Hi all,  hope you have been enjoying some happy crafting time 🙂

I thought I would start the week by sharing a couple of valentines cards that I have made. I decided to do a comparison between two different styles of cards – I chose to go with a traditional style plus a contemporary style to contrast. I also added in the extra factor of restricting the products I used to keep them simple and to show that you don’t always need to have an endless supply of craft products to get great results.

The first card I have decided to show is the traditional styled card:

Traditional Valentine card.

I had decided that I wanted to use my Indigo Blu Mega flake, with a pretty love heart stamp. So to keep my over all product use to a minimum, I chose to stick to card and paper for the extra embellishments. I used Kraft colour card for the base, which I used a corner punch to add extra detail. I added the same corner details to all the different layers. I picked a pretty paper for the inside of the card, which, as I had done a fancy fold to the card front, becomes a part of the card front 🙂

Traditional Card: inside view.

As the paper was covering the usual writing place for writing, I added a white panel to the reverse of the card front. I cut the panel slightly small to have a narrow border of the rich yellow colour peeking from behind.

Now secondly for the contemporary card style:

Contemporary Valentine card.

Again for this card I wanted the main image to be the focal point, to keep the extra details in the background and to a minimum. So to achieve this card, I drew around a metal heart die – any heart shape will do – and filled the inside with glue. I then poured my bead mixture on top of the glue and pushed the beads gently but firmly in, ensuring the beads adhered well. ( The beads were little packs that came in a discount craft bag!) Any beads left on the edge I either removed or pushed into the heart shape. Whilst this was drying, I dry embossed a white panel of card, slightly smaller than my card base, with an embossing folder that was a free gift with a magazine that I subscribe too. I had decided to use white on white for a clean and simple look. Once my beaded heart was fully dry, I used a small circle punch to create the corner inverts and layered the panel onto coloured card. I chose Green to highlight the green beads present in the bead mix and to add a modern, fun feel to the card.

Bead close up.

I added a simple sentiment in a coordinating colour.

Contemporary card – inside view.

I wanted to add a nice verse to the inside of the card and this fit the bill perfectly. I also added a strip of card, plus a butterfly punch out, both in the sane Green as I used for the front panel. I like to continue card decoration onto the inside and usually the envelope too!!

I really hope that you have enjoyed todays share, and, perhaps  have even been a little inspired 🙂

Back soon, take care and happy crafting 🙂