MFTWSC262, Not Really a Valentine's Day Card

Hello there everybody! We all know I really dislike Valentine's Day and all of that love stuff. For those of us who are single, it's now politically correct to say "Happy Single Awareness Day." That is the most stupid thing. Seriously. News flash people! I am painfully aware of the fact that I am single, every day, 365 days a year. Why do I need a day to "celebrate" it or be "aware" of it? Cupid is not my friend and he hasn't done me any favors. The only thing I will enjoy about Valentine's Day this year is making it special for my son. He lives less than 5 miles away from me and that is so awesome! I will admit that my utter dislike of the Valentine love thing is less than it was being a single married person for over half my life.

I pulled out a bunch of My Favorite Things products that I'm staring at on my desk trying to figure out what to make for their sketch challenge this week. I don't even know why I'm even thinking about doing a Valentine's Day card – most likely because everybody else is, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to fall off the cliff either. I'm going to stand on the edge of it and pull of a Valentine's Day card that isn't really a Valentine's Day card, but a card that conveys love. The word "love" will not even be on my card. Fair enough, right? I'm not even going to use pink or red. However, I had to use the darling Straight to My Heart Die-Namics. They are just perfect for this card. I was going to die-cut a bunch of bows, but honestly, I was too lazy to put them together. That's another wonderful option and would also make a lovely card that I will do at a later date as I already have my colors in mind. I think I will make it for next week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

Speaking of which, I do have another Thank You card series for Christmas gifts video already made. I never edited it as my son moved into the dorms this past weekend and even though I knew it was coming, all of a sudden, the day was here and it just snuck up on me.

Let's talk about my card, shall we? It was very easy to make, but there was a lot of die-cutting.

But first, I want to tell you that in the midst of doing the finishing touches on my card, I saw the new Purple Rain color that I had not put in a folder yet. I almost cried. It coordinated way better than the Pure Plum color, so I had to get everything back out and start the bottom panel again. Usually, the stuff would have been left out for the next year, but I'm trying to clean up after myself like a big girl now that I have a pathway into my craft room and can see the floor. Yay me! Fortunately, since I use my Die-Namics on 99% of the cards that I make, they are always next to my Vagabond, unless they coordinate with a stamp set, but the stand alone dies are usually must have staples.

I'd really have it made if Bella would put away her toys in her toy basket next to her bed. They are all over the place.

My card base is Eggplant that is A2 tent size and I used the smallest size of the Horizontal Stitched Strips to die-cut my strips, except for the middle strip, I used the next size up so that I could adhere my die-cut sentiment from Lots of Love Die-Namics that was cut 4x and stacked. I LOVE spray adhesive and it's great for cursive dies and stacking other dies; however, if you have gel nails, I strongly suggest wearing surgical gloves. The spray adhesive will trash your manicure. Ask me how I know. I don't take it outside as suggested since it's just a few quick sprays, but definitely do this over your garbage can because little particles will go everywhere and make other things sticky that you don't want sticky. With single letter dies, spray adhesive is really not worth using and Matte Medium will do the trick for you.

This is also one of those rare cards where there is no stamping. I think that's a first for me. So, I piled my strips on the card and adhered the largest strip in the middle first and worked from that adhering the rest. I laid down the heart and arrow die in the center of the remaining strips. I had originally punched out little hearts to adhere to the large heart with a glue dot for dimension, but that was so predictable, and then I decided to go for some enamel dots instead. Sequins were predictable too, so the enamel dots worked best in the long run. I almost went really "old-fashioned" and put a small button in the middle of the heart, but that would also entail a lot of digging. I'm keeping it simple here ladies and gents.