wanted us to post a project with a love theme.  So I thought I  should work on my hubby's valentine.  But then I remember the new tutorial I just posted for the bunny pants and some of the other ideas that I offered up for you guys to use it for and though--yep--I need to make my hubby a box that looks like boxer underwear for Valentines!  I think this is just too cute.  Don't you?

The stamps that I used for this are all from the Jumbo I Love wheel.  I took it off the wheel and cut the individual parts apart to form lots of adorable love stamps.   When I do this I take the entire piece of rubber off the wheel and then attach it to a piece of cling mounting foam, then cut it apart and then I have an entire set of cling mount stamps! Mini tutorial on doing this can be seen HERE.

Here is a picture of the bunny pants and "his" underwear together.  Would be really cute if I made it a bit smaller and it fit right inside the pants, lol!  I may have to try that!

So now you can see that the bunny pants can hold either the cards (that are included in the original tutorial) or a whole bag of peanut butter hearts with room quite a bit of extra room!  You can view the Bunny Pants tutorial HERE.

I hope you will play along this week with our challenge.  After all it is the month of Love so I know you need a card or some type of project with a Love theme.

TGIF!!!!!!!
Mary Jo

Yearly Valentine's for the birds!

My son loves birds--any animal actually-- so each year we make a different version of this adorable bird valentine for his class.  This year we are using the Cheap Talk stamp set.  They are just too cute!  Don't you agree.

Here is a pdf of the words only if you are interested in making them yourself.  I change the bird each year.    CLICK HERE TO GET THE PDF FILE    this file prints onto either regular card stock/paper or Avery Business cards 8371.  Hope you enjoy! 

Have a great day!

Valentines on the Brain

I have been working on a few Valentine ideas. I will also have another $2 tutorial up by Friday if not sooner. It is so cute you are going to love it. If you didn't see my first on look at the right hand side of blog or CLICK HERE.

Here are some of the projects I was playing around with last night for a club meeting. First off is a Masculine Valentine it also fits with the Latenightstampers challenge to make something that represents one of your New Year Resolutions. One of mine is to be sure my family and friends know that I love them and sending more card is another so this will fit both of those. It is also for the 411 sketch challenge it has been quite a while since I have been able to sneak one in.

I really think this new sets is just adorable.  I love the flamingos.  I also used the rub-ons that Stampin Up sent us demonstrators for free for Valentines.  Wasn't that nice?!

Next are a couple of treat holders.  I found these two inch peanut butter cups at my Wegmans in the bulk food area and thought they would be really cute decorated up for Valentines.  Now I know that this set is retired but I just love it, it is so cute. 

Next is a super easy treat holder that used the heart shaped treat holders.  Fast and simple if you need to make tons of them for school or something.

And finally how about a Valentine ornament?!  Maybe I still have Christmas on the brain but I thought this would be cute.  What do you think?  I used two of the heart shaped treat cups stuck together and embellished with lots of bling!

Hope this post finds you well on your way (a whole 4 days that is) to fulfilling your New Year Resolutions.  As far as I am concerned each day is a win!  So that is 4 wins so far for me!  Yippee.

I know there are not a lot of details on this post as far as what is used so if you have a question please feel free to ask.  Don't have time to type up that much right now.

Have a Great Day!
Mary Jo

Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge 104

Welcome to another week of my Monday Lunchtime Sketch challenge.  I have a super easy one for you this week.  So easy that I was able to make three cards in less than an hour!  Including looking up the sketch and all.  I hope you will play along.  I notice that my participation has been down a bit -- not sure if that is because of the holidays and everyone being busy or if you are all just getting bored with the sketch challenges.  I still love them so it don't matter, lol--well it kind of matters.

Anyway as has been the pattern since I have been on the DT for the Latenight Stamper's group--I combined my sketch with the weekly challenge over there.  Can you guess what the theme for the week is by looking at my cards, yep, Valentines.  Come on over and play along with both of these fun challenges.

Here is the sketch..

And then my three samples.

 

 

I could have gone on forever with this sketch--have to get my son to bed though, so had to stop.  There is always tomorrow right?!

