My Fairy Valentine

Today starts a brand new challenge at The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog. The theme of this challenge is LAYERS--at least THREE! For my card I used this adorable new image named Valentina by The Paper Shelter. I knew I was going to color her up the day I saw her. I used my favorite color peach and this design paper had a pretty soft aqua leaf color so I carried that through on my layering.

The background flower paper is so pretty and I found the polka dot paper in my stash. But, I didn't have a third design paper so I took my new heart embossing folder by Nellie Snellen and ran it through my Cuttlebug with white paper.  Then I took a finger dauber and lightly rubbed on top of the raised areas of my embossing folder for a touch of color with some Stampin' Up ink. Then, unfortuantely, photographs don't show it, but I used my Clear Wink of Stella pen and painted the peach tinted hearts. I found the solid white embossed heart background was just too plain! I also used my star and heart stamps on dowels by Stamps by Judith that I purchased years ago and lightly stamped around the hearts. By doing all this, I made my own background paper that matched the printed paper with just enough color to add to the card, but not so much that it was overwhelming to the image. So, my tip for today: if you don't have the patterned paper you need, make it!

The two beautiful ribbon flowers with the beads in the center were a gift from my best friend, Lillian, for Christmas, and the light aqua leaves are from Punch Bunch punch. I attempted to keep this card light and airy by punching the leaves out of soft aqua vellum. The peach wired jewels are from my local lace warehouse and are an item I've been hoarding. Lillian also sent me this adorable punched peach doily and the Deco Dots by Queen & Co. Without Lillian, this card wouldn't look like this. Isn't it nice to receive items as a surprise that are so fabulous that you can't wait to use them?! 

The Love sentiment is a new die for me by Cheery Lynn and I layered it on top of an older Spellbinder die tag. Oh, the image is cut out with a Spellbinder die and then lightly inked with the same peach that I used on the stars and hearts. I used my favorite glue pen, the Quickie by Sakura, and applied Warm Glitter Ritz loose glitter to my angel's wings. I know loose glitter can be messy, and I've tracked it through my house, but I just love the look of this extra fine glitter! My image is colored with Copics.

So, if you've read all this, you know I spent quite a bit of time on this card. It's one of my creations that I'm going to sit and admire before I give it to someone special. You don't have to spend near the time I did to get THREE OR MORE LAYERS to join in the challenge at The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog. We all make cards because we love the art and the process of seeing flat paper, metal dies, glitters in bottles, flowers in clear paint cans (ummm, at my house this is how they're stored), come together and make something we can share with someone. So whether you work on your card for one hour or for five hours, it's the pleasure we derive from doing our art is what matters!

The prize from our sponsor, The Paper Shelter, is below. And note that the prize is darn awesome if you use an image from The Paper Shelter!

I love seeing your cards and look at ALL of them that enter the challenge, not just the ones I comment on. This challenge is an easy one for almost all artists (I acknowledge CAS cardmakers work very hard to make CAS cards...it's a technique I haven't mastered), so please pull out your papers and use what you have (or make your own paper), and let's see what you can do for this fabulous challenge at The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog of THREE OR MORE LAYERS. 

                                                                         Hugs,
                                                                         Gail

This card is entered in the following challenges:
Dies R Us, Sister Act Card Challenge, Di's Digi Designs, CCC Digi Creations, That Craft Place, Craftyhazelnuts Patterned Paper, 613 Avenue Create (Create your own challenge: Image, Die cut, Embossing, Flowers, Square Card), Countryview Challenges, Digi Stamps 4 Joy (Bingo: heart, free, pearl), Die Cut Divas, Pile It On, My Craft Creations, Not Just Cards, Crazy Challenge, Inky Chicks, Artistic Inspirations, Whoopsi Daisy, Scrapbook Stamp Society, Eureka Stamps, Crafting From The Heart, Top Tip Tuesday, Crafting For All Seasons, Dragonfly Dreams (fav color: peach), Party Time Tuesdays, Craft Your Passion, Love to Scrap, Scrappers Delights (fav color: peach), Crafty Creations, Scrap & Craft, Wags n Whiskers, Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge, Bunny Zoe's Crafts, Sweet 7 Challenge, We Do Doobadoo, Ladybug Crafts