Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? It has never been one that is a big deal for me, but I think that goes back to the fact that my late husband and I had our first date on Feb. 15th. We always chose to mark that day and didn't worry much about Valentine's Day. Also... if you don't show the people you love that you love them the other 364 days a year, then Valentine's Day really just doesn't mean much.
Now... I like to make a card or two for the people that I care about. It isn't because I don't try to show them the rest of the time, but mostly because I like to do that little something extra. I decided to use the Bee Mine Suite of products to make some cards. I love the colours, and the bees are just darn cute.
I used coordinating colours to make my cards today. When you purchase the DSP (designer series paper), the packaging has all of the colours that coordinate with the paper listed on the front. This set has some great bright and fresh colours: Petal Pink, Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Sweet Sorbet and Lemon Lime Twist. I love the combination, and I played it off of some Basic Black layers to really highlight and emphasize them.
The bees are super easy to create. Rather than trying to stamp and then punch them out, wasting paper if I don't get them lined up just so, I choose to punch out the paper first and then stamp the images on the pieces. With the set being photopolymer, lining up the images on the cut pieces is super easy once you attach the stamps to the clear blocks. They are all see through, and you can just line up the image and go. The punch has three components: the bee's body, a large heart to use for the wings or a heart, and a small heart for the antennae. You can set up the bee so that it is flying left, right, or even do it vertically and add an extra large heart for the second pair of wings.
The two cards I made are both fun fold cards. The first one has a piece of DSP on the right inside layer that is popped up with dimensionals in order to act as a "catch" for the cover of the card. The focal point is attached using two small pieces that act as a hinge to swivel it out from the cover so it remains prominent even when the cover is folded.
Inside is a narrower panel for writing the message. I added a bee to the front and popped it up, and the one inside and on the envelope are glued flush. I liked to decorate the inside and the envelope to match. I don't always do an envelope as sometimes I just don't bother with them and place the card inside the gift back as is, but more and more I am making them so that they are always a set. It is much easier to do that when I have the materials out instead of digging them back out to do just the envelope. Grab and go... so much easier.
The second card is made on a piece of Lemon Lime Twist, which I again used black mats on in order to have the DSP show crisply against the background. The first time I cut the base layer, I goofed and it would not fold properly. Even us "experienced" crafters mess up sometimes! I started again and got it mostly right the second time through. It is so helpful that I have a set of templates (thanks to Jackie Bolhuis from Klompen Stampers and her series of Fun Fold videos) that help me to see the card as it should be, as well as to know the measurements - they are written right on the templates.
It took a few tries to figure out how I wanted the DSPs to work on the Lemon Lime Twist card as I wanted them to look appealing together both when it was closed, but also when it was opened. I didn't want to have the layers mismatched and not make sense either. Bees flying under flowers didn't seem to work for me.
This fun fold doesn't have a lot of room to write a message, so I added two small pieces of Basic White to the two small inside panels, but left some of the DSP revealed around the edges. I used the "love you" stamp on one of them as well as adding the hearts to them. I wanted to take a photo of the card before I actually wrote inside of it, but you can also add panels to the back to have more room to write.
This suite of products has quickly become one of my favourites. At first, because it was a "Valentine" set, I wasn't really sure I even wanted it, but purchased it as it was the set used for the Stampin' Up! virtual event held before Christmas. I wasn't thrilled, but after working with it as much as I have... I absolutely love it. It is cute, can be used for so many things other than just Valentines, and is such a nice break from all of the winter stuff I have bee doing.
I like how both of these cards turned out. The Bee Mine Suite, including the Bee My Valentine bundle of the stamps and punch, the DSP, pillow boxes, ribbon and embellishments are all available in the 2024 Jan-Apr Mini Catalogue. I love all of the parts of this suite, which is not always the case for me. Sometimes I will only buy pieces of a suite rather than buy parts of it that I won't likely use. Sometimes... that is just the DSP!
You can look at this bundle by using the link below. Don't forget to look for the current host code on my blog. If you are buying this before the end of February (it makes a great set even if it ISN'T Valentine's Day), don't forget to order your Sale-a-bration items along with it. The sale is only on until Feb. 29, so that makes a great reason to act fast and do it now!
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