This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
Hi friends! It’s the week of Valentine’s Day, and I have some love-ly inspiration to share with you for some last minute valentine crafting! The Heart to Heart Release from Simon Says Stamp (click HERE to check out the entire release!) featured some lovely new basic nesting dies in a few different heart shapes, including the new Basic Hearts. I mentioned last week that I’ve been reorganizing my stamp bins, and as an added bonus I am reminded of stamp sets that need some extra attention or that can be paired with new goodies for a totally new look. For today’s projects, I created a banner that I can switch out for upcoming holidays as well as a matching card. Let’s get started with the details!
In addition to the Basic Hearts die set, I pulled out the Vintage Love Notes and Flowering Frame stamp sets, which both feature a beautiful vintage aesthetic. The Flowering Frame ste has a beautiful floral heart image that I thought would look lovely layered on top of a plain heart die cut. I selected some Pawsitively Saturated Inks in shades of Ballerina, Bubblegum, and Carnation to keep things positively pink, perfect for Valentine’s Day!
To begin, I die cut five plain white heart die cuts using the Basic Hearts die set. I do not pretend to be very good at the “distressed” aesthetic, preferring instead clean backgrounds with symmetrical layouts, but I thought I would try my hand at some “clean distressing” for this banner. I used blending brushes to blend the Ballerina, Bubblegum, and Carnation inks around the edges of the hearts, then used the same inks to create a collage background with lots of images from the Vintage Love Notes set, placing them in unique spots on each heart and stamping some off on scratch paper to get a more subtle tone-on-tone effect. I think it’s such a simple and fun way to add lovely subtle texture to a solid background or die cut! Once I had finished stamping each die cut, I placed all of the die cuts in my splatter box and splattered them with some metallic pearl watercolors for even more distressed texture.
To create the hangers from which the hearts could hang on the banner, I die cut the tabs from the Layered Scallop Tags, cutting two for each heart. I adhered them on the front and back of each heart using liquid adhesive, then clipped a tiny clothespin to each tab. I threaded some Simon Says Stamp Iridescent Cord through the metal spring on the clothespins, knotting the cord on either side of the spring to keep the clothespin in place. I looped and knotted the ends of the Iridescent Cord to make for easy hanging on a mantel or staircase! And the best part is that the clothespins make it easy to remove the hearts and replace them with other seasonally-appropriate shapes. How about shamrocks for St. Patricks’ Day? Eggs for Easter? Flowers for springtime? Leaves for autumn? The possibilities are endless!
I created a matching card using similar “clean distressing” technique. I began by blending some Bubblegum ink lightly on the center of a plain white A2 card front. I then used the same images that I used from the Vintage Love Notes to create the distressed tone-on-tone collage on the card front. I stamped the Ballerina and Bubblegum inks full strength, stamping a few images using Carnation ink, stamped off once to keep the intensity from overwhelming the rest of the pale pink images. Once I had finished stamping all of the images in the background, I used the mica watercolors to splatter some sparkles on the background!
For the focal point, I stamped the pretty floral heart from Flowering Frame using Bubblegum ink onto some more white cardstock and die cut it with the super intricate coordinating die. I die cut a vellum heart from the Basic Hearts set and mounted the intricate floral heart in the center using thin foam adhesive squares. I flipped the heart over and added some more thin foam adhesive squares on the back, hiding them behind the solid die cut, then mounted it on the distressed card front, allowing some of the heart to hang off of the side. I trimmed the overhang with my sharp scissors, then turned my attention to the greeting. I die cut the solid backer piece of the Little Banners Basics from plain white cardstock, then used a blending brush to blend Carnation ink on the banner. I die cut the detail layer from some iridescent white mirror cardstock, then adhered the two pieces together with liquid adhesive. I popped the sentiment up using more foam adhesive, tucking it next to the heart die cuts. I nestled an Iridescent Cord bow under the sentiment, then added a few Bubblegum Pawsitively Dazzling Gems to add some more sparkle!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? I have great intentions each year of decorating for each holiday, but somehow it always gets pushed to the back burner. This interchangeable banner might make things a little easier! (Maybe?) Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
Gorgeous banner and card!!!!