I couldn’t! This card sketch was so simple and fun that I couldn’t just make ONE, so I created one for everyone who orders from my website in March 🙂 Here is Clean & Simple Sketch #130:
Don’t forget that is the last month to earn Sale-a-Bration products free (like this paper or the ribbons and buttons…) with every $50 order you make!
Thanks to Random.org, comment #6 by Latricia is the winner of the BLOG CHOCOLATE prize! E-mail me with your mailing address, Latricia, and you’ll get THIS:
And for some more chocolate valentine’s inspiration, here’s pure BLISS (those dark chocolate hearts co-ordinate beautifully with SU! Brushed Gold, Real Red and Whisper White card stock!):
It won’t come as any surprise that my favorite set from the new Occasions Mini Catalog is “Eat Chocolate” and here is the card I created for the Stitched Stampers Occasions Mini Swap (inspired by a Mojo Monday sketch):
I added a little Crystal Effects on the chocolate and now it looks good enough to eat!
Now if you are a local (Utah County)…have you tried “The Chocolate” (a dessert cafe) in Orem? We just discovered it a few months ago and I can definitely recommend skipping dinner and just going for dessert…
And since we are chatting about chocolate, may I recommend a good book?
This is a wonderful new cookbook by Annette Lyon (who also writes LDS Fiction) and I can say that she really makes chocolate fun! I got to visit with her when she came to sign books a few months ago in our Deseret Book Store (where I have worked for 5 years) and I was so excited when this came out!
My Great-Grandmother Charlotte Jane Cole Grey’s biography was titled “I’d Rather Read a Recipe Than A Book”. I think the fact that I like to read recipes AND books comes from both Charlotte and Montrue, her daughter (my Grandma) who worked for years at the Dixie College bookstore… the love of books & cooking run in the family!
Since “I’m That Friend (Who Has Chocolate)” here’s a chance to win some BLOG CANDY CHOCOLATE! Leave a comment (or a recipe!) about your favorite chocolate indulgence and YOU COULD WIN a delicious chocolate treat AND the “It’s All Good” stamp set (retired). Comment by midnight, February 8th and I’ll announce the winner on the 9th!
If it’s a challenge to come up with a Valentine for your man who balks at pastel colors, I’m here to lend a little inspiration! My husband isn’t afraid to wear an apron in the kitchen (he was grateful when I finally gave him a masculine version that reads “I TURN GRILLS ON”) but he has a strange aversion to the color pink. And since women are more likely to be making cards and gifts for their husbands/boyfriends, we should show some respect for those men who enjoy receiving a hand-stamped valentine, but want to retain their man-card.
Here’s a Not-Quite-Navy Explosion Card that we created at my Stamp Club last week:
All you need to do is add some photos or a message of love inside:
And here is a Tuxedo-Ready version using the new “Lots of Love” letterpress plate and Glimmer Paper from the Occasions Mini Catalog:
One thing I love about the Glimmer paper is that NO SPARKLES rub off onto your fingers, clothes or face…but if you need it on your face, you can always use Dazzling Diamonds glitter 🙂
Don’t forget to register for the Valentine’s Stamp Camp by Monday, February 7th!
Did you know that Valentines Day is the holiday when people send the most cards (after Christmas)? If you didn’t get your Holiday Cards sent, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE! Don’t miss the Stampin’ Up! Filled with Love Promotion...the perfect choice to create art from the HEART, but only available until January 24th.
Thank you, Clean & Simple, for another way to use some of my beloved designer series paper scraps! This is the sketch:
And here is my Valentine {{xoxo}}
Truth be told, my favorite part of Christmas is getting the mail out of the mailbox! For the other eleven months of the year, there’s not much to look forward to amongst the bills, credit card offers and mass-mailed advertisements. But during the holidays, people actually send real-live-honest-to-goodness-hand-signed-cards/letters, and what a treat it is! The whole family knows that it’s Mom’s prerogative to collect the mail, and to cross mom is risky business.
It’s much better to hold a card in your hand than to get a message in your e-mail inbox that reads “So & So Sent You a Card”. Really? That ranks right up there with a “Gift” on Facebook: completely, totally and utterly useless. What am I going to do with a virtual Ice Cream Cone? Sure there aren’t any calories, but the sender didn’t give any thought about what flavor I liked best or come with me to enjoy eating it together, which is what friendship is all about. Remember this, dear reader: The tangible will always trump the digitally simulated!
While I love hand-stamped cards the most, I do have a few criteria by which I judge exceptional holiday greetings:
Before I continue, let me give a disclaimer: My own family has had an almost-20-year tradition of sending Thanksgiving cards. We would mass produce close to 180 hand-stamped cards early in the autumn, and getting them out FIRST seemed to remind people to return the greeting sometime during the ensuing holiday season. It also provided the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude for our friends and family, and it is certainly heart-felt appreciation. And occasionally, we don’t have time to write a personal greeting in each, but sometimes we try.
Last year we decided that since our surname is “Spendlove”, it would make sense to send VALENTINES! So we have switched to sending holiday greetings in February, and now our mailing list is MUCH smaller, as I don’t feel the need to send someone a card who hasn’t at least contacted me in the last year 
Now we get to the good part: Let me share some of the first hand-crafted cards I’ve received from my awesome friends so far this season!! (I’m sharing those who have used at least one Stampin’ Up! product and will post more on my Stampin’ Up! Facebook page as they arrive). Hope you’ll send me one of yours, too!
Clockwise from top left: From Suzie, Bobbie, Lacy, Leara and Shelli.
THREE is such a magic number: Like Charlie’s Angels or the Three Musketeers. How about spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread? Faith, Hope & Charity? Harry, Ron & Hermoine or (for you “Wicked” fans like me:) Glinda, Elphaba and Fyero…”witch” brings us to the point today, this classic card sketch (Fall-to Layout #113 from Clean & Simple Stamping):
I must be in sync with the gals over at Clean & Simple Stamping because this is the project I took to the cabin in Pine Valley to work on over the weekend:
These are my birthday cards for the demonstrators in my SU! family this year (sorry, ladies, if this spoils the surprise!!) and they just happened to follow the C&S Fall-to-Layout #111:
I am making these cards in lots of different colors, like the one below that showcases some of the 2010 In-Colors (Peach Parfait and Concord Crush). I wasn’t sure they would look good together, but this just goes to show you that the hues in each color family prepared by SU! really *are* compatible with each other!!
Creative Juice by Loni 
