2024 Crafty Kickoff IG card hop - Week 5

Hello crafty friends and Happy Valentine's Day.  Whether you celebrate or not I trust you'll have a great day.  I'm sharing my card for this week's 2024 Crafty Kickoff IG card hop, which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  Each week we will share a themed card to inspire you and this week we have a great theme of 'Valentine's your way'. 

Valentine's Day means different things to different people; if you're not in a relationship it can seem that it's not a day for you but you must show yourself love and celebrate YOU.  Obviously if you're in a new relationship Valentine's is a big deal to show how much you love each other but when you've been married as long as I have it's just another day but we do give each other cards lol!.  Here is the card I made for my hubby:

a closer look at the sweet image:

plus I decorated the inside:

I was inspired by a card I recently saw by Gina K Designs, although I wanted mine a little bigger.  I cut my card base to be 5 1/4" square and cut a red mat just a touch smaller and this was adhered with double sided tape.  I didn't have a decorate die in the correct size so took an A2 die and just partial die cut it and then extended it to make it approximately 5" square.  I used a heart stencil and some red ink to decorate this panel.  This was then added to my red mat with double sided tape.  I die cut a heart from white card and another in the size bigger from red card but I felt the red heart was too big so ended up trimming it down with scissors so that the border was smaller (it's a bit wonky but it's not too bad).  I used a sunshine stencil and light grey ink to decorate the white heart.  I stamped the cute hedgie image and coloured it with Promarkers before fussy cutting it out.  I added some white highlights to the image with a gel pen.  I added the hedgies with foam tape to the centre of my heart and stamped the sentiment, curving it slightly to match the circle in the stencil, with black ink.  The heart was added with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in black ink below the heart and die cut the husband word 4 times from black card and stacked them for stability and dimension.  This was added with liquid glue below the stamped sentiment.  I added a few sequins and my card was finished.  I wish now that I'd left the bottom layer plain white as I feel it's a little busy but hubby isn't really a 'card person' so he won't mind!  For the inside I cut a white panel and a red mat and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I used the heart stencil at the bottom of the white panel and stamped a sentiment in black ink.  My finished card measures 5 1/4" wide by 6 3/4" tall including the heart.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Allsorts challenge - hearts

Aud Sentiments challenge - use dies and/or love + sentiment

Cardz for Guyz challenge - love

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option Valentine or with love

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - add a heart

Creative Inspirations challenge - for someone you love/special friend

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Cut It Up challenge - have a heart

Double D challenge - heartfelt

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - hearts

Get Creative challenge - love me do

Inkspirational challenge - hearts

Little Red Wagon challenge - show us some love

Make My Monday challenge - love

Moving Along With The Times challenge - love hearts

Stamping Sensations challenge - animals, birds and creatures

Sweet Stampin' challenge - Valentine's or Galentine's day

The Cutie Pie challenge - seeing red

The Male Room challenge - Valentine/use a heart

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - love

Try It On Tuesday challenge - hearts and/or flowers

We Love Stamping challenge - romance

Wow there are still a lot of heart/love challenges around!  Again I did check the rules but if I've overlooked anything and broken any please delete me. 

I would love it if you would pop over to Instagram and see the amazing work by all the other crafters taking part in the hop.  Please use the hashtag #2024craftykickoffcards to find the hop and also so that we can find your creation if you are inspired to take part.  

I'll be back again with you tomorrow with a couple of cards so please pop by and check them out.  As always I appreciate the comments you leave and thank you so much for stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Penny Black Stamps - piece of my heart stamp set

Clearly Besotted Stamps - happy days stamp set - retired

Go Create - XXL frames - heart #1

Heffy Doodle - husband die (it's retiring so on sale)

Gina K Designs - sunshine stencil

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 4 (for scalloped die which I extended)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - red hot and soft stone

Textures by Lou Collins - heart fragments stencil

Promarkers

Crafts UK Limited - premium smooth white card 12x12 250gsm

CC Designs - elegant Valentine (for inside sentiment) - retired

Hobbycraft - premium A4 black card 

red card from stash