Vintage Valentine No. 4

Hello!

I do believe this makes my last vintage Valentine card for the family!  I still can't say who's getting which so that those who view my blog won't know until Valentine's Day itself!

I think this one might be my favorite, but the one with the napkin background (found here) runs a close second.  OK, I like them all. But this one's still my fave.  Warning:  there are lots of pictures in this post!

As with the other cards, this one uses the darling collage sheets that my lovely and talented friend, Heather Hudson, sells in her Etsy shop.  The Bingo card, the little cupid, the "Love" letters and the curvy banner have all come from there.  And all have been printed and cut with my Silhouette Cameo.  I'd probably still be fussy cutting if I'd had to do it by hand...

After I first prepared the base layers by inking all of their edges, I embossed the top base layer and inked the raised areas then lightly swiped a bit of shimmer paint on them with my finger.  VERY lightly.  It just adds a bit to the overall texture of the background.

This cute little number is from Heather's Cute Cupid Cherubs collage sheet and I've added a bit of coordinating glitter glue to the little shorts, roses, wings and banner.  I didn't fussy cut her (him?), I used my Silhouette Cameo for all of my cutting needs.  I just don't have that much patience.

He (she?) is floating above one of Heather's Vintage Bingo Cards, which I've edged with bronze mica chips for a bit of frantage effect.  I love frantage.  I love saying the word.  Fran-taaaahge...

Once again I've used letters from the Vintage Ivory Alphabet Text boxes, only this time I edged them with gold glitter glue.  My apologies, I couldn't wait for it to dry completely before snapping the picture.  Patience.  Remember?  Not my biggest virtue.

The banner is from the Romantic Banner set.  I snipped off one end (you'll see it later) and inked the edges.

I took a play directly from Heather's play book and inserted a little surprise tag behind the Bingo card.  I've used a tag from her Vintage Medium Tag Bases as, well, the base of the tag, then topped it with one of the oval elements from that same set.

The tiny little tickets are from her Victorian Shabby Tickets collage sheet. There are 35 tickets with various images and sentiments on them in this set - truly a versatile and oh so cute set!

Here are two of them up close, edged with clear glitter glue.  A free hug to the recipient!

Then there's the big, fat, crinkly, silky bow made with the wonderful ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon. (The pink seam binding is from there too.)  Don't you just love double loop bows?  I attached a little handmade charm to it...

...as well as an even tinier metal rose charm.  OK, you've probably guessed this card is going to a female member of the family.  Shhh...

And that about wraps up my card except to show that I finished the inside with the rest of the curvy banner that I snipped off from the front, a cute little heart from the Conversation Hearts Images and Bases set, and some more letters. Trust the camera to point out that even wearing TWO pairs of glasses, I can't see to put them in a straight line.

That's it for today, and I thank you for joining me.  This has been a fun few days playing with Heather's wonderful collage sheets.  They go together beautifully whether they're holiday-related or not, and I urge you to go over to her Etsy shop and have a look around.  Then go check out her blog to view her beautiful creations and don't forget to visit her new challenge website and join in the fun!  This fortnight's challenge is Anything Goes, and she even offers a freebie (go here )!

Happy crafting!!

Challenges:

Crafty Ribbons #75 - Anything Goes w/Ribbon
Fussy and Fancy #106 - Vintage
Sugar Creek Hollow #79 - Love and Adore
Pile It On #5 - Add Ribbon
Eclectic Ellapu - Add Texture
Craft-Dee BowZ - Anything Goes + Handmade Bow
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Love Notes
Creative Cutting Challenge #27 - Love
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart (on the tag and inside the card)
Craft Hoarder's Anonymous #1 - Show Your Style (mine is vintage, bling, and bows)

Sweet Tweet - Digi Darla's Challenge Day

Hello!

It's challenge time over at Digi Darla's again, and this week's theme is "Be My Valentine."  One winner will receive 5 Digi Darla images, and any entries using a DD image get entered into a SECOND drawing for 3 images, so you could conceivably win 8, yes, eight Digi Darla images.  How cool is THAT?

The image I'm using today is "Country Mailbox 1," and lest you're thinking "that's not very Valentine-y," check out the mail in the box.  See those teensy little hearts sprinkled on the envelope?  Yep, it's Valentine-y.

This is the second card I have colored using Copics since the absolutely FANTASTIC Copics classes that I was privileged to be able to take last weekend.  The instructor was the fabulously talented Cindy Lawrence who made all those hours of instruction utterly and completely enjoyable.  Actually, I don't really have the right words to describe the weekend as the lessons were so complete and thorough, and I had been wanting to learn how to color with Copics almost since the day I began making cards last January.  I discovered Cindy not long thereafter and have followed her work and blog (here) since then, so of course I jumped at the chance to take her classes.  If YOU get the chance, don't delay because they WILL sell out.

Here's a pic of the two of us before the Saturday class began.  It's a tad blurry, but that's ok - I'll take a pic with my favorite color-er any way I can get it.  Ha!

OK, so back to the card.  As you know by now, it was colored with Copics.  And the rest of the card looks simple, right?  I have to tell you this card nearly drove me to the moon and back.  I butchered more CS and wasted more ribbon and twine that you can shake a marker at.  I love color and rarely, RARELY use much white on my cards, but none of the colors looked quite right today.  Ever have those days when you just can't put two colors together and have them look right?  Well that was me today.  I must say, though, that I now have several pretty folded base layers in a file folder waiting to be used.  Red.  Dark brown.  Pink.  And one in the trash.  <sigh>  The image finally looked at me and said "I need to be on white CS."  Fine.

 The sentiment layers had to be redone with different colors (um, white).

The bow had to be remade into a smaller one.  Even the baker's twine and button had to be changed, and the twine tried to unravel on me.  I won. 

At least the little shrink plastic heart charm cooperated.  It, too, is colored with Copics, then glossed with Glossy Accents.  But even it had to be re-glossed when I put a thumbprint into it.

The only part that cooperated was the inside.  I don't typically put layers inside white cards and stamped this one "bare."  And it came out straight!  

So that is my "simple" card for the day.  The coloring was actually the easiest part and what I thought was going to be easy, wasn't.  But the reason I'm sharing all the wah wah's with you is because I know you've gone through days like that too where you say "I am NOT going to spend the entire day on a card."  And then you do.  Darned paper gremlins...

Thank you so much for joining me and letting me vent, and I wish you a lovely, carefree day where everything works exactly the way you want it.

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Country Mailbox 1 (DD), Teeny Tiny Wishes, Creative Elements (SU)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red (SU)
Paper: Whisper White (SU), Classic White (Flourishes)
Extras: Dies: SB Lattice Rectangle, Hearts Framelits (SU); ribbon, baker's twine, vintage button, shrink plastic, Copics, Glossy Accents, Opaque White (Copic), Modern Labels and Word Window punches (SU).

Challenges entered:

Tuesday Throwdown #133 - Heartstrings
Love to Create - Feelin' the Love
Tammy's Scrapin' Corner #49 - Handmade Embellishments (shrink plastic heart charm)
Simon Says...Have a Heart
Divas By Design - Winged Things 
Inky Impressions #96 - Love 
Crafty Ribbons #38 - Anything Goes with Ribbon
Hanna and Friends #164 - Anything Goes
Allsorts #193 - Valentines
My Sheri Crafts #103 - Valentines
RCS#23 - Where the Heart Is
Creative Inspirations Inspired By...Valentine's Day
Eclectic Ellapu - Girly