#919 – Hearty Hugs and Kisses

Hello and welcome! Its second month of the year, where we celebrate love, but with a new challenge up at the Seize the Birthday challenge, we celebrate birthdays! However, the Topping for this month, selected by our charming leader Nancy, is ‘Hearts‘! So, maybe we can mix things up a little bit too! However, if you are not for the topping, you can just stick with our usual “Anything Goes” birthday! The choice is yours!

And here’s what I made –

I started with making the hearts background. I had a couple of ideas, but I wanted something colorful. Winnie & Walter, which I am naming Seeing Hearts (it’s very similar to their actual Seeing Hearts stencil), which I received for free when they closed shop (:() I aligned this stencil on a white card panel and used distress oxide inks and a few pigment inks to add color in rainbow order to each of the little hearts, taking care to not place colors next to each other. I then set this aside to dry.

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to use this panel directly on the card or go for another background. Finally I decided to go with one of the bright cardstocks that I have. This one is kind of a bright yellow ocher color (yeah, I suck at naming colors, though not using them 😉 !!). I stamped the plaid using The Stamp Market Striped stamp set in black ink. I then trimmed the hearts panel..one strip of hearts on each side..and then foam mounted it on the card base.

Finally the sentiment. I had this leftover piece, which I didn’t use on another project, which used the Neat & Tangled Journaling Alphas dies to die cut and some grey watercoloring on it (yes, watercolored die cut, not inked!). I thought it suited it, but then once I mounted the hearts on the yellow background, felt that it was not showing up as much. So I watercolored over around 3/4th of the pieces with black, left it to dry and then adhered that on my card. The second half of the sentiment comes from Concord & 9th Cuddles & Hugs, for which I used the same cardstock as my card base, trimmed it and then foam mounted it.

And that’s my card! I am also joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Love/Hearts

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Love is in the Air

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #398: Birthdays

CrafTangles February challenge: Love

AAA Birthday challenge #22: A Large Sentiment

Stop over the Seize the Birthday blog for more wonderful, heartful inspiration from the rest of our design team and of course, from Carol Mayne, who is our Surprise Party Guest starting today for the next two months, too!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