Love from Montana

We made it back to Bozeman safely and very glad to be here! I'm tired of driving (700 miles, over 2 days) and Seattle traffic (to downtown and back to Kent three days in a row) and just got back from a trip to the grocery store (4 blocks) for milk. That's the way I like it! My son is in charge of the Superbowl food and we are parking in front of the TV for most of the day. Jeff is doing great and now just faces 12 weeks of non weight bearing~~  That will be May 1st! Doesn't that sound like an eternity from now? I'm hoping his good humor remains intact.

My card for you today is a very special, very custom card!  I had the idea and loved how it turned out, though it took some tweaking. Here's the card, then I'll tell you about it:

Most crafters use an A2 card size, which is 4.25" x 5.50".  I knew that my outline of the state map had to be smaller than that to fit. I traced a small outline that I had and then kept tracing about 1/4" in from the edges, 2 more times, until I had it the size I needed. The much easier way would be to take an image and reduce it on a copier but I didn't have one in the house!  Once I had my image the size I wanted it on paper, I cut it out and traced it on thin plastic, just about gallon milk carton thickness. Now I have a permanent template of the state map. You could also easily use a thin chip board type material. I cut this out and then traced around it on my card paper with the thick end of a Stampin'Up! marker. In no time, I made about 8 of the map outlines.  I then added a felt stick on heart from my treasure trove of cheap craft stuff I've bought over the years and stamped "Love"  from the new Snuggles and Smooches set  (#140326) 

Lastly, I grabbed a "from" stamp from a random Christmas set and used  a "Montana" stamp that I had custom made. I've used this stamp alot, but never combined it with the state map outline or Valentine's Day! I love the effect!  The paper is from the "All Is Calm" paper set, now retired, from this past Holiday  Catalog. 

Hope you have some fun Valentine ideas!  My Valentine card buffet is coming up next Saturday, February 7th so watch for details!  It is an open house, come and go event, perfect for newbies and perfect to bring a friend, sister, Mom, etc to. Hope to see you there!

p.s.  I've added a follow button to this blog which you can click on to get email notifications of when I have updated the blog! Hope it works!

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

Sarah