Be Mine-Valentine and You're so HIP-Valentine!

I got to make a very beautiful and multi-layered Valentine's card for my Girlfriend and a small one for her hubby as well (couldn't leave him out). Though there are several layers to my GF's card, the colors are all similar and the papers and chipboard used are all from the same paper pad kit.

It's rare that I find "kits" that have matching paper (or cardstock) and chipboard kits. But I found this SEVERAL years ago on eBay and I knew eventually I'd get to make something pretty with it!
I always like to make her something extra pretty on Valentine's day because her Birthday and Thinking of You cards are always more fun and bright. She stood for me at mine and Hubby Hazen's wedding and her Hubby was nice and video taped our whole ceremony for us!

And, for her Hubby's card I got to use a set that I have had in my stash for years and never used. But, sadly, after using the stamp and washing it, it LITERALLY fell apart! The acrylic stamp just degraded or something, I really don't know. But this is a set I'll have to find on eBay or in a craft supply group on FB because it's definitely a cute set!

Click below to see these 2 cards!



So for my GF's card:

Sorry for the angle of the card, but because of the gloss/shine of the chipboard heart I couldn't get a good straight on picture, so I had to take it at a downward angle for it to be any good of a pic.

 I do not know the name of the paper and chipboard set. I do know it's a MME (My Minds Eye) set. The card base is textured pink cardstock from Colorbok and then the middle base is white cardstock that's diecut from the Spellbinder's Nestabilities Postage Stamp" set. I thought this would be cute to break up the squareness of the card. I used some Colorbox Cat's Eye ink to ink up the edges of it.

For the "B e" I didn't like how flat it was against the cardstock, as in, it didn't really stand out. So I used my Sakura Gelly Roll white pen to outline the letters with little dashes. I wrote the word "mine" under it in the same pen. You'll see this dash technique on a few other places on this card as well, but in black marker.

Next to the heart, the little rectangle of paper looked so plain. I thought it'd be cute to draw out some postage lines to go with the flow of the Postage Stamp background. I used my white Gelly pen for that. I used Glossy Accents to adhere 3 gems under the lines to give a little glam to the card. I mean, what gal doesn't love diamond's for Valentine's day?! LOL (that is SOOOOO cliche!!! I HATE diamonds, my favorite gems are Emeralds and Sapphires, and I'd much rather have a card or hand written letter than jewelry for Valentine's day--or any Holiday for that matter!)

For the heart I used some metallic copper paint to ink the edges up a bit to give it a little bit of dimension. It was kinda flat. I tried to ink it with the same ink I did the Postage Stamp diecut background with but the ink was just rubbing off because it's chalk/pigment ink and won't dry on a glossy/slick surface. But I LOVE how the metallic copper paint dried on it, it looks so pretty and it matches some of the color on the papers as well.

For the inside of the card I used a few different techniques. I did some duo-color stamping! In the top corner I used the heart border stamp from the SU! "Valentine Defined" set. I used SU! Pixie Pink and Tim Holtz Barn Door (red) and just dabbed the different sections of the stamp on the inkpads. I did this several times to make a few rows of hearts.

For the bottom of the card I used 2 different sentiments from the SU! "Sprinkled Expressions" (Sale-A-Bration) set. I just alternated the colors between the 2 sentiments. In order to line them up how I wanted them I used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig.

Overall, I'm pleased with how this card turned out! I know that the ink colors used on the inside differ greatly from the colors on the paper from front of the card, but I didn't have any matching ink colors to use so I just went with these colors. I think the card as a whole turned out really beautiful and I hope my GF does as well. :)


For her Hubby's card I just made him a mini Valentine's card from the CTMH "You're So Hip" (C1030) set. It is double sided, but the backside just has a "to/from" and a Happy Valentine's Day sentiment from the same stamp set. And of course, I filled it out with a personal note.

For the coloring I used my SU! Blender pen with SU! Going Gray to color the hippo. Usually I'd be more picky about the coloring not being so smooth, but I thought about a hippo, and it spends a lot of time being wet, so it's skin is usually different colors based on the sun rays and such, so I didn't mind this one having streaks and color strokes. I used SU! Pixie Pink for the ears and SU! Taken with Teal for the squares. I used a Tombow Red (# 856) marker for all of the hearts.

I hope he likes this little card, I just thought it was way cute and I couldn't really think of anything from my other stamp sets to make that would be good for a guy "friend".

I definitely have to get this stamp again since the one I have is ruined. I tried 3 other stamps in the set and they all basically disinigrated when I cleaned them. I've never had that happen before. I don't know if it's because they are that old, or because they didn't have the foam backing protecting them from the acid in the CTMH envie or what, but I was pretty bummed because I did try to make 2 other cards with the other stamps and the acrylic tore apart when I separated the stamp from the cardstock.
:(

Well, that's it for this post. Thanks for checking out my cards. I've got a few more posts to make, but I'll come back to them later tonight, it's early in the morning and I'm tired! (had to take a break, wasn't feeling very well).

See you soon!

Keep on Craftin'
~Melisa Marie