Cutie Valentines

A friend asked me to make some Valentine's Day cards (in anything but pink, please!) for her grandkids, so I pulled out my trusty Paper Smooches critters and got to work.

Before I show you the cards, Happy Third Anniversary to Paper Smooches!!!!!

You see me use their products here a lot, so it's only fitting I used them on today's cards. :)

Okay, here are the cards. First up: three valentines, starting with a giraffe:

I had fun adding detail to the giraffe. Check out his (glaring, sorry) eye and the fluffy spots and mane:

A very tactile card. :)

Next, a zebra:

and some detail:

And the last valentine is a penguin:

His nose is shiny, but I couldn't get a decent shot of it. :(

For all the valentines, I used Fancy Pants Park Bench papers. I love the blue, grey & yellow, and it got me out of my blue, poppy & yellow rut.  The heart is a Hero Arts Frame Cut die, and I like that it's asymmetrical. I cut some out of black to offset the white against the patterned backgrounds; otherwise they disappeared. I added the red (poppy) hearts for contrast, too, and so I could color the heart in the sentiment.

Wait, that's blue, poppy & yellow. DRAT! I'm still in my rut.

Oh, for the sentiment, I cut up the Thank You sentiment from the Paper Smooches FOLKal Points set to get the You so I could use it with the individual Love from the same set. I'm kinda lovin' the flexibility you get when you cut up your stamps.

All of the valentines follow the now-expired sketch from Less Is More:

I flipped it over for the two critters who were looking to the left so they weren't looking off the edge of the cards.

I also made a zebra birthday card for a first birthday:

This will go to the same little girl who'll get the zebra valentine, so I tried to make it different enough that they wouldn't look the same. (Does that even make sense?) This one uses MME Oxford Lane papers, and I inadvertently made him cross-eyed. :(

This card follows the current  February Sketch For You To Try:

This was a lot of fun!

ETA: I'm also linking to the current Paper Sparks Anything Goes challenge. :)

In other news, I'm actually going to a Super Bowl event this evening. I KNOW! Is there a game on today or something? I'm going for the camaraderie and food, truth be told. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: MS heart confetti punch, SU mini glue dots, HA Ocean Tsumugi note card, Lil' Inker stitched square and rectangle dies, misc chipboard, SU 2-way glue pen, SU brown flock, SU Poppy Parade card stock, PTI numbers dies, and the following:

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