As I mentioned in my last posting, we've had an unusual amount of extreme cold weather and snow this winter. We LOVE the snow and other than the shoveling getting tiresome after a bit, we enjoy the beauty of watching the snow fall and playing in it when the storm subsides. Last night we went for a walk and Jordan took great delight in throwing himself into the piles of snow built up beside each house from the neighbors shoveling. What does that have to do with this card, you ask? This past week I had a lovely group of ladies registered for my first Cards Only Club and it turned out to be a snow day so the classes were cancelled...boohoo! Since the ladies couldn't come to me, I thought I'd post one of the projects from the class so they could cry over what they missed (just kidding). CASE'd from a card on the Stampin' Up! demonstrators website, I tweaked this design in order to use product that I purchased in bulk some months ago and needed to use up before they collected any more dust. Have I mentioned that I have a tendency to hoard supplies? Definitely need to break that habit so my pocketbook will stop crying! I had some retired Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze cardstock that I finally decided to part with rather reluctantly but this group of ladies would have appreciated my sacrifice since it has been one of my favorite In Color releases to date. This design is very simple and perfect for a quick but pretty card that can easily be mass produced with different sentiments.

Happy almost Valentine's Day! Today's post is a long one, which means you might want to prepare yourself with your favorite beverage before plowing ahead. I've been a busy bee lately, crafting up a storm for Valentine's Day, classes, and volunteer gifts as well as offering a free class to 28 ladies at our annual Europe-Wide Ladies Retreat held last week. Thank goodness for friends who willingly stay up until 2 a.m. to cut cardstock and put course materials together or I would never have made it through (overflowing gratitude to Marilyn and Tasha) The unfortunate reality: I didn't take a single picture of the class or the projects I demonstrated! Sigh....these things happen but I could have kicked myself for not bringing my camera along. Back to the post at hand: the project shown above is from a box template available free on Lauren Meader's new business website and one which I made as a gift for my technique club attendees in January. I revamped the design for Valentine's Day and made 14 of these beauties for the wonderful ladies who volunteer with me at the high school student store.