Time for Some Valentines (and Challenges)

Oh look, it's Monday! With less than a week to go before Valentine's Day, I thought now was a good time to share a couple of cards I made for the big day, and enter a few challenges with them. Valentines just aren't as topical in, say, March. 
First up, a sweet and feminine card:

It's funny, my favourite colour is red, red is the colour most associated with Valentine's Day, but I have yet to make a valentine with red this year. This one is in pastel shades of pink and mauve, with some purple hemp cord, silver embossing, and a black "please". The hearts flanking the please, plus a few random hearts in the background, are sparkled up with Wink of Stella marker. The embossing shows up a bit more in the close-up below. 

With the hearts and big sentiment, I am entering this card into the current Quirky Crafts challenge: Love is in the Air; and Stamplorations: "Love and Hearts". 

Next up, perhaps the more challenging card of the two... one for a ten-year-old boy.

I paper-pieced the socks and coloured in the little hearts with a marker. While I had patterned papers that might have been a little more in keeping with the occasion, I figured I was pushing my luck far enough with said hearts and a quasi-mushy sentiment. :D 
For this card, I followed the sketch for The Crooked Stamper's very first sketch challenge! (Hi, Leslie!) I'm also joining the "Love" word week challenge at Just Us Girls. 

Supplies: (will you be...?) white cardstock, Echo Park Head Over Heels patterned paper, Neat & Tangled Be My Valentine stamps, Versamark, Stampin' Up wisteria wonder & Versafine onyx black inks, Zing silver embossing powder, corner-rounding punch, Wink of Stella clear glitter marker, pop dots; (socks) white & teal cardstock, Crate Paper Fourteen & Echo Park Here & Now patterned paper, Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine stamps, Memento tuxedo black & Luxe teal zeal inks, Zing clear embossing powder, Spectrum Noir marker, Nellie Snellen square dies, pop dots