The Key to My Heart January Paper Pumpkin kit had enough supplies to make nine Valentine’s Day cards. I love the color combination and the lock and key theme. It reminds me of the place where my son got married. There is a fence overlooking the Bosque where couples have attached locks to the fencing, similar to the Love Lock Bridge in Paris. https://pixels.com/featured/love-lock-bridge-paris-amy-sorvillo.htm
I don’t know about you, but I don’t generally send out more than a few Valentine’s Day cards. I made the three cards as designed and then I flipped the cards around and made some very cute birthday cards using some new stamp sets from the January Mini catalog. First, let me show you the cards the kit makes.
To My Valentine – Love is the Key – Key to My Heart
This card has very simple stamping. Some hearts on the Fresh Freesia banner and the sentiment. I love the Calypso Coral baker’s twine included with this kit. The big floppy bow sits under the sentiment and on top of the strip of vellum. Vellum is a great material to add interest to a card without being distracting.
The second card has about the same amount of stamping. This time the hearts are stamped right on to the beautiful Fresh Freesia base and the vellum circle is placed over the top to soften the entire effect. How cute is that gold key? It’s one of the prepunched elements in the kit and I like how the design anchors the sentiments to the locks by floating the tip of the key over the stamped banner.
The third card is very clever. The punched out part is a keyhole that allows the Fresh Freesia wash on the inside of the card to peek through. This is the simplest card of the three, only the sentiment is stamped. Although anytime you have to tie a bow, there is a bit of fussing involved, right? By the way, I saved that punched out keyhole piece for one of my alternative cards.
All of these cards are just beautiful and so simple to make. The “Love is the Key” card would be perfect to send to a couple. But let me show you what else you can do with these kit contents.
Key to My Heart Birthday Card Alternatives
For my alternates I used the base of the keyhole card and on the of the bases in the To My Valentine card. I also used the Desert Details bundle (stamps and dies) and the Queen Bee bundle from the January 2023 Mini Catalog.
For this card, I cut the keyhole card base in half and trimmed it down to 4″x5-1/4″. I glued it down to the base meant for the three-lock card so that the keyhole is upside down and the gold criss-cross hatching shows through the hole making a beautiful vase. The flowers are from the Desert Details stamp set using Calypso Coral and Mango Melody ink. I die cut them with the matching dies. The sentiment is from the Something Fancy stamp set also in the mini catalog, stamped in Calypso Coral.
For the final touch I added a generous amount of champagne rhinestones.
The second card uses the back of the card we cut in half, just the plain Powered Pink base, trimmed down to 4″x5-1/4″. I used a half sheet of Basic White cardstock as the card base. Using stamps from the Queen Bee stamp set, I added some interest to the Powered Pink layer with Calypso Coral. The leaf spray is from the same bundle, stamped in Soft Sea Foam. Notice the keyhole punch out has been transformed into a vase with a stamp from the kit and an Iridescent Pastel gem.
I added a few more gems in the top half of the card to give some balance to the design. My Dayinkers loved creating this alternate and how all the layers came together to form a beautiful birthday card.
I hope you’re having fun in your craft room during these cold winter days. Until next time, Ink up!