Hope you had a Delightful Valentine's Day!

Hi Everyone! Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you had a chance to spend it with whoever is nearest and dearest to your heart, and if you had to be apart from your loved ones then I hope you will be able to be together soon!

I've always been very neutral on the subject of Valentine's Day. I don't hate it, like some of my girlfriends, but it's not my favorite day of the year for romance either. For some reason being romantic on Valentine's Day just seems so artificial. For me, the most romantic day of the year is 4th of July! Being out on a warm sunny evening and cuddling under the stars as you wait for the fireworks to begin and then watching the most amazing light show ever -- that's romantic! Valentine's day just means crowds. So Bill and I spent tonight at home, and tomorrow we'll head out to dinner, but hopefully to a place that will not draw a large Valentine's crowd -- IHOP! That's right, IHOP! Since it's lent and I can't have any meat tomorrow, and since I love breakfast for dinner, Bill is taking me out for pancakes (or maybe waffles or crepes -- I haven't decided yet). I can't wait!

Anyway, my card for tonight is not exactly a Valentine, but it is cute and I suppose if you found your sweetheart delightful there would be nothing wrong with giving him or her this card. I finally got my first February order and was able to play with my So Many Scallops Sale-A-bration set. And wouldn't you know, I reached right for the Christmas stamp. However, I used my close to cocoa marker and the omitting technique to stamp just the dotted outline on that stamp onto a piece of pretty in pink card stock, and punched it out with the scalloped circle punch. I really love that dotted outline and how you can use it year-round with your other stamps. very cool!

Next I took my 1/16th inch handheld circle punch and punched a hole in every scallop. I then took the "delightful" image from It's All Good stamped in close to cocoa and punched with the 1 inch circle punch, and added it to the center. Wanna know a secret? That image was actually the starting point that I built my entire card around. Last fall my friend Linda let me borrow this set for a few days and at the time I was unable to make many cards with it, but I stamped a bunch of images for use in the future and tonight seemed like the perfect night to take them out.

I mounted the assembled "flower" with a dimensional to a piece of designer paper from the Berry Bliss pack. Since the paper is double sided, I folded over an edge, punched it with the horizontal slot punch and added some pretty in pink taffeta ribbon.

Next I used the floral circle from the "One of a Kind" set with pretty in pink ink to create a tone-on-tone design on the card base. I used the same stamp with pretty in pink ink and card stock to punch some scalloped flowers with my boho blossoms punch and create a 3-d design on the triangular piece of chocolate chip card stock. I love the fact that I used just one stamp for both the flowers and the pretty in pink background, and also that the scalloped flowers carry through the scalloped circle theme from the main image. It's a very simple card, but I think all of the repetition of various elements is pleasing to the eye. Kind of delightful, doncha think?