Colored Pencil Notecards: My Favorite Things Joyful Heart Bears

I have been a huge fan of Stacey Yacula's artwork for a long time. The first set of rubber stamps I bought when I started card making were images of her adorable owls and bunnies.  So the fact that she is now designing stamps for My Favorite Things makes me oh so happy!  The images in the new Joyful Heart Bears stamp set are adorable, and I love how they can be used for both Valentine and non-Valentine cards.

One feature of Stacey's artwork that I've always admired is her use of soft colors.  Since I usually veer towards the bright and colorful, I decided to try my hand at a softer, more neutral palette for these bears.  I chose to color them with my Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils to achieve a softer look.  I am far from an expert in using colored pencils, so I simply colored them in layers until I had built up color to achieve the look I was going for, adding in some flicks here and there so make the bears look fuzzy.  I had so much fun coloring my first bear that I colored another and decided to make two simple notecards.  I cut the panels out with my A2 Stitched Rectangle dies and added some hand stitching around the edges.

One of my favorite aspects of card making is the ability to add in special details that let the recipient know that they are receiving a handmade card, so I decided to add some texture to the balloons.  For my pink card, I cut a balloon out of pink wool felt and added some hand beading with little flower sequins.  For the blue card, I cut a heart out of cardstock and glued some 3 mm sequins to make a subtly sparkly little balloon.  I also decided to add some little butterflies from the same Joyful Hearts set, cut them out with the coordinating dies, and pop them up with foam tape for some extra dimension.

To finish the cards, I layered my panels on top of some fun foam and mounted them to my card bases.  I just love the sweet simplicity of these little cards!

I hope you enjoyed these cards!  Links to the products I used are below.  I participate in the My Favorite Things  affiliate program, which means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links I share at no additional cost to you.  Thank you so much for your support, and I'll be back soon with another project featuring more products from this awesome release!

Garden Card with My Favorite Things Heart Art and Heart Shaker Window Trio

One of my favorite things about paper crafting is the ability to channel our emotions into our creations.  After recently spending a long weekend thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous weather in Florida at a soccer tournament, and then being blasted with 7 degree temperatures when reluctantly returning home, I've found myself thinking about the sun and all things warm.  So while my flower beds lay dormant for a few more months (*sob*), why not create a colorful garden on a card?

To create this card, I turned to my stash of my most-loved My Favorite Things Die Namics and gorgeous products from their new release.  I started by cutting a stitched panel with my A2 Stitched Rectangle Die Namics and adding a trio of heart cutouts with MFT's new Heart Trio Shaker die.  I stamped the gorgeous center heart with the new Heart Art stamp set and die cut it with MFT's Free with $60 heart die.

I then went to creating my surrounding garden.  I die cut my roses with the large and small Mini Rolled Roses Die Namics.  I then die cut some daisies from MFT's Stitched Flowers Die Namics.  To create some dimension, I cut a slit between two of the petals and overlapped the cut petals, creating a cupped flower.  After adhering some pom pom centers, I couldn't resist adding some hand stitching to the larger daisies for some more interest.  I added some foliage from my favorite Fab Foliage Die Namics and some additional stitched teal flowers from the same Stitched Flowers set.

To finish the card, I used the new Heart Trio Shaker Pouches, cutting off the center heart so I could layer up my sentiment heart.  I filled the two outer shaker pouches with pretty pink and white flower sequins and adhered the panel to my card base.  Hand stitching, pom poms, shaker pouches and dimensional flowers all aboard, I decided to call this card finished before things got really out of hand.  LOL

I am a huge fan of My Favorite Things because their products are so timeless and versatile.  I love how these new products are perfect for Valentine's cards, but how they also translate so well to cards that can be sent all year.  I think this one is destined for someone currently stuck in a cold climate like me - I hope it gives her a warm smile!

I hope you enjoyed this project!  Links to the products I used are below.  I participate in the My Favorite Things affiliate program, which means that I receive a small commission when products are purchased through the links I share at no additional cost to you.  Thank you so much for your support, and I'll see you soon!

Cross Stitch Love Card with My Favorite Things New Double the Love Die Namics

Hello crafty friends!  I am so happy to finally be back and posting here... I have missed it!  I was forced to take an extended break because life happened blew up, which left no time for crafting.  Every time I passed through my craft room a little twinge would hit my heart because I missed it so so much.  We have finally hit a lull, and I am so thrilled to have found the time to start creating again!

There is no better time to shake the dust off than when My Favorite Things has a new release, and I am here today with my first of a set of new cards.  I was instantly in love with the new Double the Love Die Namics, and I was excited to see if I could combine this bold, graphic sentiment with some cross stitching to create a clean and simple card.

I started off by die cutting a panel with my "Love" sentiment and a heart from MFT's new Heart Trio Shaker Die Namics.  I then added a stitched border using my A2 Stitched Rectangle Die Namics and hand stitched the border.  I added a sentiment in the lower corner from MFT's new Joyful Heart Bears stamp set by Stacey Yacula.

I then created another slightly-smaller panel and die cut two panels of stitch holes using my Cross Stitch Bookmark Die Namics (everyone needs to have this in their stash - this die packs such a punch!)  I then cross stitched a plaid pattern to underlie the Love sentiment and heart cutout I created on my top panel.

When I was done with the stitching, the rest of the card came together in minutes.  I added some smaller stitched hearts from MFT's Cocoa Cups and some even smaller hearts from the Band Aids Die Namics to accent the card.  After layering the panels on top of a red cardstock base, this clean and simple card was done!

I can't tell you how happy I am to be back and that you stopped by.  Links to the products I used are below.  I participate in the My Favorite Things affiliate program, which means that I receive a small commission on products purchased through the links I share here at no additional cost to you.  I hope you enjoyed this project and I'll be back soon!