Be My Valentine

My husband and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day…every day is ‘love’ day in my mind.  😉  But that doesn’t mean I can’t take the opportunity to tell him how much I love and appreciate him!  This card was done in three stages.

Stage 1:  Using copic markers I colored in these images from the stamp set ‘My Sunshine’ by the Greeting Farm (TGF).  I first stamped the images in Memento tuxedo black ink on Neenah solar white card stock.  When coloring images I generally start with the hair.  In case I mess up I can quickly start again!  For the girl: I used E70, E74, E79 and E89 on her hair.  Her dress is a combination of R22, R24 and R29, as are her shoes.  To color her skin I used E0000, E000, E00 and BV000.  For the guy: I used Y000, Y32, Y21, E53 and E55 on his hair and E50, E31, and E55 for his pants.  His vest is colored using a combination of R24 and R29 and by creating a mid-tone using the ‘tip-to-tip’ technique – whereby you move pigment onto the lighter color marker from the darker.  Lastly, his shirt uses a combination of B0000 and B00.

Stage 2: Taking an A2 panel, I die cut it with the Quilted Stitched Pattern Die by Lil’ Inker Designs.  After figuring out where I wanted my TGF images on the card panel I used a circle die to cut an opening in the panel.  Next, I stamped a small heart stamp from a Lawn Fawn set in Hero Arts Soft Pool at intersecting points of the quilted stitches.

Stage 3: The card base is a top-folding card made from the same Neenah card stock.  Taking the die cut A2 panel I lightly marked with pencil where the circle opening would be so I could have guides for my ink blending.  Taking my blending tool and My Favorite Things ‘Berrylicious’ I used circular motions and blended towards the top of the card.  I trimmed down the A2 panel on each side by 1/8″ and mounted it to the card base with foam tape.  I adhered by TGF images using a mix of tape runner and foam tape.  Lastly, I used a Sakura glaze pen in clear to add some shine to their eyes and shoes.