How do I love thee?

That's the theme of this card, which I made for today's limited supply challenge and also to give to Todd for Valentine's Day. The challenge was to stretch ourselves and do things we don't normally do. So here are what I consider to be my "stretches" for this card:

The card size. It fits in a #10 envelope. I needed to make a card this size to fit Todd's Valentine's Day gift of some concert tickets, and since I've never made a tall and skinny card, that fit today's challenge perfectly!

Very little stamping. My initial idea was to cover the white rectangle with the word "love" over and over with the same set of rub-ons. But then I had the thought to use all the different rub-ons that I had, to fit with the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem. I used three sets of American Crafts alphabet rub-ons, one set of American Crafts stickers, and the word "love" and more alphabet rub-ons from as many retired SU packs as I could lay my hands on. It still looked a bit sparse, though, so I filled in the spaces with more "love" words from any stamps I could find that had it on somewhere. I count six that are stamped. I just colored only that word with a basic black marker and stamped it where I wanted it to go. The two hearts are from the Always set, stamped in basic black and riding hood red.

Limited layers and a quite simple layout. I used the long rectangle Nestabilities and that's really it! I was surprised how much I struggled with placing the elements on the card - I couldn't believe how hard it was.

Finally, colored brads - I've had these American Crafts brads, which are a great match for riding hood red, for a very long time and I'd never cracked them open. I guess I just prefer metallic or neutral brads, but I should use these more often! (FYI, American Crafts also makes some that look great with baja breeze.)

I'll finish my card by putting the first two lines of the poem on the inside. I know Todd loves Romantic poetry and the Brownings, so I hope this will be a hit with him.