LOVE YOU QUILT

Hey, it's time for another Valentine! And, guess what! For a change, I made a paper quilted card! Yeah, I know. I never do that, do I?

Anyway, I thought a loving Valentine quilt would be cute and cozy. Not a really tough design, but I do like how it turned out.

I used the Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack on page 17 of the Occasions Catalog for my quilt strips. The strips are 1/4" wide. And the center square is made with the 3/4" Square Punch. 

The finished card doesn't have a whole lot of dimension. Mainly just in the little heart that I popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional and the Basic Rhinestone in the center of the heart. That's it for dimension. The rest of the card is utterfly FLAT.

Just a little close-up of the "quilted" portion of the card:

I first of all finished up the quilt piece, then layered it onto a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock, and topped it onto a Blushing Bride cardstock base. 

For a few days, the card -- in that state -- just sort of took it leisurely on my work table. Because I wasn't sure where to go from there.

Obviously, I knew I wanted it to be a Valentine. But I had such a narrow space on the bottom of the card to finish off, and nothing was clicking. I tried planting a few Paper Seedlings, but nothing was taking root.

A few days later, I came down to my Creation Station and took another look at the unfinished Valentine. 

As I was searching through my Framelits for something that would work, I came upon my "Hello You" Thinlits set. I liked the idea of planting the "you" on the bottom of the card. But that didn't seem to be enough -- by a long shot. 

Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm.

My gaze landed on a newer set I had acquired: Bloomin' Love, found on page 17 of the Occasions Catalog. By using a Rose Red Stampin' Write Marker, it was easy to magically change the LOVE YOU stamp into simply "LOVE". And that worked great with the diecut "you". 

Still too bare though. I decided to use another stamp from this set since it coordinates with the DSP I used in my quilting. Thus, the little Rose Red heart/flower was born.

It STILL needed something. 

Finally, finally, I hit upon the little dotted line from a Paper Pumpkin kit of a few months ago. It was absolutely PERFECT! Yay!

And, another little thing I really like about my final decision. The bottom is quite whimsical and asymetrical, while the quilted portion is completely linear, totally in order. To me, a nice contrast!

Do you ever get stuck on a project like I did? How do you handle this? Do you keep on pushing until the card is done -- maybe not to your liking, but done anyway? Or, like me, do you let it rest for awhile, maybe even a few days, and try again? Do you ever just give up in frustration and toss the "failure" in the round file?

Let us inside your creative head!

Love YOU

Smiles.