All You Need Is Love - Mediterranean Achiever's Blog Hop

Howdy Friends!  I hope you are all ready to hop-along with the rest of us!  We've got lots of super projects for you this month, with our "All You Need Is Love" theme.  

You may just be starting the blog hop here (I'm Cynthia Millan) - or may have come from the person previous to me in the list. If you get off track at any time, the full lineup is listed at the bottom.

But while you are here, let me show you my simple but super project.

I love the new Balloon Celebrations bundle and thought that a bevy of beautiful hearts might be just the thing.  But honestly, I needed to spice it up a little for a Love theme, don't you think?  

So I promptly punched large hearts using my Sweetheart Punch or  small hearts using the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.  I needed a medium sized heart and lo and behold, the Circle Card Thinlit has a perfect-sized heart to use.  But even using hearts as my balloons didn't quite have the oomphf and impact that I wanted.  So I used one of my favourite embellishments....Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  

Honestly, coat Pink Pirouette or Blushing Bride hearts with versamark then Iridescent Ice, and you end up with a totally cute and super sparkly heart that has a lot of Wow-factor.

I also wanted to break up the white space around my balloons, without detracting from them as my focal point.  Enter the  great flourishing vine image from the First Sight stamp set.  Stamped in versamark ink then embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder, once again gives a fantastic but subtle sparkle to the card.

And my sentiment?  Well that is from the Sale-A-Bration set, What I Love.  And it is just perfect, don't you think?

Of course, all these beautiful balloons would be flat and uninteresting without that perfect little tool that Stampin' Up! sells......the dimensional. 

Have I told you before that the SU! dimensionals rock!!  They are waaaaay better than any other knock-off on the market and are worth their weight in gold.  And doesn't a little 3-D effect totally make or break a bevy-of-balloons card, anyway?

You'd almost think these were ready to float right up off the card, wouldn't you?

I am planning on sending this card to my eldest daughter, believe it or not.  She is in Australia for a YEAR(!!!) - doing missionary work with kids in high school.  She's only been gone 3 weeks but her absence is being felt in our home.  She left behind 2 other sisters and a brother who all miss her.  A lot.  Not to mention her Dad and Mom.  But we *ARE* proud of her, I can tell you that!  So a cute card to tell her "What I Love" is pretty perfect!  For the record...the inside of the card answers the question.  The answer, of course, is "You".

At any rate, this month's theme suited me just fine.  All you need *IS* love, right??

Hope you enjoy this project.  Have a great time hopping through all the other blogs.  And have a super rest-of-the-week.   God Bless,   ~Cynthia   <><
 

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello there my Friends
And Happy St. Valentine's Day to all of you!!

I had the absolute privilege several times this week of having some of my friends come and make Valentine's cards - in secret - for their wives (and in one case, for his sisters and mother).

I LOVE helping my friends create something special for the people who are special to them.  And it was especially nice to get a bunch of men stamping since I *KNOW* their wives are going to open those cards today and be thoroughly WOW'ed by the fact that their hubbies made plans to go out in secret and create these for them!

Wish I were a fly on the wall in a bunch of households today!!








I know that everyone has a different sense of what is appropriate for their loved ones in a Valentine card so I wanted to present them with several options.  After all - the card made for the mother-in-law is not the same as the one made for the wife, and the ones for sisters are not the same as the one for mom.  Only rule - they all had to be simple to create.  I felt that each of these met those criteria. Simple but elegant.  And hand made!!  So here were the options I gave the varying gents.  

And let me tell you - my gentlemen friends each put their own special slant on the cards.  And they did an absolutely fantastic job!!   I am excited to hear about the joy and smiles they will cause today.

And to all of you - from me - I wish you a Happy St. Valentine's Day.  May you be blessed richly, today and always.  
God Bless,     ~Cynthia   <><