LeighSBDesigns: Gothic Valentine Blog Hop - Day 1: "Love is in the Eye of the Beholder"

Monday, February 13, 2023

Gothic Valentine Blog Hop - Day 1: "Love is in the Eye of the Beholder" - Gothic Easel Card by Leigh

❤️ Happy February Creative Friends ❤️

We're busy celebrating the month of Love with 2 fun creativties for you to play in plus the release of my new Valentine 2023 Collection! Our February Challenge #14 Queen of Hearts is in full swing and now it's time to play in our 6th annual Gothic Valentine Blog Hop!

Welcome to LeighSBDesigns 6th annual Gothic Valentine Blog Hop where we celebrate 4 fabulous days of love themed makes inspired by Gothic and Victorian tales of dark romance, the seductive world of vampires, forbidden love, tragic love, classic monster love stories, the torment of betrayal and broken hearts and the sorrow of love lost on a backdrop of luxurious fabrics like black lace and red velvet. Now bring your interpretation of Gothic romance to our Gothic Valentine Blog Hop and create whatever your dark heart desires!

See the Main Hop Post for all the details and the linky!

Day 1

"Love is in the Eye of the Beholder"

Gothic Easel Card by Leigh

I'm kicking off the fun today with a handsome easel card featuring designs from my new Valentine 2023 Collection, the Valentine 2018 Collection plus my "My Dark Valentine" sentiment Freebie.

The handsome stranger gazes piercingly into the eyes of his beloved through the bewitching lens of the love potion amulet.

To make my Gothic easel card I first constructed the card base from black cardstock and printed out two of the beautiful "Gothic Heart" designs from the "Grunge Hearts" 5 x 7 inch Decorative Digi Paper Pack to use as the backgrounds for the front and base panels of the card.

In Silhouette Studio I first printed out the "Heart Confetti" paper design from the "Valentine" Slimline Decorative Digi Paper Pack and then over printed the Dark Handsome Stranger and the "My Dark Valentine" sentiment Freebie onto the decorative paper and used my Silhouette Cameo 4 to fussy cut them out along with shadow mat layers cut from black cardstock. For the sentiment I cut multiple shadow mats which I then stacked to create a nice chunky sentiment embellishment.

Next I cut out all the layers of the rectangle “heart and arrows” design included in the "Queen of Hearts" SVG Cutz set; the overlay design from black cardstock, the shadow layer from dark red cardstock and all the hearts from gold mirror cardstock.

I framed the Dark Handsome Stranger's eye with the smallest of the amulets in the Love Potion Amulet SVG Cutz Set. I cut the overlay from gold mirror cardstock and multiples of the shadow layer out of black cardstock which I stacked together to create the nice chunky embellishment.

I added even more dimension to the card by mounting the Dark Handsome Stranger to the card front with black foam tape.

I decorated the base of the easel card with the sentiment and die cuts in black cardstock. I used a Grand Flourish Crafter’s Companion die which I cut up to frame the sentiment and two Tim Holtz lace dies. I added a strip of gold mirror card behind the top edge of the larger lace which then acts as the stopper for the easel card. For the finishing touch I added 3 more of my gold hearts along the bottom edge of the card. I think the gold touches are so luxurious against the deep reds and black and I just love how my easel card turned out. I hope my Gothic Valentine has inspired you to come and join the hop, see the Main Hop Post for all the details and the linky!

See you tomorrow for Day 2!

Shop the designs used today and more in the new Valentine 2023 Collection special release sale through February 16 plus the Valentine Sale on now through Feb 28th.

Sales end at midnight pacific!

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

My new Valentine 2023 Collection of Digi stamps, SVG Cutz (for electronic cutting machines) and Digi Decorative Paper Packs is a wonderful selection of love themed designs perfect for all kinds of makes from sweet to Gothic Valentines, Wedding, Anniversary, Alice in Wonderland, Halloween or whatever your heart desires!