Panda Love Anniversary

It was our anniversary on Monday and this is the card I made for my DH.  I got the stamps including the cute pandas and the hearts embossing folder free with a magazine a  while ago, and have use the folder but not the pandas.  I think it did cross my mind when I saw them that they might be nice for this occasion, and my DH did smile and say it was a lovely card so job done.

I started with the embossed background and cut a piece of card to fit the folder, approximately 5'"square.  After embossing the folder I used some Festive Berries Distress Ink and my brayer and rolled the ink over the raised hearts.  A little did go on the background but not enough to spoil it, and also on the heart shaped space in the middle but I intended to put a die cut heart shape in the centre so this didn't matter.

I cut the central heart using another snippet of white card and  a Nellie Snellen Multi Frame Die, the largest in the set with a scalloped edge.

I then stamped the pandas onto another snippet of white card using Black Archival ink and heat embossed them using WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the little bow red and the balloon blue using my Lyra Aqua Brush Markers.  I used two shades of blue on the balloon for a bit of shading.  I then heat embossed these by adding some Versamark with the pen and not the loose powder and added the WOW Clear Gloss EP.  I then fussy cut these out.

After adhering the embossed panel and the die cut heart to the 7" square white base card I stuck the pandas to the white heart using some Pinflair Glue Gel to give then a bit of dimension.

Finally I stamped the sentiment with some Versafine Majestic Blue and again heat set it using the Clear Gloss EP.

Before I finish I have two new followers, the first Litsa whose blog you will find here and who is very creative with fabric and has made some very clever pieces of jewellery, and Hilary Wright who I have not been very successful in finding, so if you read this Hilary and you would like a proper shout out get in touch with more details and I would be pleased to do so.

Thank you for joining me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Less is More Challenge - No. 335 Colours of Your Countrty's Flag ( I debated whether to do the pandas in the dark blue but decided that they might look a bit strange like that so did use black, I hope this is allowed and that it is considered CAS enough for the challenge).
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Red, White and/or Blue.
Addicted to Stamps and More  - Clean and Simple.