Valentine's Day Card

I decided to do a little cleanup the other day in my studio. It gets messy really quickly in here! One of the things I chose to tackle was some paper that I use to cover my work surface when I'm using ink sprays. The spray tends to get all over everything, so I keep newspapers or large paper bags on hand to put under my project. I get some interesting colors and patterns as they get all dirtied up. I took some of those pieces and die cut them into flower and leaf shapes, using Tattered Leaves, Tattered Florals, and Jumbo Tattered Florals by Sizzix. But now I'm left with a pile of these pieces and need to figure out what to do with them.

I thought it would be fun to layer some of them on a card. I started with a piece of watercolor paper and some ink sprays, I used several shades of red and pink, along with some gold & bronze to create a background. Next I layered some decorative washi tapes over that, gluing them down since the adhesive on these tapes is not quite strong enough for the textured watercolor paper. I glued down a couple of flowers & leaves and set it all aside to dry between a couple of books to help keep it flat. (I keep waxed paper handy to prevent sticking when I use books as weights.)

I had a chipboard heart that I hadn't used on another project, so rather than put it away I decided to use it. I sprayed it with some inks, then put on a layer of Distress Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy. 

While that was drying, I decided which sentiment stamp to use - the one I chose is by Heidi Swapp. I added some additional stamping on the lower left since it looked rather bare, using French Post by Hampton Art and Flourish Wave with Hearts by Hero Arts. Next I added my sentiment.

Once the heart was dry, I attached it to the flowers, and rounded the lower right corner of the panel. I folded a heavy piece of cardstock to use as the card base, and rounded the lower right corner of that as well. I used Extreme Adhesive to mount the watercolor panel since it's so heavy.

I can't say that I got very far in cleaning up my space, but I got a little bit done and had some fun along the way.

Happy crafting!

Immi