Welcome to our February Blog Hop! We are featuring Valentine products this month. If you don’t have all your cards and treats ready yet, follow along with us for some inspiration.

Do you ever feel like your house is a little bare after all the Christmas decorations have been packed away? My granddaughter remarked the other day that she missed all the decorations. I decided that we would all enjoy a little seasonal art (emphasis on little!) to mark the holidays.  For my first effort, I chose to make a collage of Stampin’ Up! Valentine images. I’ve been admiring “inchies art” for several years but haven’t taken the time to create my own. (I’ve had the 12″ x 12″ frame for several years with the best intentions of creating one…) My inchies are actually 3″ square, as I wanted room for stamped images and embellishments. I put a black mat behind each square, as the squares just seemed to be floating around on a blue sea of DSP.  I wanted each square to make a statement on its own, as well as complete the bigger picture.

 

The layout itself was a little trickier than I imagined. How hard can it be? I thought.  Just stick the squares down, three down and three across.  Well…. Finding a way to keep those little squares lined up straight was a challenge for my crooked eye! My solution was to do a little math and then cut strips from 12″ cardstock to create a grid. Once it was taped in place, all I had to do was put adhesive on the back of squares and stick them down. When I had all the squares stuck down, I gently lifted off the strips. (I left the strips in a grid pattern and slipped it in the back of the frame to save time for my springtime inchie art!)

I had no real plan other than a valentine theme and using my new stamp sets, so I just stamped and cut a whole pile of little art. I ended up embossing several of the pieces to give them depth and deepen the color under the glass. In the end, I’m left with a pile of unused bits that will go on my valentine cards (that I haven’t even started yet. Yikes!)

If you haven’t made yourself any inchie art, I highly recommend it. It’s a great excuse to play with all your beautiful stamps, paper, and embellishments and have seasonal art work in your home! If you have any questions, just leave a comment below, and I will be happy to share more details with you.

Thanks for stopping by today. Click on the links below to check out what the other INKers have made for you!

Supplies:

Mary is next on our list. Just click on the link below to travel over to her blog.

Our Blog Hop Line-Up

Di         http://www.stampingwithdi.com

Barb    http://www.beelinestamping.com

Kathya http://www.stampwithkathya.com

Connie https://www.texasschoolmarm.com   (You are here!)

Mary   http://www.doggandponyshow.blogspot.com

Trisha  https://www.creativelystamping.blog