Happy Valentine's Day Bear

Ellen Hutson is having their January Mix It Up challenge on their blog. This month, they are partnering with Concord & 9th. The object is to make a project using Essentials by Ellen and Concord & 9th products. I created this Valentine's Day card to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

I used Sketch #SC570 from Splitcoaststampers.com as the inspiration for my design. To begin my card, I die cut the bear from "All Inside" (Essentials by Ellen) from 140 lb. watercolor paper. (This die is solid, so you either have to die cut and then stamp, or create a template to line up the die with your stamped image.) I stamped the image onto the die cut, being sure to wipe the ink from his facial features, since I wanted them to be black instead of sepia. I heat embossed with clear embossing powder, and colored him with one of my Mijello Mission Gold watercolor colors. After the paint had dried, I stamped his face, "inking" up the stamp with a black Tombow marker. I did use a black glaze pen to go over his eyes & nose, and went over the mouth with a fine-tip black Pitt artist pen, just to darken them up more.

To create the background, I die cut a piece of Canson XL Mixed Media paper with the scallop rectangle die from Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" set. (This is no longer available individually, but is part of a packaged set.) I inked the panel with Candied Apple, Abandoned Coral, & Worn Lipstick Distress inks, creating an ombre effect. Finally, I splattered my homemade Perfect Pearls mist on the panel, and blotted the water up with a dry cloth to add some interest.

After stamping the "Tree Ring Background" from Concord & 9th onto Essentials by Ellen's 40 lb. vellum, I heat embossed with Recollections Snow detail embossing powder. I fussy cut around the image, leaving a narrow border. I also die cut an oval from pink cardstock with a Lawn Fawn "Large Stitched Oval" die, to adhere my bear to.

I glued a die cut felt heart (cut with a die from "All Inside") in the bear's arms, and then glued him to the pink oval. I adhered the vellum piece to my background, being careful to apply the ATG tape behind where the oval would go, to hide the adhesive. Then I adhered my oval over that.

For the greeting, I used Concord & 9th's "Perfectly Penned" alphabet stamp set to spell out "Happy Valentine's Day" on a scrap of white cardstock with Delicata Black Shimmer ink. After the ink dried, I cut that into a banner, die cut the left edge with the "Femme Frames" die I'd used for my background, and adhered it to my panel, tucking the top of the strip under the bear's feet. The only thing left to do was adhere my panel to a white A2 card base, and this card is ready for a hospitalized child to give or receive.

I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:

Send a Smile 4 Kids' "Anything Goes or Valentine's/Love Cards 4 Kids"
613 Avenue Create: "Anything Goes"
Dies R Us: "Anything Goes"