Come Waltz with me ...

.... it's the first one of 2011 and has such a lovely theme - Love/Valentine.  I've really been looking forward to seeing everyone's cards.

For this Waltz I've made my husband's Valentine card.  There are several things that Jonathan really enjoys - his family, his photography and his music.  So I decided to incorporate Jonathan's love of music into the Valentine card.  And I have just the right stamps to do that - the wonderful WMS Musical Backgrounds. 

I've combined several challenges in this card.  I used the layout - SFYTTJan, from I love 2 Stamp (see below) and I decided to go monochrome for the colour - which is this week's challenge at Just Add Ink - JAI51.  As one of my favourite colours is blue, that's the theme I chose for the JAI51 part of the challenge.

The sketch layout is for a square card, which is fortunate as this is a large 8" x 8" card.  I stamped two borders using the piano keys and mounted them to the blue base card.  Sort of like ribbon.  The card was originally white, but I used the direct to paper technique to add colour (summer sky).  I used some lovely Coredinations card for the layers - the mid-blue has a shimmer finish and the embossed layer has a whitewash finish - which I rubbed after it was embossed.  The long panel was stamped with the sheet music stamp.  The stamped heart is mounted onto some blue silk mirri - both cut using the Spellbinders heart dies.  The stamped heart image is also embossed with Stampendous Kaleidoscope embossing powder.  In real-life it has a lovely shimmer.  Finally, I added the little heart lock and key from the Little Box Labels set.  I've added a subtle shimmer (too subtle to see on the photo) all over the card using pearlescent chalks.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Little Box Labels, Musical Backgrounds, Seasons of Love
Inks: Versamark; Memento - Summer Sky, Paris Dusk
Cuttlebug: D'vine Swirls folder
Chalks:  Pebbles Inc - Pearlescent chalks - shimmer
Paper/Card:  Papermania 8" x 8" card; Cordinations - Gemstones, Whitewash, Plain card

I really enjoyed making this card and hope that Jonathan likes it as much as I do.  Now, note to self - put it somewhere safe, but somewhere you can find it later!!

Finally, some of you may know that my daughter, Kathryn (9), has decided to start her blog to share her crafting.  Well, she set that up today and desparately wanted to join this Waltz.  She hasn't used WM stamps for her card (I wasn't too happy about her borrowing MY stamps) - but she will for the next one.