Valentine – More the Merrier

Hi Everyone.  Happy Wednesday night.

Today's card uses the More the Merrier set and I used the stamping411.blogspot challenge this week.  Another great sketch from the 411 team, I might add! 

Well… Lou finally made it home tonight at around 7.30 p.m.  He arrived in Minneapolis to find that the flights had been canceled for the rest of the evening because of the storm.  He managed to hire one of the final cars left at the rental agency and drive home.  Considering that he left at 6.40 a.m. on Sunday morning and has had only 5 hours in a bed since Saturday night… driving the 76 miles home in snow and freezing rain wasn't the best thing to do… in this case, though, it was the only thing to do!  So, we both send a huge thank you to those of you who have left messages and sent emails.      We REALLY appreciate it:-)

We are hoping that we might get some final shopping in tomorrow between the storm.  The storm is expected to last 60 hours and generate between 6 and 20 inches of snow, mixed with freezing rain and freezing sleet.  My heart goes out to those who are traveling to family – and we wish you a safe journey.

Tonight's card is another love/valentine's card… guess you all know I've had that theme on my mind this week:-) Here's the sketch for you ….  however, I decided to turn it on it's side and run the card horizontal instead of vertical.  It was pretty tough for me to work out what to do because of the element at the top right hand corner.

Here's what I came up with.

I really wanted to use the love birds from the More the Merrier set – but lift them with some bling.  I also decided to use colors that I don't often put together – Elegant Eggplant and Melon Mambo. I also wanted to add texture, without adding too much texture – the other thing I needed to do, was to make sure that the lighter layer for the focal image was not on too bright a card stock.  Consequently, I used Confetti White – it has specks of purple and mambo in it, which made it perfect for this card.  Unfortunately the pic really doesn't pick up the bling that well!

Card recipe:

1. Melon Mambo, Elegant Eggplant and Confetti White card stock
2. Texturz plats for my Big Shot -I used the texturz polka dot for the eggplant and the texturz swirls for the Melon Mambo.  To bring out the texture in the polka dot and swirls, I ran over both of them with my sanding block
3. Lots of glitter – the fine cosmo glitter to glitter up the heart and wing of every second bird.  I thought that glittering up all of them was too much, so decided to do every second one instead
4. I glued up the heart stamp using my glue pen and then stuck it into the purple fine cosmo glitter – oh… and then cleaned up the stamp very smartly 🙂
5. I double stamped every second bird and cut around them before coloring and glittering.  That allowed me to dip the birds into the glitter pots with no mess.  I then adhered the birds with stampin dimensionals
6. I stamped the short and sweet "love you" sentiment, adhered that
7. I cut around the heart and adhered that with stampin dimensionals, and, for the final touch
8. I "freed" two rhinestones from their legs and stuck them down with mini glue dots

I hope you like the card – it looks gorgeous in the light, as the fine cosmo glitter has a really reflective quality.  I used my markers to color the wings, beaks and hearts.  I don't know where I would be without my markers 🙂

I went to bring in the rubbish bin and the post tonight…. the snow that had fallen was sparkling in the light;  It was fluffy, soft and all I wanted to do was drop down and make snow angels :-)  I just didn't think it was appropriate at my age…. if my neighbors had looked across the road and seen me in the middle of the front garden flat on my back… I think they would have called 911 thinking I'd had a heart attack… not that I would have been making angels:-)  So, I decided not to give into my childish inclinations and just bring in the bin instead… but I was sorely tempted:-)

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas Eve.  I clearly remember Christmas Eve as a child… My father used to make it his "thing" to take me to town to look at the Christmas lights and let me window shop in all the great toy stores.  My mother used that time at home to hide all my presents in different places around the house.  On Christmas morning I was not allowed to even see a single present until after breakfast and was only allowed to find and open 1 present at a time.  Depending on how many presents they had purchased in a year, determined how often I was allowed to go looking.  As my parents were not at all well off, I sometimes went 4 hours or so before being allowed to go find my present.  The great thing was though… that they managed to string out the day and make it fun and I got to spend quality time with each of my gifts.  

I remember when I first got married (to my 1st hubby), we had Christmas at our house.  I decided to make my parents and sister-in-law go hunting around the house looking under chairs, in cupboards, etc to find their presents.  I think my MIL thought I was nuts!  But… they all admitted they had a great time.  Man… that was such…… and I mean such … a long time ago….  32 years to be exact.  As I write this, I realize that none of them are with us any more.  Not my parents, nor my 1st husband, nor my parents in law – but how wonderful that this post gave me the opportunity to think about them all.

As we go into Christmas, may you remember those that are no longer with you, and celebrate those that still are.

Blessings

Jaydee