Love is in the Air: Whimsical Wednesday Challenge!

Happy Wednesday, my sparkly friends! I hope your week has been marvelous. :o)

This week's Whimsical Wednesday challenge is all about love, since love is in the air! Create any love-themed home decor project to play along with us this week. It need not be celebrating Valentine's specifically, but simply love.

You know my sappy heart somersaulted with this one. I created a lovey-dovey wall hanging, which entails a winter scene in the beautiful land of love. We need a few pictures to properly capture the details and hidden surprise...

"Love is all we need"

Opening the door reveals a peek into the heart of the house: "Today, tomorrow, always..."

A closer look at one of the sugar cookie trees and the adorable Elisabeth Bell stamp (colored with Copics). Enlarging it may be necessary to see the little critters in the image.

Lastly, the bottom of the wall hanging... showcasing the foundation of this loving household. (Excuse my fuzzy purple slippers that you can see through the glass tabletop. It was too windy to hang it up outside for long.)

Last summer I made a candyland card (found HERE), which I loved. I've been eager to make a new theme and decided love was the perfect inspiration, especially when expanded into a wall hanging. :o)

Now a little bit of info, some out of necessity since I remain photography challenged. As always, feel free to skip all of this... but I cannot resist sharing the intricacies of this fun little project for any who want to read it. :o) The storyline of this project is told within the details... it is all about incorporating love and sweetness into every facet of life. A life of love is the best life to live. :o)

The dollhouse is from Kate's ABC's, which I naturally made with heart paper to portray the type of home this is. The windows are pale yellow and coated in Star Dust to reflect the glorious warmth and sparkling love that reside within. Each window is centered with a rhinestone heart and I used a heart stick pin behind the chimney because this is bursting in all things sappy. The door's design was made with a heart Spellbinders die, which I tweaked a bit and doubled up. A rhinestone doorknob was vital. Truly.

Those pop-dotted sweet trees are one of my favorite components. Designed to be sugar cookies, the interior of the hearts are dotted with "sugar" (via microbeads adhered with Glossy Accents) and the scalloped trim is "frosted" in red and dotted with "edible" white pearls. It makes me want to bake. The trunks were embossed with a folder that has a bird on a branch for added texture.

Honestly, I wish I had a "stone" pathway like this one for real. The lollipops are made with Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine, decorated with Chocolate Truffle Trendy Twine bows, and secured with heart buttons. None of the pictures show this, but the walkway is silver-speckled Core Couture paper to stand out from the regular snowflake-embossed ground. The Stickles-accented snowdrifts are embossed with dots for variety, with two sections being pop-dotted. I sprinkled the sky with three different sizes of pearls to reflect a pretty winter landscape. :o)

The sweet stamp is one of my favorites. I adore Elisabeth Bell images and have more new ones that I am anxious to use! So many blessings. This one is called Letters to Santa, but is obviously quite versatile. I covered the holly berries on her cute jacket and hat with heart rhinestones since love blossoms all around her (and her sweet birdie and mouse friends). I love this precious little girl, mailing sparkling letters to her loved ones. And I think I found my favorite Copic yellow combination, thanks to experimenting on her clothing. :o)

For the border I did my first ever straight-stitch with my new sewing machine. This entire project is sewn in love, so I needed to use stitching in some facet. The ribbon for hanging is really pretty, so it's unfortunate I cut it off in the main image. It is satiny with texture and trimmed in gold like our little sweetheart's golden patches on her clothes.

As stated with the final photograph, the bottom represents the foundation of this home and scene. I layered two Spellbinders Fleur de Lis dies to give a nice presence to the wonderful sentiment. I used two Wild Orchid Crafts roses for embellishment and added a puffy hearts bow, which I saved from a vase of flowers. Both of my Whimsical Designs sentiments are from Stephanie's beautiful With Love stamp set. Her stamps are such a joy to use.. they continue to give my creations the exact tones I strive for while designing them. :o)

If you read all this... you are beyond amazing and deserve a marshmallow-topped hot cocoa stir stick.

I hope you'll join us this week by linking up your love home decor project to the Whimsical Wednesday challenge post, where you'll also find information about this week's prize. I'm excited to see what you create! Be sure to flutter on over to the rest of the Whimsical Designers' blogs to see their fantastic projects. :o)

Thank you for stopping by! I wish you a day of love and sparkles. :o)

Challenges entered, because they're such fun:
 * Cooking with Cricut~ Anything but a card with Yellow and Polka Dots! (Swiss Dots embossing and dots in the pretty sky.. and pearls and microbeads are little dots, too!)
 * Crafty Catz~ Buttons and Bows
 * Fantabulous Cricut~ Label It! (Use a label other than a plain circle)
 * Getting Cricky~ Let it Snow (and include embossing)
 * Little Scrap Pieces~ Use Blue
 * Sentimental Sundays~ Use Die Cuts (No punches)

Key Recipe Ingredients:
 * Cricut cartridges: Elegant Edges (snowdrifts), Gypsy Wanderings, Kate's ABCs
 * Cuttlebug embossing folders: Swiss Dots, Winter Wonderland pack (tree trunks and snowflakes)
 * Spellbinders: Fanciful Holiday (for the hearts on the door), Fleur de Lis Squares Nestabilities
 * Sentiment stamps: Whimsical Designs~ With Love
 * Image stamp: Elisabeth Bell~ Letters to Santa
 * Copics: E25, E33, E50 (hair); E000, E00 (skin); Y21, Y23, Y26 (jacket, hat); B91, B95, B97 (jeans, jacket/mitten accents); YG23, YG25 (leaves on jacket); E33, E35, E50 (shoes and mailbox post); B00, B02 (bird); C3, YG23, B91, B95 (mouse/umbrella)
 * Paper: Basic Grey, Bazzill, Canvas Corp, Core'dinations
 * Roses: Wild Orchid Crafts
 * Heart stick pin: Little Yellow Bicycle
 * Buttons: Dress it Up (Love Potion)
 * Miscellaneous: Heart rhinestones/Microbeads/Pearls (all Recollections), Ribbon (stash), Stickles