Valentine for a Friend

Happy Thursday!  It's another dark and dreary (and oh, sooooo cold) day here, but I'm so excited that the weekend is in sight!

I created today's card for a couple of different challenges.  I used the sketch from this week's Card Sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  I am also entering the color challenge at Dynamic Duos:

The "dessert" option on the color challenge is to make a Valentine, but since I am sending this card to a friend I didn't want to use the traditional hearts and lovey-dovey sentiments.  I left the hearts and flowers behind and headed straight for the chocolate!

This card turned out very differently than I'd planned.  I ended up adding more and more and more layers until the card was so heavy I had to add a heavyweight card stock liner to balance it!  Have you ever heard the children's song, "This is the Song That Never Ends"?  As I created this card, I kept thinking, "This is the card that never ends!"  But I just kept adding layer after layer after layer.  I'll be honest, the creative process got a bit out of control last night!  

Here's my card:

(Isn't that candy image fun?  I went to my mailbox one day, expecting only bills, and was surprised to find a package with this stamp and two other chocolate-themed stamps.  A very sweet family member saw them and thought of me, so she bought them and sent them in the mail as a surprise.  Isn't that the best kind of surprise?  So very "sweet" in more ways than one!)

This is a square card, 5"x5", which I don't often make.  They require square envelopes and additional postage, so I usually reserve this size for cards I'm hand-delivering.  I started by stamping my candy images on Whisper White card stock using Real Red ink, then die cut them.  I used a deckled square punch to cut four squares from Real Red card stock.  I stamped the sentiment in black craft ink, added clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Then I started cutting layers (and layers, and layers!) of Real Red, Whisper White and Basic Black card stock and adhered them to the base.  I attached the images and sentiment (using dimensionals behind the sentiment), then covered the candy images with Glossy Accents to get the shiny look of the "real thing".  I added my heavyweight (balancing) inner liner and stamped it with the same candy images in the corners.  Then I searched my house high and low for some of that delicious chocolate candy, and doggone it, there was none to be found!  

I love hearts and flowers and all the romantic stuff of Valentine's Day, but I have come to realize the value of my friendships with women.  This year as I'm celebrating Valentine's Day with my husband and children, I will also be thinking of all those wonderful women who've helped me get to this place of contentment in my life. Good friends are such wonderful blessings!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

Products Used:

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!); 

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb. card stock (for inner liner, not pictured)

Ink: Real Red Classic Ink, Basic Black Craft Ink (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps: Deadbeat Designs (candy image); Hambo Stamps (sentiment)

Tools and Accessories: Nestabilities Standard Circles Large (Spellbinders); 1 1/4" deckle punch (McGill); 

clear embossing powder (Mrs. O'Leary's); Glossy Accents (Ranger); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)