Valentine's sentiment

We are invited for a wedding on Valentine's Day. They are friends of the Culinary Consultant, and I don't really know them that well. But I thought I would make a card to celebrate the event. I didn't want to go overboard mushy with the card, as I'm sure a wedding on Valentine's day is all mushy and heart-filled and pink and red enough. So I turned to my trusty stamp friend. I absolutely love the Life's Messages sentiment stamp from Penny Black and I keep using it over and over, it's just so incredibly versatile. And I think it's great for a Valentine's card/wedding card as well. 

When I saw the colour combo over at ColourQ I immediately made a dash for my craft room. It's sooo fab, and I just had to use it for something immediately!! And I can honestly say this is the first time in the history of ever that I have used the word fab about a colour combo which contains orange. Orange, green and yellow are my least favourite colours, and I would never use them if it wasn't for colour challenges. But I thought Calypso Coral went so perfectly with this lovely combo. On a completely unrelated note, I can't figure out how the heels on the wool socks in the picture are made, they look very different to how I have learned to knit the heels. But no more on that subject. I was also completely inspired by this weeks sketch over at My Favourite Things, I think it's absolutely brilliant so I used it for my card. I was also inspired by the challenge over at Just Us Girls which is "Make your sentiment the focal point", and I think the lovely Penny Black sentiment is perfect for this challenge. I'm also entering the card in a few Valentine's themed challenges: Shopping Our Stash (theme Love Me Do), Stampin' Royalty (Valentine's), Time Out Challenges (Valentine's Day with the optional twist of Hearts) and The Card Concept (inspiration photo, I was inspired by the ombre colouring which I used in the background and also on the word Laugh).

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and embossed using white powder. I then used sponges to ink Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and Aged Mahogany (I don't have Cherry Cobbler) in the background, and spritzed with water. I used a DSP from Venetian Romance for the background, and matted everything onto Strawberry Slush card. I coloured the word Laugh from the sentiment using Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush and Aged Mahogany markers and stamped onto white cardstock for the banner. Last, I stamped the heart from Perfect Postage in Aged Mahogany. I absolutely love this sketch and colour combo, given that I don't really like Valentine's cards, I think this turned out rather good. I'm just so happy about all the great challenges out there and the amazing inspiration from the DTs who do a great job week after week. 

Card: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate

Stamps: Penny Black Life's Messages, Stampin' Up Perfect Postage

Inks and Markers: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Strawberry Slush, Tim Holtz distress ink Aged Mahogany, Tsukineko Versamark

Paper: Stampin' Up Venetian Romance

Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing Powder