You Are Loved Always

Typically, if I make Valentines, it’s only a few for my kids (usually a “treat pouch”), Mike, and our parents. I was told by a dear friend (thanks, Susan!) that creating Valentines was a must for a stamper. To be fair, Susan loves hearts. I think she has every heart stamp, die, and punch that Stampin’ Up!® has sold – and she does amazing things with her “heart cards.” Of course, you can take the hearts and create butterflies…

Still, when the Stampin’ Up!® Occasions Catalog was released, I knew I wanted the Be Mine Stitched Framelits Dies. These hearts are so lovely! You can layer them, make confetti hearts, emboss with them, or simply cut a single heart. They’re very versatile, and perfect for more than just Valentines. There is a coordinating stamp set, Meant To Be, and if you purchase the dies and stamps together, you’ll save 10%.

I wanted to practice the watercoloring technique with the Stamparatus, and I ended up with this card.

I used another new stamp set from the Occasions Catalog, Vibrant Vases, to create this card. (It coordinates with the Vases Builder Punch in the Annual Catalog, but I didn’t use the punch.)

To color the vase, simply place your flower stamp in the Stamparatus with Watercolor Paper. Be sure your paper is large enough for the flowers and vase. Next, use a Lovely Lipstick Stampin’ Write Marker to color the flowers. You’ll color directly on the stamp. Since you’re using the Stamparatus, if you don’t get perfect coverage with markers on a photopolymer stamp, that’s ok. You can simply stamp it again!

Before you stamp on the Watercolor Paper, spritz a bit of water on the flowers. You don’t want too much (this is why I was practicing. I tend to be a little heavy handed.); just enough to spread the ink just a little. If you get too much ink, you can dry your stamp with a cloth, then stamp again without spritzing.

Since the stems are adjacent to the flowers, you’ll need to let the flowers dry before you continue. Then color the leaves and stems with a Call Me Clover Stampin’ Write Marker, spritz a bit, then stamp.

When your flowers are dry, you can add the vase using the same technique and a Blackberry Bliss Stampin’ Write Marker. After the entire image was dry, I added a tiny bit more color with Classic Stampin’ Pads, water, and a tiny paintbrush. You can use an Aqua Painter, but I get more control with a small paint brush. If you’ve been around Stampin’ Up!® products for awhile, you may be lucky enough to have one of the brushes we used to sell. It’s perfect for tiny spaces. If you don’t have the Classic Stampin’ Pads in the appropriate colors, that’s ok. Simple scribble on one of our Clear Blocks with the marker you used to “paint” the vases and pick up the color with your paintbrush.

When the image was totally dry, I die-cut it with the Rectangle Stitched Framelits, then matted to a slightly larger piece of Blackberry Bliss Cardstock. Then I used the cute heart border at the bottom of a piece of the Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP) to cut out the heart border. This die cuts the whole flock of hearts out, so after i made sure all the centers were cut out, I added the die-cut back in to the negative space and mounted the whole card to a Powder Pink card base.

The inside of the card says, “You are loved always” from the Vibrant Vases Stamp Set. This is perfect for a Valentine, but you can also send it to someone just as a “thinking of you” or encouragement card. And the best news is, if you purchase everything you need to make this card, you will earn a FREE Sale-a-bration (SAB) product. Beginning February 15, new SAB products will be released, and in March, you’ll be able to purchase some products that coordinate with a few of your favorite SAB products. (Tired of fussy cutting frogs? You’re in for a treat!)

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!

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