We Love Stamping February Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. 

This year the design team will all be selecting a monthly option to reflect their own individual style of crafting or favourite themes. On the remaining months we will continue as before with a general theme along with an anything goes option, as previously.

It is my turn this month and I have chosen:

** Romance/Anything Goes **

First let's welcome our guest designer this month Helen.

To be honest I couldn't think of anything and chose romance because it is February and people will be making Valentines' Day cards. I have to admit that I am not a great one for romantic cards so when I was trying to come up with ideas for my DT cards I did wonder what possessed me to chose that theme. Of course it was too late to do anything about it so I had to come up with something.

I think this card is unusual for me for a number of reasons:

1. It is square. I have quite a collection of square card blanks and I have decided that I must try to use them.

2. It is large. Six and a half inches to be precise, which is really big for me. I had to use 2 quite large mats to fill the space. Normally if I mat something it will much narrower than this.

My stamp is quite an old Spellbinders rubber stamp set called Floral Love. I am pretty sure it is an old set but it is new to me. Found it very cheap somewhere and I can't resist a bargain. Anyway, it was time for it to be used so I stamped it with CP Uptown ink onto Strathmore Vellum paper and coloured with Polychromos pencils. I used the vellum paper because it has more tooth and I wanted the textured look, which you can see on the picture below.

The stamp set consists of the heart and 2 smaller flowers, which I stamped, coloured and fussy cut. I added them to the heart to give some more dimension, The panel was cut with Spellbinders hemstitch circle dies and backed with some mat red metallic card.  I then embossed another piece of the vellum card and matted it twice. The card base was white but I inked it with CP Uptown to match the stamping. I finished it with some tiny green gems and a foiled sentiment.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are 3 prizes from AALL and Create. An 5 stamp set, DL stamp and stencil and A6 stamp. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention. From now on any seasoned stampers (not digital) interested in being considered for a Guest Designer spot should add GD against their name when entering the challenge. We will select a guest designer form those names and the DT will still select their top 3.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is seen somewhere on your card front, it no longer needs to be the main focus. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 28th February

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.