LeighSBDesigns: MY DARK VALENTINE BLOG HOP Day 1: "My Dark Valentine" card by Leigh!

Monday, February 12, 2018

MY DARK VALENTINE BLOG HOP Day 1: "My Dark Valentine" card by Leigh!

Howzit Creative Friends!

Welcome to LeighSBDesigns first

MY DARK VALENTINE
Blog Hop❤️

We are celebrating Valentine's Day in style with a 5 day progressive blog hop but this isn't your usual lovey dovey take on the holiday, we're going DARK and TWISTY and the creepier the better! Why in the world would we do that you're wondering, well many are blissfully unaware that the holiday of love has a very dark past with an assortment of sinister origins.

It is surmised that it has its roots in ancient Rome where pagans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia from Feb 13 to the 15th. This involved lots of nudity, men sacrificing goats and dogs and then, shock horror, whipping young women with the hides who willing lined up for this craziness coz they believed it would make them fertile! Lupercalia also included a lottery where the men drew women's names from a jar and they'd hook up for the remained of the festival or longer if it turned out the men actually liked their random selections! Eeish!!!

The ancient Romans are also more than likely responsible for the name of our modern holiday too as Emperor Claudius II managed to execute two men in different years during the 3rd century A.D. Both were named Valentine, both were killed on Feb 14 and the Catholic Church honoured their martyrdom by creating St. Valentine's Day.

Then in the 5th century A.D. Pope Gelasius I merged St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the traditional pagan rituals. Christians put their clothes back on and the festival became more of a theatrical performance but it didn't stop the party from still being a drunken celebration of fertility and love.

Around the same time the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day which means "lover of women" so add that to the muddled melting pot too.

Chaucer and Shakespeare no doubt set the ball rolling and the old rituals slowly became more romantic in nature as it grew in popularity throughout Britain and Europe. Handmade cards first appeared in the Middle Ages and in 1913 Hallmark Cards were born and February slowly transformed into the romanticized commercialism we now know today....with lots of drunken celebrations of course, some things will never change LOL!

Are you ready to embrace your dark side and enjoy the show?

The Blog Hop Roll is at the bottom of this post and also up on the hop page, just click on each thumbnail in the Inlinkz collection to hop and leave your love for each blogger, the linky will open at 9am pacific❤️

Want to play too?

It is super easy to participate! Think dark romance, gothic romance, bloody Valentine or go even kinkier if you so desire, all dark art is welcome! You can play every day or just one day and link up anytime during the 5 days with no need to sign-up! You can use images from any company and even old projects are welcome as long as you re-blog in new posts and include a link to this blog, all the hop details and Blog Hop Roll! Be nice and play fair by hopping and commenting too!

Everything you need to know plus instructions on how to add the Blog Hop Roll to your posts is provided on the MY DARK VALENTINE BLOG HOP page!

BLOG HOP PRIZES

There's PRIZES up for grabs!

To qualify to win EVERYONE, including the Bloggers, must comment on ALL projects shared in the hop!

One random Blogger will win one LeighSBDesigns digi of their choice for playing the hop.

One random Hopper will win one LeighSBDesigns digi of their choice for commenting on all the projects shared.

Plus there's a prize if you use LeighSBDesigns digis on your projects😋

Of course I designed a Dark Valentine Collection for the occasion...watch my launch video and see my release post HERE! Plus I have a special hop FREEBIE for you too😋

The DARK VALENTINE Collection is available at LeighSBDesigns Etsy Boutique with introductory prices good thru Feb 16! There's also 2 Bundles to help you save $$$ if you can't decide which digis you want. The bundles are not included in the release sale as they're discounted already and available 24/7. I hope you see something you love and use it to play in the hop😋

❤️MY DARK VALENTINE HOP FREEBIE❤️
Snag the limited time FREEBIE for your projects and in return I'd appreciate it if you'd become a follower of this blog, favourite LeighSBDesigns Etsy Boutique, subscribe to LeighSBDesigns YouTube channel and join my Facebook Fan Group😋

Click on the photo to open the high resolution version, then right click and save the image.
My logo is included, erase it before printing or cut off afterwards.
The freebie is available Feb 12-16 and will vanish early February 17th!
Please don't pin or share, instead send your friends here to grab it for themselves😋

The FREEBIE has now vanished!

Day 1
"My Dark Valentine"
card by Leigh

To kick off the hop I made a card featuring Dark Handsome Stranger, Gothic Rose, My Dark Valentine sentiment included in the Dark Sentiments set 1 and Scratch Hearts collage background from the new Dark Valentine Collection.

While she walked in the winter forest she sensed a presence, a strange feeling of being watched. She felt a passion emanating from the darkness that filled her with both excitement and foreboding. Somehow she knew her destiny was fast approaching and that her life would change forever on the night of St. Valentine.

I combined Dark Handsome Stranger with the Scratch Hearts collage to create the background and coloured the stranger's eyes with Copics before applying Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Black Soot Distress Ink. Gothic Rose and My Dark Valentine sentiment were resized, fussy cut out and coloured with Copics and Distress Inks. The sentiment was layered onto black cardstock. I die cut out lots of Memory Box Medium Forest Archway trees and created overlapping layers and added the trimmed die cut Tim Holtz Gothic Gate along the bottom edge. I embellished the scene with Memory Box Forest Crows and the hearts are from the Fawn Lawn pop-up box card die set.
Red Copics used: R32, 35, 37 and 39.

I used red Nuvo Crystal drops on all the hearts and attached them, the Gothic Rose, the sentiment and a Tim Holtz Idea-ology resin rose with pop dots for extra dimension. I finished off by adding everything to a folded card made from white cardstock which I'd edged with an N4 (gray) Copic marker.