TO MY SWEETHEART

I wanted to make my DH a really special card for Valentines Day. He is so sweet and helpful and kind and patient with me. I give him the majority of the credit for our marriage having lasted 44, almost 45 years (May). He is an amazing man, so smart, and always generous with me. I love him and hope my card reflects that love.

I created an easel card and I wanted it to be more masculine in color and used a darker red (it looks lighter with the flash!), with silver and black. I covered the white base completely with a deep red from one of my linen mat stacks. Oh, I also made it 6x6. I then cut a black mat and left it straight. I then added the silver mat and punched the bottom also with the Martha Stewart heart trefoil punch. The top layer is a paper of the deep red and it has "love" words in lots of languages. They are in a lighter shade of pinky red and show up better in the second picture. I wanted some black on there, so I stamped "true love" and "be mine" in black. They were small stamps so I could stamp them a couple of times each. I punched the paper with the same MS punch and because the paper is lighter weight, it broke the top surface of the paper where it embossed the little dots. Those looked white and I was not happy with the look. I took my cranberry ink pad and rubbed over them a little and it added enough color so that they don't look white.

To decorate the front, I punched a double slot in the upper corner about 1" from the edge in preparation for a sheer ribbon to be tied at the top. I also have the new MS eyelet heart punch. If you haven't seen this made up, it looks just like a paper doiley and not quite 2 inches across. I punched it in silver and matted it in black to make it show up on the red. It just looks so good with the trefoil heart border. I have a smaller 1" embossed waffle heart that is a MS punch too and I made two in black to put on either side of the silver one. I embossed the word LOVE in black, added my sheer cranberry ribbon around the top and brought it through the slots and tied a bow. The slots hold it in place and no adhesive was needed. So the top was done!

The inside is covered with the deep red "love word" paper first, and I reversed where I put the colors of CS. I punched the black, then the silver, then the solid linen lastly and each row of the punched design was totally visible. (All the tiny black punched hearts I glued on the front for another row of hearts under the word LOVE). I punched a cranberry heart with the embossed waffle punch and stuck a little piece of ribbon behind it. It became the "stop" for the front of the card.

The whole card was thick enough and big enough that I had to make a little box for it that was only 1/4" thick. It made it a little bit of a surprise since it was on his night stand when he woke up. Happy Valentines Day dear! I hope and pray we have many more. Thank you for almost 45 wonderful years.

PS Sorry I forgot to remove my SU table cover before I took the pictures. I usually photograph my cards directly on the white table. It is a bit distracting. : )