Freshly Made Sketches: Happiest Valentine Wishes

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Judy and here’s what I did with it! 

I tend to follow sketches exactly but I think you are going to be seeing some variety from me for the next few months. Of course the sketches are my inspiration - but there are products I want and need to use so I'll be inspired by the sketch but will make it work for these products. In this case, it's the simple change of going horizontal so I could use the heart set.

Why? If you read my blog, I'm sure you know already since we have been traveling to pick a place for retirement and I have since retired. It's time to move! Our plan is to downsize significantly. We want a sweet and tiny little house that's easy to deal with - but it does have to have lots of amenities (hot tub, beautiful patio/outdoor room, lawn and snow service, etc) Currently I have an entire craft room with a tall wall of built-ins plus a huge number of Elfa and IKEA storage units. I think most of us are collectors as much as crafters and I have stuffed this room full. Not only are we downsizing in our forever home but we will be apartment dwellers for a while so I simply cannot take this whole room.  Don't get me wrong - I'll take a large quantity but not floor to ceiling. I've been working hard at it for a year and even I have to admit that it's really lightened and freshened up my room and it's quite pleasant to work in. Let's hope with the downsizing that I've done, my stash doesn't eventually overwhelm my sweet and tiny little house!

My card uses a heart set that I've had for a while but it was still sitting in my not-yet-used stash. (I guess I should clarify. I have definitely found new homes for a lot of my stuff, but part of the "downsizing" effort is simply organizing by dealing with the huge variety of baskets and boxes, e.g. the valentine/easter not-yet-used basket, the Christmas not-yet-used basket, the perfect-to-use-for-a-specific-person basket and it goes on and on. This heart set and a set I'll be using for next week's card gets rid of the valentine's products in the valentine/easter basket!)

I keep sidetracking, sorry! The heart is a three part Birch Press set called Folk Art Hearts (Layers A, B and C). I love their layered sets but they do get pricey. I got this one (and will keep this one!) because it works for valentines, birthday, feel better and much more. When I realized it wouldn't fit on a vertical card, I knew I wanted a longer sentiment for the horizontal card and found this one in the Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips: Valentine set and I cut it with one of their Sentiment Strips dies. Because it was an open heart, I wanted the strip behind it to be subtle so simply used some polka dot ribbon. 

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches.

I've talked too much this week so further details on where and when to follow - although if everything goes as planned (and I know it won't), there shouldn't be any disruption on my blog.

SUPPLY LIST
Stamps: Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips: Valentine
Dies: Birch Press Folk Art Heart Layers A-C, Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade and Flirty Flamingo, Taylored Expressions Cupcake
Other: Stampin' Up Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon