I’ve been dealing with some arthritis in both hands (apparently very common in women in their mid forties and beyond so I know I’m in good company! — LOL), so Copic coloring, watercoloring, or anything requiring fine motor skills has not been an option. But when I saw that a dear crafty friend was going through some difficult times dealing with the recent passing\u00a0of her son and was asking folks to make a masculine Valentine’s Day card for him, I knew I had to figure out a way to make a special card.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I made this Valentine’s\u00a0card with a few new-to-me and some old stand-by dies from my stash. The fractured heart die (which seemed appropriate for my friend right now), is my new Neat & Tangled “Heart of Gold” die<\/a><\/span>. I die cut that out twice (for a little extra strength and stability) from black card stock. The gold feathers are cut from the WPlus9 “Fanciful Feathers” accompanying die set<\/a><\/span>. This was previously loved (I bought it from a destash) but it was new to me, and I love it! I die cut the feathers from gold foil Godiva chocolate packaging (YAY for upcycling!). The “love” word die is from the Little Yellow Bicycle “Love Laugh Smile” die set<\/a><\/span>, and again, I die cut that from the Godiva packaging. Lastly, the tiny read hearts I added to the feathers are from the Lawn Fawn “Stitched Journaling Card” die set<\/a><\/span>. I had a tiny red foil card stock scrap, but it was plenty big for this trio of hearts.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The background plaid is a Graphic 45 paper from the “Good Ol’ Sport” collection<\/a><\/span>, and I blended ink on the edges with Black Licorice MFT hybrid dye ink<\/a><\/span> to cover up the cut white edges of the paper. I also added a handful of black sequins topped with ebony Recollections glitter glue (to cover up the center holes) for some sparkle.<\/p>\n

The sentiment, “sending lots of,” I hand wrote on a small vellum scrap with a Momento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker<\/a><\/span> (I LOVE this new marker–unexpectedly useful for embossing and fabulous for coloring the edges of fussy cut images) and used clear embossing powder to add a bit of shine and dimension. I layered this under and over the fractured heart. Together with the die cut “love,” The whole sentiment reads, “sending lots of love,” which is what the feathers rising up from the broken heart are doing.<\/p>\n

The following is a video share of this card:<\/p>\n