Valentine's Day Cards with Joy Clair You're s'Whale, Valentine Background, Best Buds & Love Languages

Hello and welcome!  It's Angie here with my first Joy Clair post for 2020!  Happy New Year to you all!

I'm so happy to be here and to share my love for Joy Clair Stamps with you!  There are so many exciting things happening this year - stay tuned - you won't want to miss a thing!  

I decided I better get busy and make Valentine's Day cards for next month so I pulled out some of my favorite sets and made 2 cards.  

Here's how I made my first card:

1)  I stamped and colored the narwhal from Joy Clair's "I Think You're s'Whale" stamp set and the fussy cut him out.  I decided not to use the free cutting files to cut him out, because I wanted no white edge on him.  Sometimes I like the edge and other times, I don't!  

2)  Next I cut some dotted wave dies from watercolored patterned paper, stacked and glued 3 of them on the same patterned paper sheet of 4.25" by 5.5"

3)  I did use the cutting files to cut out two of the underwater plants, but that was just to help me decide the layout of my card.  I often use the free cutting files just to cut the shapes out so I can play with my layout before I decide what I want to do.  Below I have pretty much decided I wanted to affix everything, then cut out a rectangle from the the large panel.

4)  Next, I moved the cut files and stamped the plants right on the wave die cuts.

5)  I used more Zig Clean Color brushes to highlight and shade the leaves in the water, the cut the large dotted rectangle section out.

6)  Next I stamped the green hearts (behind the pink and purple ones) from the Joy Clair "Love Languages" stamp set.  That particular heart stamp (one of many hearts in that set) had a bottom edge that looked like "splashing" to me so I thought it would look like the heart was splashing out of the waves!  I added little die cut hearts to the centers so they wouldn't be teal hearts, but pink and purple hearts with teal edge and teal "splashes."  

7)  Last, I added the rectangle to a white card base, added some pink dots for his cheeks, added Glossy Accents to the hearts and clear Nuvo drops for more splashes!  Here's a closer look so you can see his cheeks, and all the shine on those hearts and water drops.

And I included this picture so you can see the texture of the papers and even more detail- it's a very pretty paper pack from Pink Paislee called "Summer Lights."

I included one more picture because I made a matching envelope and for my return address stamp, I used a custom Joy Clair stamp.  Joy Clair has quite a few styles of these they can make for you and they can even make special stamps from your logo, etc.  (I've blocked out my address with a post it for privacy.)

I did make a 2nd card for today's as I am working to get all my Valentine's Day card made.  Here's a look:

This card was much quicker to make.  I used Distress Ink, blender brush and stencil on a 4.25" by 5.5" piece of white card stock.  I blended it darker at the top and faded out as I went down the paper.  Here you can see I am deciding where to place by sweet kittens from the Joy Clair "Best Buds" stamp set, after I finished the stenciling.

To add some interest, I die cut a dotted square from the front of the card from white and then a smaller one from watercolored paper from the same pack.  I stamped the kitties on that top one and colored them, then added lots of red hearts and stamped the bottom edge with a stamp from Joy Clair's "Valentine Background Builder" stamp set in Distress Oxide Fired Brick.  The red hearts match because I cut them from card stock that I inked with the same color ink.  I added Wink of Stella to the hearts, then some Glossy Accents for shine and dimension.  Here's a closer look:

I hope I have inspired you to create some Valentine cards!  My grandkids always love getting them and so do other family members - it's nice to be remembered on holidays!  If you are interested in my supply list, please go to my blog - Cimbacreativefun - and scroll to the bottom for links to all the goodies I used on my projects today.  

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

Comments

[Becca Yahrling]

Both cards are so fabulous. The narwhal card is really a fun design and beautifully inked and colored. And love the sweet kitties. The BG of hearts is lovely.

[Helen G.]

Adorable cards, Angie!!!