Those Sparkly Hearts.....

So, a couple of weeks ago, I showed this picture- you can probably guess that Valentines Day was involved somewhere.

This is the card they ended up on:

Beloved Hubbys Valentines card for this year.
I wanted to make some glittery hearts for it, and knew that I had some glitter card that was sort of encapsulated in a gel type of coating so it didn't shed.( I get into so much trouble for leaving a trail of glitter around the house, I didn't think he'd appreciate being covered in it too!)
 I remembered getting some from The Glitter Girls at the NEC a couple of years ago. Found it, and discovered that I didn't have any red! So I had to make my own. I had two goes at it, the first one I inked the hearts with Aged Mahogany ink and added a layer of clear powder, then I tried some Red Sparkle glittery embossing powder. It looked good, but as I added more UTEE over the top, the red colour seemed to burn off the glittery powder, and it started going a blotchy silver.

So, I  die cut another couple of hearts, and inked them again. (I've got a Sizzix die with four different sized hearts on it, one of the originals for the old Red Sizzix die cutter.) The Distress ink is quite wet, so I got some normal clear embossing powder on it, and heat embossed it.
Then a layer of UTEE.

Next was a layer of Red Glitter straight on top of the hot UTEE.

I tipped off all the excess and left it to set. When it had, I covered over the glitter with some more embossing ink- I have a bottle of it, I think from a Hobbycrafts store.It has a dabber type top, but I found it easier (and less glitter on the top) by taking off the dabber top and pouring a small amount onto the heart, then spreading it over the surface with a cotton bud.



Another couple of layers of UTEE, and the glitter was sealed away inside.




Came out pretty much exactly as I'd seen it in my minds eye, which is always a pleasant surprise, lol.
Repeated the process for the second heart, and left them both to set fully while I put the layers together.
I used a dark red card base and some black ribbed card. A layer of black slightly smaller than the card front went on first, and two layers of slightly different shades of red organza ribbon. I cut another piece of black slightly larger than the two hearts side by side and matted that onto another piece of red.The sentiment, I am (fairly) sure, comes from either an old Joanna Sheene stamp set , or a Chocolate Baroque one, as its on Grey rubber, and they are the only two I can think of that use that. That was stamped and heat embossed in black on some scraps of the red card.
The hearts were added to the card strip with Pinflair glue gel, and the panel mounted with sticky foam tabs. The two sentiment pieces I added with some more glue gel.
The hearts didn't take very long to make- it was more the trial & error that took the time. I will deflinitely try this with different colour glitters- black instantly springs to mind, lol.