Love You Beary Much!

When I saw this image & greeting set from Bugaboo Stamps recently, I knew I just had to have it! The look on that little bear's face is just adorable, isn't it? Kind of an "aw, gosh" posture and expression. I felt this would be a perfect image to create a card to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

After playing with a few different Operation Write Home sketches, I finally decided #209 would work perfectly with this image:

I did have to flip the image horizontally, but thankfully this is a digital image, so that was not at all difficult. I also die cut the circle in the upper right just slightly larger, so the greeting would show up better.

After printing the image onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, I colored him in with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. I set that aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.

I chose my patterned papers from the Recollections "Valentine" (blue background) & My Mind's Eye "Love Me" (striped piece & banners) 6x6" pads. The strip & banners were actually left over from another card I'd made. I cut the pieces to size, and adhered the background & striped pieces to a dark pink cardstock panel, cut to 4.25x5.5". I also matted my focal panel with that same dark pink.

I printed the greeting onto a piece of white cardstock, and die cut & embossed it with a Spellbinders "Standard Circles LG" die. I placed the focal panel & banners, without adhering them, to determine where the elements should go. After making a couple of tick marks with a pencil so I could place the focal panel, I adhered it in place. Then I glued down the banner pieces, and glued the greeting circle over those.

I still wanted to add something where the 3 dots are in the lower right corner of the sketch. I happened to have a heart punch from The Paper Studio that was the perfect size, so I punched 3 hearts from red cardstock. After gluing them down, I used my clear Wink of Stella brush marker to add some shimmer to each heart, and applied a coat of Glossy accents to them. And that finished this card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Something New" (new-to-me image)
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Valentine's or Love Cards 4 Kids"