I am excited to be joining the Blogging Friends Blog Hop as one of the newest members. Who are the ‘Blogging Friends’? We are a group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators located all across the U.S. and Canada who had never met before. Well, actually, we still haven’t met yet (in person). . . But, through our common bond of Stampin’ Up! and a shared love of papercrafting we have created a fun new blog hop. On the first of each month you can join us in a new themed Blog Hop. This month is Valentine’s Day or Red & Pink. So without further ado here’s my card this month.
I am a big fan of Crumb Cake! I use it a lot. So I figured why not go with something I love for my first blog hop. I used a Crumb Cake card base cut at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4. I then used a Crumb Cake layer (5 1/4 x4) on top of that because I knew I wanted to use the hearts mask in the annual catalog. I layered my crumb cake layer on some scratch paper and taped my mask down on top of it using Artist masking tape. I then punched all the hearts with the Whisper white craft ink. I then had to dry this layer of ink and clean the mask, for the next step. I repositioned everything and then off set it slightly; so that I could come back and sponge over the hearts in an ombre effect. I decided to use Blushing Bride, Rose Red and Real Red ink for this. I started at the top the with the lightest color and worked my way down the card front getting darker and letting some of the colors over lap as I came down. Using the white craft ink first allows me get the color to show up on the Crumb Cake base. It also created a little darker color where the ink hit the Crumb Cake. The off setting allowed for a little interest in a simple technique, but also gave a little highlight to each heart.
My heart in the center of my card was created by using the heart stamp from the Love Blooms Stamp set and versamark ink. I stamped the image on 2×2 piece of Whisper White cardstock using the Versa-mark and heat embossed it using our white embossing powder. After it had cooled I used my aqua painter to wet my card stock slightly. I then used some Rose Red ink on my Aqua Painter and created a wash getting lighter toward the center. I then cleaned the Aqua Painter and did the same thing in the other direction using Blushing Bride. Then dried it with my heat tool a couple seconds to get the wet watercolor to stick to the embossed image slightly. I then punched out the heart using the Sweetheart punch. The punch is smaller then the image and that was fine because i knew I just wanted a little of it because I was going to mirror the card front with a white heart off set behind my main heart. I then added a 2 1/2″ (Blushing Bride) circle, a 2 3/8″ scalloped circle (in whisper white), and a 2″ (Rose Red) Circle.
The finishing touch for this card was a 3/4″ Blushing Bride Banner in the new Glimmer Paper. and a simple LOVE YOU sentiment with a heart punched out.
Thanks for dropping by today,
I hope you have fun hopping along today. You can go to the next blog by clicking on the image below or by clicking on the next name on the list.
Next on the Hop is Crystal Komara
Jodi Horsley
Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog
I love LOVE crumb cake as well! You can never go wrong with it. I love how you layered the hearts and off set them a bit. Nicely done!
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Crumb cake is one of my favorites as well, and I find myself using it A LOT! Great card and welcome to the Blog Hop!
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Thanks Anna
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Thanks for joining us Rick. I love your project. The hearts really make this great.
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Thanks Mary
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I love how you took the time to do the offsetting of the hearts mask in white, then red! What a fabulous look – I’m going to have to ‘case’ that 🙂 The emboss resist colour on the focal heart is beautiful Great card! So glad you’ve joined us Blogging Friends, Rick! ~Deborah
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Thanks Deb it’s a fun but tricky thing. I ended up doing it three times to get it right
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Hi Rick, wow this is pretty neat to have masked hearts! That must have taken some time! But, the end result is very pretty. And I love Crumb Cake too. It’s the best neutral color. Thanks for sharing and happy to have you join the hop! Crystal
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Thanks Crystal it was a fun card and it took about three tries to get the masking right. I forgot to clean the mask once and the. Pressed to hard the other time and had bleed through. So it wasn’t acceptable to me. Lol
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OMG! Rick, this card has so many great techniques. I love it!
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Thanks Lorene I love your window card.
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I love this card and all of the techniques you used! I have to break out my stencils now! Thanks for the inspiration!
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Thanks Danica
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This is an awesome creation! Your’s is a creation because of the heartfelt steps you took to make this. Probably effortless for you, but the rest of us are in aw at all the time! It’s lovely! Now I really want to open that new, never used, decorative mask and just play around with it! We seem to enable each other to purchase products when we see what others have, however, we also inspire one another to use or try some of those said products we’ve purchased that are just sitting there!
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Thanks Libby
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This is so cool, I love the floating hearts for the background! They are offset just enough so they are highlighted, very nice!
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Thank you
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Super cute card Rick!
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Thanks Michelle
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Great techniques! I’ll have to try them! Happy to be hopping with you!
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Thank you
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I love the techniques you used on your card, Rick! this has inspired me to use my masks! I love the layered look that it gave. Great card. Happy Blog Hop Day, glad to be hopping along with you!
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Love the hearts! Love the colors! Love everything about this card… gorgeous!
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Very nicely done!
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Thanks Chris
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Welcome to the Blog Hop! Beautiful projects, I really must get out those stencils and give them a try. You use of them was perfect.
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Thanks Anne. I wanted to use something that I had but didn’t use a lot so the stencils were the ticket. I love them but don’t use them enough.
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Did you think they were a pain to clean? Have you ever used then in a class? If so would you use in class again?
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Yes I’ve used them in a class and would do it again. I found them easy for beginners. I clean mine with a baby wipe
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