A Lovely Floral Valentine's Day Card

What’s your favorite color combo to craft with? My go-to is usually in the blue/green realm, but I really love the look of hot pink with neutrals like beige. Today’s card has a bright and happy love theme. Instead of the classic heart motif, though, I decided to go with a lacy floral design to make this Valentine’s Day card.

I chose an A2 sized piece of Classic Crest Solar White cardstock to do the heat embossing since I was going to blend ink over the design to help the lines stand out. An anti-static pouch is essential for a busy stamp like this, so you don’t have embossing powder stick in places you don’t want it.

The easiest way to make sure you get a good impression with a background stamp (the one I’m using is from Hero Arts) is to layer your paper face down on the inked-up stamp (Versamark is good for embossing) and carefully smooth it over with your fingers. Lift from the edge to get a clean, crisp image.

I heat embossed my design with clear embossing powder (Superfine Clear, Ranger Industries), then got to work blending a beige Distress Ink (Antique Linen, Ranger Industries) over the design. Don’t worry if the wet ink looks a little too dark; it will lighten as it dries.

I wanted the sentiment to match the embossed and inked design, so I gave it the same treatment.

Luckily, this stamp set has matching dies (Bold & Beautiful, Papertrey Ink). I die-cut the sentiment, then trimmed the edges of the floral inked panel with a stitched border die (Large Stitched Rectangles, Lawn Fawn).

I chose Astrobrights Cardstock in Fireball Fuchsia as my hot pink. After I die-cut an A2 sized rectangle with the same stitched border die, I tore about one third off the left side so the embossed design would show through. Sadly, I didn’t catch a photo at this point, but the swatches below show you how it will look.

I used foam squares to attach the Fireball Fuchsia cardstock over the embossed Solar White. Then, I added the sentiment using the same adhesive.

To finish off, I added some hot-fix pearls (Recollections brand) for a little bit of shine and adhered my completed panel to a card base cut from Royal Sundance Felt Cardstock in Natural. 

Don’t forget that Astrobright cardstock is on sale in the shop this month! Thanks for dropping by today and I hope 2018 will be a wonderfully creative year for you!

❤️  Niki • cardstoq.com • @cardstoq (on Instagram, Pinterest & Twitter)