Be Mine Forever with Raise the Bar & The Greeting Farm

It's friday so time for another great challenge at Raise the Bar, and this weeks challenge is brilliant:

BE MINE FOREVER

Okay, it sounds corny but really it has nothing to do with a significant other! This week's challenge is to use a stamp/set/item that you will never ever ever sell or give up. Ever. And we'd love to hear your story when you post your card.

So What is your favourite stamp set in your collection?  I gave it some thought, and decided that mine is 'Dress Up' by The Greeting Farm; you'll all know by now i adore Anya & Ian, and i love how versatile this set is, so this is my forever set :).

For my card i took inspiration from this weeks Monday Mania @ Club Anya & Friends, the awesome Rachel set us the challenge of creating a valentine card without using pink or red.

To start off with i stamped Ian, and masked him, then stamped Anya.  I decided i wanted to have them in a heart shape, but my largests heart nestie wasn't big enough to cut them both out without chopping bits off; so instead i decided to have two hearts overlapping behind them.  I used my largest heart nestie as a template, and drew round it twice to create the shape i wanted; i then cut it out. I stamped Ian's outfit out twice, as i decided to use his tshirt as a dress for Anya.

My papers are from the 'Flowery' collection by Papermania, funny how the two sheets i used have no flowers lol. Using colours from the papers i had chosen i coloured Ian & Anya in, along with there outfits, and the heart shaped background.

I love the little skull and crossbones on the tshirt, so i used the skull and crossbones stamp from the Matey set by The Greeting Farm, to add the motif to the dotty background paper.  I then cut two squares out of each of theses papers, as i wanted to create a patchwork look behind my main element.  To fit 3 motifs on each square i had to cut them to 3 1/4 inches square, which would have made a rather large card if i just layed the squares next to each other, so i decided to overlap them , and create a 6" x 6" card.

I inked the edges of all my papers, and the heart shaped centrepiece, and then layered them onto my card.  I added a few faux stitches to the heart shaped centrepiece to make it look like a patch.  Now all i needed was some finishing touches, so i gave it some thought and decided on black pearls, i added black pearls to Anya headband, just to give her some pretty bling, and added varying sizes of black pearls to two corners of the card to tie it all together.

I love how this card turned out, i would never have chosen these colours for a valentine card, if i hadn't been challenged to, but i love it.  I just hope my Dad likes it, because my Mum is giving it to him for Valentines.

Thank you for visiting
Suzi
xxx