Recently I received a text from my best friend, confirming she was able to watch my girls for a little romantic getaway for my husband and I! Talk about elated! I decided to make a card for my hubby, letting him know. At first, I envisioned making him an “invitation” to getaway, but as I started pulling supplies to make the card, I decided I really wanted to use the teeny tiny 7 Gypsies Mini Key on my card and let him know he had the “key to my heart”. From there, I pulled my KaiserCraft key stamp. I absolutely LOVE this stamp! I’ve used it on several projects; it really adds the perfect vintage vibe.

Based on my drive to use the “keys” theme, I pulled a pre-scored Kraft card to stay with the vintage look. I knew the stamp wouldn’t cover the width of the card, so I started stamping with VersaMark watermark and moving and staggering the direction of the starting point in order to vary the pattern.

I decided to emboss using two different turquoise-ish embossing powder colors (Recollections in Marine and Glacier). I started by covering the top two-thirds of the card with the lighter color – Glacier – and tapped off the excess powder. Then I took the darker embossing powder – Marine – and placed it over the bottom half of the card, overlapping the middle area. I was trying to create a bit of an ombre effect on the card. Heat set the powder, distressed the edges using a blending tool and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo; then set the card aside.

Next I grabbed a piece of scrap paper that would cover a portion of the left side of the card. I wanted something that I could add a few words too, so not too busy of a background, but still in the vintage/distressed theme. This cream colored piece was perfect for the job! Tore it at an angle and distressed the edges. I grabbed another piece of scrap paper, this one in the turquoise/blue color, to add my handwritten sentiment “You’ve always had the key to my heart”; cut the strips out and distressed the edges. Since I was already looking through my scraps, I grabbed a red piece of card stock to punch the heart, and distressed the edges there too. As I was grabbing twine for the key, I remembered the Tim Holtz idea-ology Chitchat words I have and found the words I wanted to add to the heart.

Now all my pieces were ready to assemble. Using a tape runner, I adhered the cream paper to the Kraft card. Using foam adhesive (for dimension), I adhered the sentiment strips to the card. I placed the chitchat words on the heart, then added twine to the key and stapled it to the heart using the tiny attacher. Some more foam adhesive and the heart was placed on the card. Once all the pieces were placed, I distressed the edges of the card again, just to unify it and make sure the distressing was cohesive. And voila! Custom card completed : )

Thanks for stopping by and have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c