I decided to start by using heart shapes that I already had from last year. I also used the Cuttlebug to emboss hearts on the cover of the cards. Here are my first four. Sometimes you just need to start somewhere, anywhere, to let it start flowing. Also, the sentiments I printed out are sentiments from my heart--so sister, daughter, all you need is love, love of my life--those are loves I have. They will probably be receiving these cards! It's a good thing I don't have more followers, right, or the surprise will be ruined!

Sometimes I feel as if I'm never going to get another fresh idea! My husband assures me I will. Now the Valentine's Day challenge without being totally corny. Or is it perfectly OK to be corny? I sense it is.

The latest cards I've made. I really like making daisies using a punch, gluing them together, then adding a center. Also I experimented with stamping a background of pink daisies using the cardstock I punched flowers out of as a stencil.

I haven't posted in a couple of months due to a camera malfunction. I bought a new camera a couple of days ago and began taking pictures of cards as I made them. More to come.

One of the (myriad) fun things about making cards is using paper that I have bought in different places at different times. These are special because the cardstock I used for the vases was bought in Vancouver 1 1/2 years ago at a little papercraft store on Granville Island when I was visiting my daughter Hannah who lives there with her wonderful husband.

Although I have clear stamps and embossing powder I am still reluctant to risk wrecking a card by stamping in the wrong place. Any suggestions? I think the "thank you" in this card would have been lovely in an embossed pink script, sans outline.

When I re-read these posts I realize I am such a freakazoid. But those who love me love me anyway!

I tried my han.d at pastel compositions on ivory paper. I think I like them but they are not as striking. I'm still not done with this flower-in-vases thing, since I don't yet own every Martha Stewart flower punch. But I did get her cupcake punch and while it is a small cupcake, I think I'm going to try to design birthday or wedding cards with tiers of cupcakes. Unfortunately the power of suggestion is very strong with me and I might end up having irresistible urges to visit Betty or have an affair with Duncan (Crocker or Hines, of course).

My "workshop" is a room in my basement which used to belong to my daughters (one after the other) with my computer, a TV and DVD player, and a daybed so my cats can keep me company while I work on cards AND begin to watch all the old seasons of Lost while I work on cards. Here are the latest ones, created while watching the first, second, and third discs of season one. They are not inspired at all by the story, as you can see. No smoke monsters, no wild boars, and certainly no sparks flying back and forth between Jack and Kate. I run upstairs after I finish each card and have to show poor Chuck my latest creation. "Very creative, girl," he says.

Today I was at Home Depot and Lowe's and I was drawn to the displays of all the paint chips, especially the textured ones. The green vase is a granite-finish chip and the blue one is a light blue with a silvery patina.

I also found some terra cotta and some marbleized samples.

Michael's had Martha Stewart products 30% off, so I bought a hydrangea flower punch and a frond punch.

What do you think?

I think the vase is too big but otherwise I'm really having fun with flowers and vases.

I love making these vases and bouquets. I definitely need more flower punches, though. Sale at JoAnn's today and tomorrow.

These were experiments in making bouquets of flowers. On one of my earlier posts there was an orange vase with flowers, and I tediously cut and glued thin strips of green card stock to make stems and leaves. I had the idea then to get florists' wire and cut lengths of it for stems, which I did on the card with the rhinestone-centered flowers. As you can see, you can't even see the stems at all! So on the second one, I just forgot about stems and added leaves and the flowers right on top.

Live and learn.

The three cards I made last night are in honor of my friend Angie who loves Americana and country themes. I had some stars and stripes paper and played around with square shapes (my latest fixation).

Today I'm experimenting with color blocking. I have some square punches and I like to layer colors and shapes. I'm getting overwhelmed, though, with all the ideas I see online and in books. I want to do all of them, but I think I should stick to one theme at a sitting.

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