Love Birds

 

Happy Valentine's Day! Well, it has been a long time since I've posted and this is the first for this year. I only made two Valentine's Day cards, and the other got sent off so fast I didn't get time to photograph it.

I was debating on getting rid of my old dauber topped Distress stains because I never think to use them. So I thought I would give them another chance to see if they were something I wanted to hang on to.

 I started by free handing a heart with Candied Apple stain on water color paper spritzed fairly heavily with water. The dauber makes it so easy to 'paint' on the color. I sprayed with more water to 'loosen' the edges of the heart a bit more. I dried the panel and re-sharpened the bottom of the heart with more stain because it pretty much bled out. I edged the panel with Vintage Photo stain and sprayed with water again to blend, and dried. I did some background stamping (Tim Holtz old Boundless Flight {still one of my favorites} and Entomology) with Ground Espresso ink and also ran the ink pad around the edges of the panel and dipped the edges in a puddle of water to blend. 

After the panel was thoroughly dry, I smeared Distress Opaque crackle paste through the mini Hearts stencil with my finger. When it was completely dry, I smudged the crackled hearts with Ground Espresso crayon and splattered the panel with Speckled Egg Oxide Spray using the hose inside the bottle. I stamped a few love notes from Dina Wakely's Little Birdies set and Ground Espresso Archival ink. I mounted this panel to a panel sprayed the same colors as the birds (see below) and then a card blank.

I cut two birds (Silhouette Birds--first time in use) from a scrap I sprayed with Speckled Egg Oxide Spray, water and dripped with Vintage Photo stain and dried. I die cut the bird's legs from a panel colored with Ground Espresso stain. The branches are die cut from scraps of wood grain paper using Cozy Winter Thinlits set--also a maiden voyage. I colored the branches with the brown stains.

It looks like I'll be keeping my old Distress stains after all. Have fun crafting and thanks for stopping by! Sara Emily

I'll be sharing this in the Frame It Monday challenge over at Simon Says Stamp, as the darkened edge against the soft back panel frames my Love Birds scene. And also in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, Fun With Dies.