Ladybug Valentine’s Day Cards

Valentine’s Day isn’t until next month, but now is the time to start thinking about cards for the kids to take to school. When I am thinking of ideas for kids Valentine’s Day cards, I try to think small and simple. You may have to make 25-30 of these cards so they need to be quick to make and use as few supplies as possible.

As I was looking through my stamp sets for a good, kid friendly set, I found the perfect one – Little Ladybug from Stampin’ Up!. With some simple stamping and colouring with the Stampin’ Blends, I was able to create 4 different cards.

These cards are not the standard A2 size cards, they are much smaller at 2.75″ x 4″. I made them this size so I could get 4 cards out of 1 sheet of Whisper White cardstock. I also wasn’t worried about trying to find an envelope to fit this size card as envelopes aren’t necessary when the cards are being handed out at school. The photo below shows a standard card size and this smaller size.

To supplement the Little Ladybug stamp set, I used a few stamps from the January 2020 Paper Pumpkin kit, I’ll Bee Yours. The cute bee stamp and sentiments worked beautifully with the ladybugs!

I coloured the ladybugs with the Stampin’ Blends in Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Old Olive, and Daffodil Delight.

I wanted the ladybugs to be all one colour, but to have a variation in dark and light for the wings and the body. Since each colour of the Stampin’ Blends comes with a Dark and Light version, this was the best colouring tool to use. I coloured the wings in a layer of dark colour (Old Olive shown below) and went over the edges a second time to give the colour contrast. The same colouring technique was done with the lighter colour on the body. As you can see in the photo below, it looks like 4 different shades of green on the ladybug, but only 2 pens were used!