I still wasn’t ready for the full blown red, pink, hearts and flowers Valentine cards.  Instead I pulled out a couple sheets of non-Valentine paper from Pink Fresh Studio’s Felicity collection.  One features a modern take on a heart print in red, gray and peach.  The other small colorful hearts sprinkled across a white background.

The first set of cards paired the red, gray and peach heart print with a peach/red polka dot paper from my craft room.  I used a simple layout that I had used for the previous batch of Valentine cards.  The heart print paper is used for the focal panel and the polka dot paper is used for the background.  To ensure as many “hearts” as possible are visible, some of the cards are done vertically and others horizontally.  A simple Valentine sentiment is stamped and trimmed into a banner shape.  For the vertical cards, a couple red heart shaped rhinestones were added in the upper right hand corner.

The next couple cards used a new-to-me sketch and an old favorite.  The new sketch features the focal panel trimmed into a banner.  A large die cut heart was added towards the top of the banner and the sentiment strip was popped up over the lower portion of the die cut.  For some sparkle, a couple red rhinestone hearts were added.  The second card used one of my favorite sketches.  The heart print is again used for the focal panel.  To add some interest to the right side of the card, a couple heart rhinestones were added.

At this point there were only a few strips of the polka dot paper left.  I looked for sketches where I could use the strips instead of a full sheet of paper for the background.  The first card used a panel of the heart print paper across the card and the second used a panel down the center of the card, both panels covered the edges of the polka dot strips.  Instead of matting the heart panels, red mirror Love from Lizi peel-offs edged the panels and a couple of die cut hearts were added for embellishment.

The second group of cards pairs the colorful heart print with a teal geometric print also from the Felicity collection.  So far the focal panel on all of the cards were square or rectangular.  For something different, I used a circle focal panel.  A simple “Love” sentiment was stamped and added across the lower portion of the circle.  And for embellishment, a small die cut heart and clear heart shaped rhinestone were added to the end of the sentiment strip.

The next set of cards used a couple of my favorite sketches.  Both cards feature a single large focal panel perfect for featuring the heart print paper.  The first card has a large fish-tailed sentiment banner and a long thin flag cut from a scrap of teal satin mirror cardstock.  The second card features a small die cut heart stamped with a Valentine greeting, making it look like a candy conversation heart.  A few clear heart shaped rhinestones were added next to the focal panel for a little bit of sparkle.

Using the leftover strips of background paper worked so well that I decided to try it again.  The first card used one of the same sketches, but instead of a vertical card, I flipped it horizontally to work with the direction of the heart paper.  Love from Lizi peel-offs, a large die cut heart and a few clear heart shaped rhinestones finish the card.  The second card uses a similar layout, but the vertical strips of the geometric print are different sizes.  The heart paper is matted with some of the teal cardstock and edged with 2 different sizes of Love from Lizi peel-offs.  Instead of a sentiment panel, a few fun Valentine greetings were stamped on small die cut “candy conversation hearts”.

Even though the cards were made for Valentines Day, I think they would work any time of the year.