February’s Blogging Friends Blog Hop

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

Anna Maciovecchio

Libby Fens

Anne Power

Mary Blocher

Danica Ferrante

Deborah Smart

Jessica Mink

Jodi Horsley

Leanne Johnson

Michelle Clark

Lorene Yoshimura-Tanigawa

Areli Johnson

Mary Ann Rossiter

Tammy Gill

Susan Timchack

Sarah Cade

Rick Adkins (You are Here)

Supplies used for this card