I love crafting for Valentine's Day. I like to make it a full family affair and not just focusing on one special someone. I'm a hearts and flowers kind of girl and the opportunity to design with pink?! Well...I'm all over it!
Today I'm sharing a card I created to show someone special just how much I love them. If all that pink is a little girlie for you taste, simply switch it up to red or burgundy for a more masculine look. It combines some easy stamping, stenciling and die cutting so let's take a look at how I made it.
To start off I gathered some supplies and began with the stenciled background. I just can't seem to get enough of stencils and especially love how quick, easy and beautiful a simply sponged stencil background can be!
To create it I used one of the Hero Arts Ombre Ink pads. It doesn't have to be ombre since the colors all blend together beautifully but I wanted to try it out and I love the blended color that was the result. My favorite blending tool is the Jumbo Dauber Sponge Applicator (links are all below). It gives the smoothest blending of ink so easily! You may notice that I've stenciled onto a die cut panel. It's the largest die from the MFT Stamps Blueprints 13 set and it's one of my go-to favorites! Perfect background layer every time! And that sweet stitched edge is the icing on top!
The gorgeous globe die is from the Shimelle American Crafts line. It's a classic and stunning in simple cardstock but I love taking a die and cutting out a material that's a little unique for a simple way to add pizazz. These cork sheets have an adhesive backing which makes them fab to adhere and they cut like butter.
Here's how the layers are going together. Adhere them before starting on the sentiment.
Now the sentiment is actually the fun part of this design and it came about from a challenge in the design. I wanted to layer a heart over the globe so I die cut a pink cardstock heart using the Folk Hearts die set. I also wanted to pair it up with the Essentials by Ellen Love You So stamp set. The problem came in when I discovered the size of the sentiment was just a little too big for the heart. I tried stamping it and the cut off ends of the arrows just did not make sense. What to do?!
Well, as you can see I stamped the sentiment twice. Once on the heart and then once again on the banner strip. Once I layered the heart over the banner, it suddenly makes sense AND makes a unique design element. Problem solved in a very fun way.
Finishing off a design with embellishments is always one of my favorite parts of the creating process. We all created in unique ways and I guess this is my "thing". Because there's already a lot going on in the design, I kept it simple with a pretty felt flower from Maya Road, some beautiful teal jute twine and gold sequins. Since I seem to be talking a lot about favorites today, I might as well tell you that these are my favorite way to add sequins. So quick! The sticker adhesive is already on the back!
Does someone mean the world to you? Why not let them know with a sweet Valentine this year?
Thanks so much for joining me today in the CLASSroom! Keep on creating!
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