Valentine Celebration

Valentines' cards, love 'em, but I don't make them very often and I'm not a big fan of lovey-dovey stuff, so my cards are often quite masculine in feel, which is a good thing because today my card is for The Male Room. Valentine is the theme over there for the new challenge which lasts for two weeks, well past the day for lovers.
This time I used a sketch from Cas(e) This Sketch as my starting point. I have often seen links to this challenge blog but never ventured over there before...boy was I missing something! I loved all the cards I found there, CAS- my favourite style, all beautiful, from the DT and challenge entries so I thought I'd join in. Here is the sketch

I used three stamp sets here, Happy Celebrations, Delightful Dozen and Work of Art, combining them to make strings of heart shaped lanterns. The central panel is kept very clean, one more heart with the sentiment and the twine, coloured with ink to match strung across at just the right spot.

I kept the colour scheme simple too; white, red and Crumb cake/kraft.

  Keeping the stamping crisp was the biggest challenge, although getting the excess ink off the string also kept me busy for a while (I'm too impatient to just leave it to dry and come back later!)