Valentine's K.I.S.S.

I’m one of those people who says, “Yes!” before she thinks. Especially when it comes to Swaps. Don’t get me wrong. I love doing them and am always so honored and amazed with the items that arrive in the mail. It just takes me a while to create on demand. And, truth be told, I’m a bit of a procrastinator.

Side note — for those of you unfamiliar with swaps, please participate when given the chance! Essentially when some wildly organized person (like Lisa Dobry in StencilClub) shoots out an idea and a plan for swapping artwork among a group of people. You may be given a theme, medium, or guidelines what to make. At that point you should <ahem> get busy making your stuff and send it back to the nice organizer, early! 

This was proven a few weeks ago when I was challenged by the 8-9 pieces needed for a Valentine’s Swap my shop helper, Valerie, was conducting with Ephemera Paducah fans. Lamenting about this to Mary Beth who was so wise to say, “cut a heart out of a journal page or collage paper. Hearts are always cute.”

Dang! She was right! TONS of painted paper, gel prints, art journals, and samples from workshops are in piles around the studio. Don’t know about you, but something about these papers always feels special to me.

I enhanced the pages with stenciling (of course!) VERY randomly with my favorite colors, keeping the collage papers in a pile as I stenciled.

I used 9x12s to cover lots of territory

Collage paper in piles - I see one of Sue Pelletier's Loose Women on a page!

As you can see, I just plopped some of my favorite stencils down and applied Paper Artsy Fresco & Dina Wakley Paints with abandon.

Stencil on the pile

Before cutting out, I added a few stripes of Washi Tape and stamped with black ink (random, random, random).

Once the pages were deemed done I set myself up in front of the television cutting hearts out like a Kindergartner....and I loved it. I didn’t look where I was cutting as when I think too much it doesn’t work out quite as well. Most often I folded the page over so I was cutting from the back.

A prolific card maker back in the day, I am sad to say I’ve gotten away from it. What started me on my crafting adventures 20+ years ago was a love of rubber stamps and card making. As I dug out a box of natural-colored cardstock and an Uhu Gluestick, it all came back.

I was pleased to figure out a rhythm quickly as I stuck hearts to the fronts of the cards. I decided to go with what always works:

Keep. It. Simple. Silly.
Mary Beth was right! Hearts are always cute!

Stencils I used: Carolyn Dube's Uplifting Word Stencil L258, Jessica Sporn's Hearts, Flowers & More L300, and Nathalie Kalbach's Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil L319.