Craft Rocket Challenges

Hello Everyone
How's it going in your world. MIL is fine, if only she knew how much of a panic she got me in! She did admit that she overdid it a bit. She hasn't been out walking (far) for ages. She's usually picked up and driven to places. To try and get a bus and shop was like doing a marathon for her. I'm trying to encourage her to go for a walk but to build up gradually. The weather isn't helping. She'd get blown over in this wind. 
Today's design for Craft Rocket Challenges. The theme is Valentine/Love. it would be lovely to see you join in.
This is my card for my husband Sssh! don't tell him. I wanted to try different techniques, Every card I make for him - birthday, anniversary valentines etc are always experiments to see if they work for using for future projects. It became harder than I thought it'd be. I rarely use dies for backgrounds and thought I'd give it a go. It became tricky in that, this die is on the diagonal and I suddenly found I was running out of room to make the die fit across the page the higher up the card I place the die. The die comes in three parts. I used the intricate patterned piece which cuts the pattern leaving it "in the card" spacing them apart by 1/8" apart. I used a Perfect Layers ruler to do this. Once cut, I wasn't going to put frames around it, but it looked "unfinished without them. Will I make it again? Not sure as it took me so long to create the die cut background. The coloured background is a piece of card coloured in Serif to create an Ombre effect. The font is a freebie 

Ingredients

5x7 card blank

white card stock

Lidll card stock - dark red

Sue Wilson Diagonals - Love Hearts

Spellbinders - D-Lites - Vines of Passion

Spellbinders Matting Basics - Rectangles - various sizes