Love is all around!

I don't do Valentines. Never have. Think it's a load of tosh!! Why should there be one designated day dedicated to showing someone else you care???? Do it all year round you loveless lot!!
Valentines Day = Money Making Exercise in my book!  Rant over.
Going to now spread a little LURRRVE with this card!!

I really liked this image from Mo Manning and have used it many times over the last couple of years.
Coloured it using Promarkers and then rubbed some pastel chalks for the sky and ground - merely to take off the stark whiteness of the card as the papers have more of a creamy background than white.
I think the papers were originally from a Christmas Paper Pad but they seemed to fit OK for the 'love' theme!

I followed the sketch from this weeks challenge at 'Card and Scrap' HERE and based the colours on the pic at Cupcake Inspirations HERE.
Sentiment is from SU 'Good Greetings' set, cut the oval with a nestie, matted onto red and punched out a couple of little hearts.
The ribbon was a challenge win from eons ago and I added a red button secured with some twine.

Challenges -
Fan-tastic Tuesday -  A/G. Twist - Sweetheart
OSAAT - Love is in the Air
Dragonfly Journeys - Queen of Hearts
Eceltic Ellapu - Love Actually
Come and Get It - 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellies (ribbon, button, punched hearts)
Corrosive Challenge - Love, Love, Love
DP2 - A/G with Mo image

It's a wild day here! Perfect for sitting up here listening to the wind and rain! Thanks for taking the time to pay me a visit today - have a great day whatever you're doing. x

Handsome Prince?

Our household has for some years been completely 'valentine free' - I always felt bad that dear husband arrived bearing flowers and gifts when it was HIS birthday! 
So we (or rather I) called a halt to all the 'sloppy stuff' - there was never any need as he is a romantic soul really and flowers have always been bought at various times without any special occasions to prompt the purchase!

So Valentines cards are not high on the agenda for me at all... but recently I have been 'guesting' for Beccy's Place (and for some reason the last scheduled post did not appear at all..god bless Mr Blogger) so this time I didn't take a chance scheduling it to publish 'on the day' and decided to just create a new post the day Beccy released her stamp............. Then I forgot!!!!!!!!!!!
(Blaming the brain cells again...........)

So an apology to Beccy and finally here is my card using this week's released image -

Very tongue in cheek isn't it? But he really IS a cute little green frog I think! (and you can get him here)
 I printed him out and layered him onto a downloaded background which was highlighted with promarkers.

I made him a rather grand gold embossed crown with some teeny red gems (cos after all no handsome prince would leave home without a gem encrusted head adornment!).
Matted onto a green frame then layered onto some papers from my stash.

The sentiment was PC generated, secured with a scrap of polka dot ribbon and finally I finished with a couple of pearls and a green pearl heart.

Lots of lovey dovey challenges about this week (unsurprisingly!)
Card Mania - Love
Craft Your Passion - My Valentine
OLLCB - Love Story
Lexi's - Valentines/Love
Creative creations - It must be Love
TPE - Love is in the Air
Gem of a Challenge - Hearts/Valentine 

Have a great week!

Kitty Love

Had a real good blog hop this morning and found lots of challenges on a 'love' theme!

The love of my life and I don't do Valentines as we have another occasion to celebrate on 14th Feb so it is very rarely I make a 'love' card - but this image from mygrafico I think could be used for a whole range of occasions from get well to birthdays or just to let someone know you're thinking about them - as well as being suitable for 'love'!!! I think the expression on kitty's face is brilliant!

The background hearts paper is from K and Co and I coloured the pic in with promarkers. The 'big hugs' greeting was done using GCF onto a downloaded frame from a company that sadly is no longer trading. The happy cat embellishment was in my stash and thanks to Maureen for the gingham ribbon!

Now then ... onto the challenges-

Cupcake Crafts - Four Legged and Furry

Pile it On - To the One I Love

The Pink Elephant - All About Pink

Stamp Something - Love Somethings

Papertake Weekly - Love Actually

Lili of the Valley - Valentines

Stampin for the Weekend - Valentine Themed

Key to the Heart

I am hosting a Valentine Challenge over on one of my Flickr groups.

Quite simple really, all you have to do is decorate a heart in any way you want from the template provided. The group is an International one so whenever you make something you have to be careful that it isn't too thick, heavy or bulky otherwise it costs a fortune to post and you spend days panicking in case it doesn't arrive at your partner's in one piece! But please click on the link and go and have a look at the diverse range of hearts produced from the same template.

Here is my heart! Thick maroon card, cut with deckle edge scissors, red and cream paper from Hunkydory rubbed over with 'Tea Dye' distress ink, small heart cut from same maroon card with some script paper and then a piece of Coredinations card embossed with the script folder matted on top. Small heart attached with 3d pads to give some depth.

The rose was cut from a large embellishment I bought at the NEC last year and the padlock and key from my stash!

The challenge at 'Created By Hand' is to make something that's not a sqaure or rectangle, so the heart shape fits in perfectly!