Birthday and Valentine cards

This week I neglected my blog a bit. It's not that I wasn't crafty. I just never got around to posting anything. I made several cards trying to get ahead of the game. My boys are turning 4 on the 8th so I made their birthday cards in advance. I also made Valentine cards for them and my husband. Trust me when I say I am never this prepared. However I decided I was going to do them now because so often I have so many other projects going on that I never end up making things for my own family. So, let's start with the birthday cards. I am thrilled with them. They're my first shaped cards! The first is a cow card as requested by my son. He has been telling me that's what he wants for his birthday card for at least a month. He saw it in the Create A Critter book. He's always very interested in what I'm doing at the craft table (read up my butt ;) ).

It even stands up! I made the party hat for the cow with Simply Charmed. The white part of the cow is flocked in white. I just got two bottles of flocking this week to use on these cards and I think I am in love! I can see a new obsession coming.

The next shape card is an ice cream cone from Simply Charmed.

The cone is flocked in brown. The white on the cone and the ice cream are embellished with frosted lace Stickles. The face of course is my new Peach Keen doll faces, the big one that comes in the set. Neither of my shaped cards lined up perfectly so if any one has any tips or knows of any tutorials I should check out please let me know.

Next up we have Valentine cards for the boys.

I saw a similar idea on the blog Add Ink and Stamp by Lisa Young. I made the card with SU I Heart Hearts and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set, the Heart to Heart, Scallop Trim and Word Window punches, Real Red and Whisper White card stock, glimmer paper, and patterned paper that came in the Filled with Love bundle. I pilfered these tootsie rolls from goodie bags the boys got at a recent birthday party. I did promise they'd get them back!

I hope I don't spoil anything for fellow swappers in my SU demonstrator group but here is the card I made for our Feb. swap.

This card was made with Very Vanilla and Real Red card stock and again patterned paper that came in the Filled with Love Bundle.  The patterned paper is cut into 1/2" and 1" strips and adhered to a 4"x5" piece of  red cardtsock. Then I ran the whole thing through the Big Shot with the top note die. The stamp and greeting are from Filled with Love and punched with the Curly label punch. I embossed the vanilla card stock with a texture plate and used vanilla ribbon.

My last card this week is a Valentine for my hubby.

These cute little penguins are cut from the Simply Charmed cartridge. I gave them faces with my Peachy Keen critters set. Aren't they sweet? I used my new iRock to embellish the bows as well as a white gel pen. The card base is an SU color we don't carry anymore, Pink Passion I think and so is the layer it was from the natural assortment they used to carry. I used a texture plate and the big shot to emboss the card base. Ribbon is from my stash. I love how the heart came out. The sentiment is from Filled with Love and stamped with Versa Mark and white embossing powder. I used the white gel pen again around the heart.

Tomorrow I am going to a full day crop so looking forward to having some more layouts to post next week!