Sunshine Designs Hearts Galore!

I was so excited to see that a new contest had been posted a couple of weeks ago on http://www.sunshinedesigns.ca/! The February contest is to make a project using a heart theme and, of course, Sunshine Designs stamps. I was fortunate to receive the Hearts cube with my prize package for the November contest so I incorporated the curlicue heart into my card.

I had layered inks on the brain after teaching that class yesterday, so I decided to make a card using that technique in a pink colour scheme. I started by brayering chalk inks on my white cardstock (peach pastel and blush rose) using my mini brayer. Then, I stamped on my background stamp from the Oriental Floral cube in a variety of colours of pigment ink (papaya cream, terra cotta and pink). After I stamped the hearts in merlot (ink, not beverage), I heat set the paper with my iron, which reminds me......

[Back from turning off iron....] As I was saying, I heat set the paper and set about colouring in my hearts with dye based markers in shades of pink. With that done, I coated the hearts with Dove blender + clear embossing powder and embossed them. Then I used my stylus and foam tip (aka Magic Wand) to buff in some warm violet chalk ink. The next step was to remove the embossing powder with my iron and some blank newsprint. The last step on the main panel was to add the sentiment from the Friendship cube and emboss it in black. With the background panel done, I felt the card needed a bit of focus, so I embossed the curlicue heart on watercolour paper and coloured it with markers and added some pink stickles for oomph. A twist of silver cord and some cranberry Adirondack acrylics and this card was ready to put together.

I used black as a background mat, which really makes the colours pop I think. The card blank is one that was kindly brought all the way from Seattle by my aunt, who got it at Impress Rubber Stamps. [I am absolutely green with envy that she got to go there in person. Mind you, I think I might just keel over if I went there and was that close to all those scrumptious papers in person. ] I don't know the exact colour of this pink, other than that it is just the perfect warm, rosy hue to go with this card. I might have to get some more since it is the perfect complement to my pink chalk inks.... What you see here is half (gulp!) of my stock in this paper! What a girl won't do to try to win a contest ;-)

Anyway, that's today's card, this month's contest entry, and my stamping-therapy for the moment. Thanks for looking! I hope this inspires you to go and stamp your own entry for the Hearts Galore contest!

[Note: I call this technique Lovely Layered Inks and I learned it at Western Educational Activities in Edmonton. I have an upcoming class teaching this technique on March 28 if you're interested.]

Supplies: Stamps: Sunshine Designs (The Stamp Barn) - Hearts cube, Oriental Floral cube, Friendship cube; Ink: Colorbox pigment (black, merlot, papaya cream, terra cotta, pink), Colorbox fluid chalk (peach pastel, blush rose, warm violet); Paper: white matte cardstock, basic black, the perfect shade of pink - Memory Box duplex; Other: silver cord (SU), black embossing powder, clear embossing powder, Dove blender, pink stickles, cranberry Adirondack acrylic paint.