The crazy holiday season sapped my creative mojo, but I’m recharged and ready to create again. My upline has encouraged me to submit my work for Stampin’ Up!’s Artisan Award, which is given to the Demonstrators that show exceptional creativity and talent. Working on the cards, scrapbook pages, and 3D items that will make up my entry is very challenging and rewarding, but unfortunately I can’t show any of that work here.

Earlier this week I was starting to feel the need to step away from it for a bit, so today I decided to make a Valentine’s Day card for my Dad. What I came up with is a great card for a guy because it doesn’t have ribbons, and glitter, and all the fun stuff that I love to put on cards. Here is the front:

See…no frills. Very clean and simple actually. But accomplishing this wasn’t simple. To start I used Jan Tink’s Woodgrain technique to stamp then “stain” the cardstock to look more like real wood. I started with Kraft cardstock, stamped with Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel, and rubbed with More Mustard and Close to Cocoa. I skipped the last step, where she stamps in very vanilla, because I was doing it from memory and totally forgot that part.  I then punched the front with the Heart to Heart punch, and then used the paper piercing templates to add some detail to the lower corners.

Now, the outside may be clean and simple, but the inside has Valentine’s Day bursting all over:

I cut a piece of Autumn Traditions DSP just shy of 4 1/4″ x 11″. The reddish side is what was going to peek through the front, and the opposite side, with the pine cones didn’t really scream valentines day. So I took a slightly used transparent report cover that I’d rescued from the trash bin at work, cut a small piece and punched it with the Heart to Heart punch.  I then used that as a stencil, and using a sponge dauber I stenciled the hearts onto the pine cone side of the paper. (Note: If you don’t have a collection of slightly used report covers like I do, you can use the Stampin’ Up Window Sheets to accomplish the same effect.)

To make room to write a message I cut a piece of Very Vanilla and used a stamp from the Love You Much stamp set, masking the scallop-y part so that the card stayed “guy-like”.

When I glued the DSP layer into the card, I popped up the front of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals to add a little “pop”, but used SNAIL on the inside so it is flat enough to write on.

Recipe:

• Stamp Sets: Woodgrain, Love You Much
• Paper: Autumn Traditions DSP, Kraft, Very Vanilla
• Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Really Rust
• Tools: Heart to Heart Punch, Stamping Sponges, Sponge Daubers