BE MINE

Welcome to the Crafty Secrets Valentine Linky Party

Is it just me or does it seem that Christmas was just yesterday and here we are celebrating Valentine's Day? This Linky Party is very dear to my heart as our theme this month is to include a music element in our project, either songbirds/words to a song/or in my case cat musicians. Although I don't perform much any more, until 2 years ago I spent much of my life playing the piano. I was over the moon when Sandy brought out the "Party Cats" stamp set and I saw the cat musicians. I have used this set through the years to make many cards for fellow musicians. You don't have to follow our theme but it's more fun if you do. There is a free digital paper and stamp provided for you if you want to participate and have no Crafty Secret Valentine images located on our blog site.

I don't make Valentine cards for family or friends, just a special one every year for my dear and patient husband. You have no idea how difficult it is to live with a concert pianist. It isn't a life of sitting back listening to beautiful music but rather problem passages of music repeated many dozens of times. You also have to tolerate a monster instrument taking up a huge percentage of real estate in the living room.  Add to this I have also taken the lions share of our rec room with my crafting stuff and there you have the reason for a special Valentine every year.

This year I have made a concertina card. It gets its name from the musical instrument concertina which is very much like an accordion. The pleated sides of the instrument are the same as the pleated sides of the card, hence the name. Both the instrument and card have been around since the 1800's.

I will start by showing you the presentation box, just the same way Ron will receive his Valentine on February 14th.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

INSIDE THE BOX

Now we take the Valentine out of the box.

This is the front cover of the card.

I used a clip art frame and painted the scrolls in gold leaf.

The outer frame is German foil ephemera. 

The music titles are a bit of my own humour..

The front inside cover:

The cello is hand drawn, painted with distress inks, and sanded lightly.

I have a number of stamps with the name worn off, the gold embossed

manuscript on the left side is one of these.

I am totally in love with this new Memory Box banner die.

I cut the red banner die in red and then cut it in  gold, 

cutting down the flags slightly smaller than the red ones.

I computer generated the letters and punched them out.

...a bit of red string and a few rhinestone hearts: done!

Now for my favourite part, the 

MAIN EVENT!

There are three stage depths here. The back one consists of stage drapes 

and more of the unknown embossed stamp.

The middle stage has the same drapes closing in a bit on the top

and the sides.

The pianist and singer are stamped, coloured with copics, cut out,

and glued to the top edge of the middle stage.

The front stage has the curtains closing in just a bit more

which creates the depth of field. You might have

noticed that the stage flooring planks

get progressively smaller as

you move back into 

the scene.

The three roller skating cats 

being towed across the stage

are glued to this front 

edge.

All the cat images used in this concertina card

are from Crafty Secrets "Party Cats"

The concertina card:

I used the size of the presentation box to determine the size of the book "pages".  The size of the images and the number of objects I wanted on the stage determined how many layers I wanted. I wanted the musicians to be the main event and not have too many distractions on stage. This shows the three stage windows. You can see how the size of the surrounding drapes and floor increases as you go further into the scene.

The three layers are held in place and the right spacing between the layers is achieved with pleated side rails. The narrowness of the side stage drapes meant a narrow fold was needed at the sides. To get enough distance between the layers I needed two folds between the layers. This next picture shows the pleated sides with the solid front and back covers. the dimension of the cover and number pleats would vary depending on your scene.

This shows the spacing of the layers top down. At the right and left edges of the layers I placed a very thin strip of sookwang tape to affix the layers to the folds. 

The musicians are ready to perform "A Little Night Mew-sic"

		Make sure you visit the rest of our Design Team and please welcome our newest addition,the very talented Ginny Nemchak,

Kathy Clement, DT Leader http://www.kathybydesign.com

Darlene Pavlick, Dar’s Crafty Creations   http://darscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Diane Hover, Nellie’s Nest  http://www.nelliesnest.blogspot.com

Ginny Nemchak, Polly’s Paper     https://pollyspaper. wordpress.com/

Gloria Stengel, Scraps of Life   http://gloriascraps.blogspot.com/

Melody Clement, Paper Melody’s   http://papermelodys.wordpress.com/

Michele Kovack, Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker  http://chelemom.blogspot.com/

Shantaie Fowler, Inking Pink http://www.inkingpink.com/

Sheila Rumney, Sheila Rumney Design and Photography,  http://www.sheilarumney.com/

Guest Designer

Vicki Chrisman, http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/

Now it’s your turn! Visit each of the design team blogs listed below.  Then create a NEW project of your choicefeaturing ANY Crafty Secrets product and link it up to the blog (http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com/)no later than 11:59PT, Sunday, February 15th.  You do not need to follow this month’s theme to play along. If you do not have any Crafty Secrets goodies, check the FREE DOWNLOADS located in the sidebar of the Crafty Secrets blog.  Be sure to link to the Crafty Secrets Blog in your post, and let us know what Crafty Secrets product you are using in your project. One lucky player will be randomly selected to win our fabulous Vintage Valentine Digital Kit.  To thank you for playing along, we’ve included one free digital stamp and paper to get  you started. Feel free to use these images, or any Crafty Secrets goodies in your creation! Thanks so much for visiting my blog Happy Valentine's Day Elizabeth