Build A Blossom-Valentine's Card

Today was a fabulous crafting day!  My friends Lisa W. and Kelly S. came over, and we crafted the day away!  True, my friends got wayyyy more accomplished than I did, but my Cricut, Gypsy, stamps, and many other tools got a great workout!  Right as my friends were arriving, I was also lucky enough to receive a visit from the stamp fairy, a.k.a., Deb (Stampin' Up Demonstrator and fellow blogger, found here: http://flyingstamper.blogspot.com/) I just could not wait to use the Build a Blossom stamp set and punch from the Occasions Mini Catalog (only available until April 30th)!
Deb had included a gorgeous card using the same set, as a thank you, and I was super excited to create one of my own! 
I used a dark pink cardstock base, and embossed diamonds onto brown for a background.  (After all, chocolate and pink are SUCH a winning combo! You just can't go wrong mixing those two colors!)  I stamped Blushing Bride onto coordinating cardstock, and punched out each petal.  I found that it works best to cut a strip that is approximately 2.25 inches wide, and pay attention to the direction you stamp, for the punch to work best and waste as little paper as possible.  (I could get 7 petals on a 2 1/4" x 11" strip)  After all 10 petals were punched, I took my bone folder and pulled the petal firmly across it, to give it some curve and dimension.  Once the petals were all curvy, I used glue dots to stick them together.  I found it easiest to start with the 5 base petals, first, and create the flower, then layer the other 5 petals on top.  Finally, I stamped the green center with Wild Wasabi, punched out the circle, and adhered it to the middle of my flower. 
I positioned the flower near the top of my card (I made a top-fold card), and then added the "I love you" sentiment by using a $1 stamp from Michaels, which I stamped on white, inked with Wild Wasabi, and mounted on the same dark pink cardstock as the base.  The sentiment is popped up, using foam dots.  ~Hoppy Crafting!