Hi there!

When I was a kid, I would spend HOURS painstakingly choosing and addressing little valentines for the kids in my grade school classes. I’d try to remember each person’s favorite color or whether they liked kittens, or dogs, or whatever else happened to be featured on the little paper valentines that my mom brought home from the grocery store for us.

I remember wanting each one to be so special, but I also remember that I was always left with 3-4 bad choices for the 2 kids unlucky enough to be at the end of the list (usually those whose last names were at the end of the alphabet – Doh!)! Boy, am I glad I don’t have to do that anymore!

Now that I make my own cards (and I don’t have to make 30 of them all at once), I still pay close attention to the details – trying to match the card to the recipient as best I can – but, thankfully, I don’t have to worry that the card won’t be right.

Today’s card is for a friend of mine that totally loves texture and shine. Truth is, she’s super easy to please and would love anything I make – but that doesn’t stop me from trying to make something that I know she’ll find particularly lovely.

I started by ink blending over the Simon Says Stamp “Layering Heart Mandala Stencil” – this stencil is part of the brand new “And Back Again” release! I love mandalas and the hearts in this one make it perfect for a valentine!

I used a heavy hand and Simon’s new inks for the blending, then carefully smoothed Gina K Designs Glitz Glitter Gel in Iridescent over the top while I still had the stencil in place. The Iridescent Glitter Gel slightly mutes the color of the ink underneath, but it adds so much glittery goodness!

I removed the stencil and, while the Glitter Gel was drying, I die cut my sentiment out of white cardstock 6 times and once out of black. I glued all 7 layers together to give it a lot of dimension.

I let the Glittery panel dry overnight and assembled the card the next day – matting the glitter panel using foam tape on a black mat, and then onto my card front before gluing my sentiment in place.

I just love how this card turned out, don’t you?

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderfully creative day!