A Touch of Gray: Handmade Cards for Every Occasion: Love For Flowers and Love For You

My brother always gives me the best Christmas presents. He is a tech junkie and a gamer. Yes...I am proud to say that my baby brother is a black nerd. Last year, he got me the new X-Box 360. This year I got the Gypsy. I love this little device. I almost slept with it the other night. I can design anywhere as long as my battery is all charged up. It took me a while to get the latest update for the Gypsy but once installed, I was good to go. There are a lot of websites, blogs, and videos out there to teach you how to use the Gypsy. Just do a little Google search.

The following card is the first I created using the Gypsy. I have also entered the card in a challenge over at Delightful Challenges. The challenge this week is BUTTONS --- just up my alley. I love adding buttons to my cards.

Love for Flowers and Love For You - Valentine's Day Card

I spent a good amount on creating this card...playing around with the design of my cards always takes a few hours. I find walking away and coming back to the card is helpful when you are creating that special card.

I started the card off using cream colored cardstock for the base of the card and sponging the edges of the card with a coffee bean colored stamping ink by Brilliance. The first layer of the card is chocolate colored cardstock (I also layered the inside and back of the card with the same colored cardstock). All of the decorative paper is from Bo Bunny's Crazy Love Collection. When I create my cards, I typically put together the design of the card before mounting it to the card base. I find it easier to create that way.

The card has three panels. I started with the bottom panel first. I cut a strip from the Crazy Love Kisses cardstock in the Crazy Love Collection and added 8 white heart stickers from K&C Company. The stickers are from a pack that I purchased last year. I wish I knew the collections' name. I added some light pink ribbon to the top of the panel attaching the ribbon with mini glue-dots. It can be a little difficult to add ribbon to cards especially if you want a clean finish. Depending on how you want to accent the card with the ribbon, choosing the right adhesive can be a little burdensome.

For the right side of the card (I always get confused on which is right and which is left...so I hope that you can bare with me), I cut out a small panel of Bazzill Basics Pinkini cardstock and the Crazy Love Kisses card stock from the Crazy Love Collection. I used some Pretty In Pink Classic Stampin' Pad to sponge the edges of this panel. I hand sewed 3 pink heart buttons to the panel for a little embellished love.

For the left side of the card I cut a larger panel using Bazzill Basics Pinkini cardstock which I sponged using Pretty In Pink Classic Stampin' Pad and the Crazy Love Fudge and Flowers cardstock from the Crazy Love Collection. I used the Pagoda Cricut Cartridge to cut out the flower shapes in two different shades of pink cardstock (Pinkini and Sweetpea by Bazzill Basics). Using the Gypsy, I created various sizes (as well as removed the center cuts to the flower) to give the the flowers some depth and finished each layer off by distressing each flower with Tim Holtz Tattered Rose Distressing Ink. For the last layer of the flowers, I used the Crazy Love Conversations from the Crazy Love Collection. To assemble each layer, I used glue dots to give the flowers a 3-D look. For the center of the flowers, I added hot pink hearts that I got from some Valentine's Day confetti I had got at the Party Warehouse. I love adding confetti to cards.

Before mounting the panels to the card, I wanted to add a little embellishment to the inside of the card. I decided to create some edging along the sides the chocolate colored layers I decided to attach the same light pink ribbon that I had used for the bottom panel of the front of the card. I also added white heart stickers to each corner.