PCCCS131 --- Wood you be mine?

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the Wood you be mine? stamp set.  I knew I liked it when I first saw it in the Occasions Catalogue because it's always fun to have more images that will work for a masculine card.  And this set is such a good mixture of images---fun and regular.  They'll even work with other sentiment sets for all sorts of occasions.

The card I've made for this week's challenge is a Valentine card.  With Valentine's Day only a few days away, it just felt natural to be thinking of sweetly romantic cards.  I thought this week's sketch worked really well for the images in the stamp set as well, so off I went on my creative journey.

I don't seem to be able to get away without doing some fussy-cutting lately.  This card was no exception.  For that fancy strip across the card, I decided to stamp a "ribbon" of trees using the images from the stamp set and then cut that strip out.  It took longer than I expected because it was long and it had so many little jigs and jags.  But I really do like the way it fits across the card and that's what counts.

I kept to a relatively neutral colour palette with a couple of pops of colour in the hearts and his hat.  For my base I've used Soft Suede and then added a layer of Sahara Sand which I first embossed using my Woodgrain embossing folder and then stamped with my Gorgeous Grunge splatters using Sahara Sand ink and Crumb Cake ink.  I think it gives the background a feel of sawdust, don't you?

I hope you'll join us this week for the Paper Craft Crew Challenge.  Use our great sketch for a Valentine or for another occasion.  Just have fun.

I've also entered my Valentine card into the Make My Monday Challenge.

And finally, I've added my card into the Male Room Challenge.