Supplies: Card 1

Stamps: Love Bug, All Holidays

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black Real Red and Merry Moments DP

Ink: Real Red, Basic Black

Other: markers, brads, 1/2 circle punch, heart punch, 1 3/4 inch circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Pinking Heart boarder punch, ribbon, White gel pen

Card 2 Supplies:

Stamps: Out of the Box, Holiday Best, Well Scripted, Vintage Vogue

Paper: Regal Rose, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Regal Rose

Other: markers, gel pen, brads, 1 3/8 circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch

Card 3 Supplies:

Stamps: All Holidays, Out of the Box, Dot Dot Dot

Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Real Red

Ink: Regal Rose, Real Red, Basic Black

Other: White gel pen, markers, 1 3/4 inch circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Heart Punch, Pinking Heart Punch, ribbon, brads

I hope you chose to play along this week.  Thanks for stopping by and I can't wait to see what you create with this sketch,.  Don't forget to come on back and leave your link on Mister Linky below (which by the way has not been notifying me when you post so I have to remember to go look).

Mary Jo

Hope you have a week full of fun love and many blessings.

Fast-Simple-Fun Valentine for the kids.

Check out this great Valentine idea that I seen over on Lori's Stamping Spot! We were challenged by Sherrill on the Latenight Stampers group to make a video and this is the one she made--and I was so happy about it, cuz these are what I made for my son for his class. Thanks Lori. Go on over and check out her tutorial so you can make them yourself.

This is a group shot of the inside, girls and boys versions.


This on is the boys version..


And here is the girls version..this was the perfect sentiment for an 8 year old boy to put on girl ones!


and of course the inside.



Love these.

Stamps: Just Jawing, scarry skulls wheel, Darling Dots, Holidays and Wishes, Cheep Talk
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Other: Top note die, ribbon, 1/4 inceh circle punch, 1 1/2 inch circle punch, scallop circle punch. hand held small punch

Thanks for stopping by today. See ya soon.

Teacher Valentine Gift

How cute it this note pad with matching pen. I created this for my son's teacher for Valentine's Day and for the Limited Supply Challenge on SCS (LS202). I found these note pads at the dollar store a package of 6 for $1 what a deal! And they are already cut to the perfect size for this 7.75 by 2.75. Love that! So I thought I would show you a little mini tutorial on how to make these quick and easy gifts. (Don't forget to check out the previous post for my Techno Take-Out giveaway)

Supplies needed. Cardstock, Pentel Pen, notepad 7.75 by 2.75, sticky strip, craft knife, mat pad, ruler, designer paper and other embellishments.

You will need to begin with a piece of cardstock 7.25 x 8. I chose Real Red. Next you will line up your 7.25 inch side on top of your score pal (or other scoring board) and score at 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.25. So you will have four score lines on your paper.


Next you will want to place your paper on a cutting mat with the 8 inch side at the bottom of your mat and the 1/4 inch score on the bottom of the score lines. See picture below Use a ruler and/or measurements on mat to make two small lines at 3 inches and 5 inches. You will only want these lines to cross over the 1/4 inch score and the first half in score--do not cut the top scored area. See next two picture below.

This is what you lines will look like before cutting. Next you will use your craft knife to cut slits on these lines.


Fold all score line and then figet a bit with it so that the slotted part stands up and the other part folds in. See below.

Open up to inside and add sticky strip to these two areas.

Now fold back over and attach as shown below. Notice how the slot for the pen is now standing up.


Put adhesive on back of note pad and attach to inside.

Embellish as desired. After embellishing I added a piece of matching designer paper to the inside of the Pentel pen. You can remove the end of the pen w/ the ink and then roll a piece of 1 by 3.5 designer paper around the end of a paint brush (or any round object that will fit inside the pen).


Slip this into the pen as shown below.

Now just re insert the ink and you have a matching pen to go with your pad.

Here is the finished project again.

Stamps: Always, Touch of Class ( SUInk)

Paper: Real Red, Rose Red Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, dp

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: heart and circle brads, photo corner punch, ribbon,Pentel pen, note pad