Happy Valentine's Day - Card #1

Valentine's Day is almost here!  Hard to believe that on this romantic holiday, 12 years ago, a 26-ish young man got down on his knee in a local pizza parlor and asked a 23-ish something girl to marry him.  That young man of course, was my husband.  And, that girl was me!  Nearly 11 years of marriage later, we are still hitched!  So, you see, it is a very memorable and sentimental holiday for me.

Sneaking away from the girls for a little creative time, I was able to make some valentines to send.  This card was inspired by Betsy Veldman's chalkboard technique.  The way she does this is totally awesome, and since the chalkboard thing is so "in" right now, I decided to use it on this card.  (If you have any questions about how to do this, her tutorial is wonderful - just follow the link!)

First I cut some hearts out of red and craft cardstock.  Hero Arts has some great new stamping sets that include a cutting die - so you can cut out the shape and then stamp on it.  After I cut out the hearts, I used the cardstock piece that was left as a stencil to make my heart pattern as a background on my card.  I love using a foam makeup sponge to blend different shades of red together.  The variegated hearts look so pretty.

After I made the background, I stamped the black piece of cardstock with frost white ink and then embossed it with white Zing embossing powder.  Then, I stamped the same image again moving my stamp to the right ever so slightly to give it a "shadow" effect.  Then, I used a dry paper towel and rubbed the cardstock lightly to create a dusty, chalky kind of look.

Then I used my white Signo pen (the best!) to embellish the stamp and draw so lines around my sentiment.

 For the inside, I used a Movers & Shakers Zipper die from PaperTrey Ink.  You can purchase it here.  I love "interactive cards."  When someone receives this, they can "pull here" on the little zipper tab to reveal a special message.  PaperTrey Ink has a variety of stamps that can be used to stamp under the zipper part - but I decided to write my own message.
I wrote - "Happy Valentine's Day!"...I know, very original.
Next, I took one of the hearts that I cut out with the Hero Arts die and I rolled it through my Cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder.  That's what makes the raised dots.  Then, for added detail, I lightly brushed over the dots with some red ink.  Then, I adhered it to the red cardstock on the inside of the card.

Hope you are looking forward to tomorrow and you get everything your heart desires!

xo

natalie

ps- come back tomorrow for Happy Valentine's Day - Card #2