Happy Valaentine's Day - 2025

Today's the day, and I've been getting sporadic notifications by the recipients, so here is the blog post to talk about how these Valentine's planner pages came together. 

Once again we owe thanks to Elizabeth Craft Designs for the large heart planner page die.  Theirs is a half heart die, but I cut it on the fold to keep the full heart intact.  (Although one of you got a page where the two halfs were taped back together.  I cut that one too close to the fold!)  They also provided the dies to create the mailbox.  Thanks to the now defunct QuikKutz company for the XOXO on the bookmark.  Most of the stamps used were from Deep Red Rubber Stamps.  I am an old school paper crafter.  Red rubber stamps are still my favorite.  Yes. I do have a ton of the acrylic cling stamps but IMHO, they do not produce as high a quality of image as a rubber stamp.  

Here is the front.  The Latin on the large heart "Vincit Amor Omnia" translates to Love conquers all.  Yes, I hand made many, many tiny envelopes for this one.  I used a die from Temu that pulls 4 sizes of envelopes in one go through the machine.  The front cover sets the stage for the main themes of the page. 

Note that each page will have different decorative paper.  I had a large stash of aging paper that needed to be used up.  After this project, that is not a problem anymore!  Although it creates a new problem in that I'll just buy more.  

Open the page to find the mailbox.  It consists of 9 separate pieces. I cut these from red stock, assembled, smudged them with ink to dirty them up and then mod-podged them to make them shine.  If you didn't know, Mod Podge will not curl paper, so is a great way to add shine to large pieces. It goes on with a paint brush and dries within an hour.  It can be a bit smelly.  I admit to deciding future Mod Podge projects need to be done in the breezeway during the warmer months.  

The large blue heart in the background is stamped with a Hero Arts stamp and then cut with a Sizzix Original die.  You get four sizes of the heart with one pull through the machine.

This little envelope is part of the mailbox set, and it's matching stamps, as is the little airplane.  Deep Red rubber is the post mark, and I used the computer for You've Got Mail. 

Open the mailbox for flowers and your wish for a happy Valentine's day.  The flower punch I used is an oldie but a goodie, made by EK Success.  I have this flower in all the sizes they made.  This is the smallest.  

The sign on the mailbox is part of the Correspondence from the Past set from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  It fits perfectly into place with the mailbox die.  

Turn over the mailbox, to see the conversation hearts I embossed behind it and to expose some stamping fun.  

This background stamp is from The Peddler's Pack out of Beaverton, OR. They closed their doors after 33 years or so, but you can now find them on Etsy, selling under the name of Stamppeddler.  

The rest of the stamps are Deep Red.  To get the effect of the mailman in front of the mailbox which is in front of the background, you have to do some masking.  Stamp the image of the mailbox and the man, cut them out neatly, right on the lines.  Place them on the paper, and stamp the background over both the masks.  Pick up the mailbox mask, keep the mailman mask in place, and stamp the mailbox.  Pick up the mailman mask, and then stamp him too.  

The back of the closed page has some stenciling, and I'm keeping is weird with a big ol' shiny pink smooch, cut with the Cricut.  I think I used this same smooch on a Halloween card, but I put some fangs in the corners of the mouth.  Or maybe I still need to do that one...I'll have to check.  

You know, the reason this blog is here is for me to make sure I'm not repeating myself.  

Last but not least, the bookmark.  It matches the paper I chose for the page.  The little conversation hearts are from Temu.  The set pulls 8 hearts at a time, and I bought 4 of them to pull 32 at a time.  They were about $1 each on Temu.  

Flip the bookmark over to find some more stenciling that matches what's on the back of the planner page.  

You get a page for your planner, and a bookmark to give to your Valentine or keep for yourself.  

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Christmas 2024

 Hey - look at me getting the Christmas 2024 post done.  It's only January 17th, but hey, who's counting.  

I didn't do a card this year.  Didn't really feel like it.  I guess I put all my card making energy into the Halloween planner page, which you can see posted back in October of 2024, right on time.  Thank you very much.  However, I did send out a little kit to make your own desktop Christmas Tree.  Like you didn't have enough to do this Christmas?  Right?  In my own defense, I've always said, you get until the Wise Men show up on January 6th.  If you need the extra time, well, there it is. 

Many iterations of the tree happened.  First drafts were sparse and had ornaments, which were just a PITA so OUT.  Once they were gone, more branches were necessary.  No problemo, as they are cut with a die set I got off of TEMU for next to nothing.  In fact, I bought 3 sets, they were so cheap.  And since cutting these 40+ tree kits, I bought three more so I can cut one full tree in one pass of the dies through the Sizzix Switch.  Total cost for 6 of these die sets on TEMU, about $12.  If you want something similar here in the US, Simon Says Stamps is selling a set that makes a bit bigger tree for $40.  I'm not saying I don't like the slightly bigger tree, and I may still buy it, if they put it on sale, but prices on TEMU for dies cannot be beat.  I totally get that they are ripping off American companies' designs, and that hurts the sales of those same companies, but if I can buy the EXACT same die from TEMU (minus the fancy US packaging) for $2 vs $40, I think we are price gouging a bit here, don't you? 

Many iterations of the tree stand happened too.  I started with folding those little fortune tellers we used to make as a kid on the playground with a piece of loose-leaf paper.  It worked, but it wasn't super steady.  If you were a bit off in your folding your tree would be lopsided.  Eventually I remembered I had a punch from Stampin' Up! that I had used many years ago to make a pumpkin.  The punch is for making finger tabs on pages.  But what can I say, it looked pumpkin-y to me. 

This is the punch, it also has a matching stamp set to decorate your tabs when you punch them.  When I made my little desktop pumpkin, also pictured below, I used one of the stamps. 

This tree has the fortune teller stand.  It was actually two fortune tellers.  One a bit smaller than the other.  Like I said, it worked, but you had to fold it pretty evenly. 

This is the final draft, and is what was cut, packaged and sent out for everyone to make.  I cut them entirely from scraps I had on hand.  When I ran out of green, the trees started to get pretty colorful.  Red, Pink, Teal, White and I think one or two blue ones too.  Final shot is a red and green tree side by side.  All the stands consist of 8 punched tabs, folded in half and glued together.  They can fold flat for mailing.  They have just the right size hole in the middle for the bamboo skewer that makes the trunk of the tree.  Some have big stars, some have little.  It just depended on the size of the scrap I had.