Happy Monday everyone!  I hope that you all have had a chance to check out my tutorials I posted over the weekend.  In case you didn’t you can find my How to Make a Perfect Bow here and info on my Valentine Defined Card Portfolio here.  And guess what?  I have another mini tutorial for you today so check it out…

So when I saw this sketch by Mary Jo this week I knew that I want to do a row of punched out circles with popped up hearts in the middle.  Now I did something very similar to this on this Day of Gratitude card and included a ‘how to make a window pane’ tutorial.  So today I’m going to show you a similar idea with ‘how to make a row of punched out circles’ tutorial.

Start with a piece of cardstock (mine was 4 1/4 x 1 3/4 Early Espresso.  Punch out five 3/4” circles and use tape to adhere to your cardstock.  This gives you the opportunity to get the circles exactly where you want each one.  I use regular adhesive, but you could use removable if you wanted to.  Once you have your circles where you want them it’s time to punch.

Just position your punch right over the circle you adhered and punch out.  I like to use cardstock on my circles as when I place the punch over them, it sort of ‘locks’ them into place before I punch.

And there you have a perfectly punched out row of 3/4” circles!

Now if you want to add a ‘bow’ and ribbon on the front do that (check out my “how to make a perfect bow” tutorial...this is what I did on this one) and wrap the ends of the ribbon around the back.  I used the Baja Breeze Seam Binding (‘cause I just LOVE that stuff) and an Incolor Glitter Brad.

Add your dimensionals to the back.

You now have the panel you need to finish up your card!

Okay so some card details…the base of the card is Pear Pizzazz.  I took a print from the Nursery Suite Specialty dsp (one of my favoritist paper packs!), layered onto a piece of Early Espresso then to the card front.  Next I added the panel that I made above.  I punched out 5 Regal Rose hearts (using the small individual heart punch) and added them inside the circles using dimensionals.  I punched out a Regal Rose Ribbon strip, cut in half and added that along the bottom of the panel underneath.  To make the ‘tag’ I stamped the greeting from the Filled with Love set using Early Espresso on Pear Pizzazz and punched out using the Decorative Label punch BUT put the greeting in sideways and punch the greeting sideways along the SHORT EDGE.  Put your tag back in in the opposite direction and punch again to make the small tag.  I added this using dimensionals.

So…that’s my card for Mary Jo’s Technostamper Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge this week.  If you haven’t had a chance, check out my Valentine Defined Card Portfolio and card set over on Create with Connie and Mary.  We are offering our early bird special…subscribe for $24.95 for 5 weeks…that’s $5 off the the regular subscription price of $29.95 for 5 weeks of FABULOUS ideas!  Early Bird special ends Saturday, January 22nd!  Don’t delay!

Until next time…HAPPY STAMPIN’!