Sunday 22 January 2017

Hearts aren't just for Valentines.......

I thought I share today how some of the more Valentine's themed releases can actually have a life beyond the 14th February.

One of the things I often get asked to make for friends and family as a card maker is wedding invitations and some of the products are perfect for making those!   I've knocked up a couple of samples - and before my husband panics, we're not getting married again this summer!!!  I just used us as an example of what you can do with the lovely Perfectly Penned alphabet set from Concord and 9th.  If hand lettering is not your forté, then this set is for you - it is so easy to line up the letters and spell out any word in beautiful scripty perfection!


For the first invite I opted for the stitched heart grid die from MFT to be the design element - such a simple but elegant design that is perfect for wedding invites.  Just match the colours to the wedding colour scheme and you're good to go!  I did wear a teal dress at our wedding, so that might explain why teal is my go-to colour on lots of my cards!

My top tip for making it easy to line up the hearts perfectly is to use the "waste" from cutting them as a template - just place it over your card - add a line of glue on the seam line, fold the hearts a little and place in the holes.


If you're making 100+ invites - you may not want to glue down 1600 individual hearts (16 per card), so if you want a quicker invite design then I think Lil' Inker Designs nailed it with their today and always greeting die.   It's the perfect sentiment for a wedding - just die cut from card pre-backed with stick-it and you could knock up 100 invites in an evening.   I decided to mount it onto a teal square first but you could go straight onto the card like the first card.


Both designs would be great for anniversary cards too.  I always make a note of wedding colours for weddings I go to and mark them on the calendar each year with the date, then I send a card in the colour theme every year as a little extra reminder of their happy day.

For my final card I moved away from invites to a hidden theme of love for a more general card.


I started with Blue Prints 28 from MFT to make my outer frame and did a light blue wash onto the lift up flap.   I added the cute mail box die from Lawn Fawn cut from an old scrap of patterned paper to add a little fun (make sure you use double sided paper) and added a little shading with grey markers.  Don't be afraid to colour onto your papers - you can get so many more looks that way from one pad!  The die folds together really easily as does the miniature envelope that comes in the set too.  I added some grass using Avery Elle's Rocky Shore die and a cute snail from Waffle Flower's Snail Mail stamp set.  The sentiment comes form Sugar Pea Designs Happy Mail stamp set.


To decorate the "under flap" I used the gorgeous delicate falling hearts from the Love Always stamp paired with the word love from the Love Always Frame Die to create the inner reveal of what I'm sending.  Sometimes you just want to send someone a little love to let them know you're thinking of them, and this delicate image is a nice subtle way to do it.


NEWS FROM THE STORE

It will be a quieter week for new stock this week as most of this months releases are already here and the other brands who are at CHA Creativation show this weekend won't be releasing their products that are shown there until next month.

We will however be getting or delivery from Stamping Bella at some point this week.  It is currently stuck in customs in Cincinnati but I provided the information they needed to get it moving on Friday so finger crossed it moves on tomorrow and then we should get it before the week is out.

We are working on an order to Hero Arts today as they have their 2017 catalogue out now - lots of fabulous new layering stamps and ink cube packs to go with them!  We don't expect to get them until mid-to-late February though.

Hope you're having a crafty Sunday.

Tara


1 comment:

  1. Oh my goodness, how fab do the stitched hearts look <3 What a great idea for weddings and anniversaries! I adore the falling hearts stamp too, so delicate and pretty. Will my wishlist ever stop growing?!

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The Seven Hills Crafts Design Team