For a love most enduring...

I've always been a bit obsessed with gothic elements. And while that really comes out in my art while creating makes for Halloween, it can sneak out around Valentine's Day too!

This gorgeous card was an idea that just popped into my head when looking through my craft supplies when I happened across the Anatomy Chart stamp from Tim Holtz. Who wouldn't want to receive a partial rib cage full of florals? (Okay, I can think of maybe one of my family members who wouldn't like to get something with a skeleton on it...)

I began by stamping the rib cage image onto a pice of cream colored kraft stock with Distress Archival Ink in Jet Black. It was my first time using this particular stamp and I wanted to make sure I got a good impression of it so I used my stamp platform. I added a few dabs of Smart Glue to the ribcage with my finger and let this dry. The glue remains tacky, making it perfect for adding a little gold foil! Once it was dry, I added the foil and rubbed off the excess. 

Next I fussy cut the stamped image out with my swivel craft knife and then set this aside. Now for the fun part--cutting out lots of little bits and pieces from the Bloom Colorize die. I cut the leaves from two greens from the cool kraft stock pack (for the eucalyptus looking branch, I cut the bottom and top layer and skipped the middle--yeah, I took some creative license). I cut the small bunch of flowers from one of the greens and a pink and reddish-pink color from the warms kraft stock pack.  

I've run out of adhesive for my Xyron sticker maker machine, so I spent quite a bit of time glueing all the little pieces together with collage medium. But it was well worth it. I added a little Distress Oxide in Cracked Pistachio and Kitsch Flamingo to the leaves and flowers. Then I added foam adhesive squares to the back of the rib cage and then started layering and glueing all the pieces down. 

To help me keep the rib cage in place while glueing down the flowers and leaves, I adhered one of the foam squares to the base of the card (black and matching pink kraft stock). This allowed me to glue the stems of the flowers and leaves in place under the ribcage without worrying about having to carefully peel the foam up in order to get the stems underneath. I also added a few foam squares to the backs of leaves and flowers to pop some up for even more dimension. 

To finish this card off, I added a puffy heart sticker, some metallic gold pearls and a sentiment sticker that matched how I felt about this card--it truly is a work of art, if I must say so myself! And that's it. 

It didn't take too long and you can really cut down on the time if you use a sticker maker. Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

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