Everyone should have a Heart

Hello everyone, I hope that you all had a good Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  I am working with the Punky Hearts and Fluttering Hearts stamp sets this month, and want to show you how versatile these sets can really be.

My first card is a very quick card for those occasions when you do not have much time to make something. I stamped a large flourish from the Butterfly Dreams stamp set onto a small square card using Versafine Vintage Sepia Ink. On a piece of scrap paper from my stash, I stamped the apple and half of the butterfly from the Fluttering Hearts stamp sheet. I used Distress Markers to ink the stamps, enabling me to get the multi-toned effect. I also stamped a half butterfly directly onto the card. I cut the images out and attached them to the card, and finally added the sentiment in the bottom corner.

 My next card is again very CAS in style, as I wanted to create a masculine card suitable for an Anniversary or Valentine's card. I masked off a large area of the background, leaving only a horizontal strip showing, and then stamped the area with the floral heart using black ink, covering it with clear embossing powder. I then added some colour using three different tones of Distress Inks, before removing the paper masks. I stamped and embossed the heart once more onto a piece of kraft card, before cutting it out, and adding it to my design with 3D foam pads. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Words of Love stamp set and matted my background onto black card.

 My last project is a mixed media tag, using a real mixture of stamps, which I love to do when creating my projects. I already had the tag in my stash, coloured using the wrinkle free Distress method in a mixture of blues and greens. I had used the tag to mop up some spare ink on my craft mat left over from another project, rather than just waste the ink.

I took some Pearl Soft Form Relief Paste and added some Brusho powder to it on my craft mat, using a palette knife. Once the colour was mixed thoroughly, I spread some of the paste over my chosen stamp, the large steampunk heart, and left it to dry overnight. I used some of the left over paste through a stencil onto the tag. (I actually had enough to do another tag as well, waste not, want not!) There is a brilliant review of this product written by Lesley on the Chocolate Baroque website that you can read if you want to know more about it: Testing the new Soft Form Relief Pastes.

Once the paste was dry, I carefully peeled the stamp away from the heart shape, and started to change the colour, as it was too bright for my project. I added some black acrylic paint, just a small amount, almost dry brushing it onto the heart shape, and the harlequin area of my tag. I then added some gilding wax to help create a patina effect. I gave the areas a good buff with some kitchen towel.

To complete the background of my tag, I stamped a script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp set, using jet black Archival Ink, and the thistle artichoke from the Mellow Fruitfulness stamp set. I added some chain and jump rings for some added texture.  

 I hope that I have given you some inspiration with my projects. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx