"Friendship" SOTM Blog Hop and Valentine's Day Countdown - Day 1!

Welcome to our February Stamp of the Month blog hop featuring this month's new SOTM - Friendship D1453! If you've just joined me from Tammy's blog then you are on the right path! This blog post is also my first post for Day 1 of the Valentine's Day Countdown blog hop that I am participating in for the next 14 days also! Please continue to come back and visit my blog each day for the next two weeks as I will be sharing a new creative idea for Valentine's Day each and every afternoon!

I created this 6x6 Valentine card using the February Stamp of the Month (Friendship D1453) and our new Sweetheart papers X7134B. My card design is inspired by Originals - The Main Idea (p. 96). The heart shape I used is the largest heart from our Hearts Dimensional Elements chipboard shapes (Z1278 $3.25). I simply adhered the heart shape to the front side of the Sweetheart flower B&T paper (so the back side of pink b&t paper would show on the front of the heart) and then used my micro-tip scissors to cut off the excess paper until I had a nice heart shape of paper covering the Dimensional Element. I then used a sponge dauber and black ink to ink distress the edges all around the heart. Then I used the "embossing resist" technique to create the flourish design that covers the heart. To do this, I simply stamped the image on the heart with our clear Versamark ink (Z891 $9.95) and then heat embossed it with our clear detail embossing powder (Z821 $3.95). Then I used a sponge dauber (Z726 $3.95) with Tulip ink to rub the ink over and around the embossed image in a light circular motion. The clear embossing resists the ink, yet allows the color to show all around the image. I recommend using a tissue to then wipe the embossed area and remove the excess ink that beads up on top of the shiney embossed area. Because the embossing powder I used is clear, you can see the beautiful patterned paper images underneath it - so cool!

Please come back tomorrow and every day for the next two weeks to see more of my creations for the Valentine's Day Countdown blog hop (as well as more ideas using the February Stamp of the Month)! Now you can continue on the SOTM blog hop by visiting Melinda's blog next! Enjoy!!