CCC #8: All My Love

Our current two-week Creative Cutting Challenge theme is "Valentine's Day Cards".  Click here to check out the creative inspiration from our Design Team and join the challenge.  Even if you don't use SVG files yet, it's definitely worth looking...you never know what will inspire you!

My card is for my own valentine.  It's a bit of a challenge to make a Valentine's Day card masculine.  I just love pink, red, and white used together, so I decided not to fight it.  I used the pink and red and white, but grounded it all with some aqua blue and a kraft base.  Kraft makes everything more masculine.  J

The Details:

• Let's start from the bottom up since the background is my favorite thing about this card.  I can't believe I haven't thought of it earlier...it's super easy and I used to do it all the time with acrylic paint projects.  I started with plain kraft cardstock, took an old toothbrush and swirled it in a small puddle of Barn Door Distress Stain that I squeezed out onto my craft mat.  I then spattered the cardstock by running my thumb through the bristles, making the stain fly off the toothbrush.  

• TIPS:  
1. Test your technique on some scrap paper first, you may need more or less ink
2. Lay your card in a scrap box or wastebasket to capture the overspray
3. Wear gloves or use a palette knife instead of your finger to "flick" the bristles

• "Love" is from The Creative Pointe's "Valentine" SVG file set.  I cut it from aqua cardstock, gave it a light coat of Tumbled Glass DS and Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint for some color depth and surface texture.
• The hearts were cut on my Cricut using a standard shape file that came with my Sure-Cuts-A-Lot (SCAL) program.  I applied adhesive just to the center of these so that the edges would pop up a bit.  Some faux stitching was created with a white Glaze pen.
• And finally, the sentiment was printed on white cardstock, cut into individual words, and applied to the base.

Challenges:
Pile It On:  Challenge #3 - Have a Heart!
Card Makin' Mamas: A Simple Little Challenge - CAS
Craft Us Crazy: Challenge #35 - Celebrate Love

Supplies:
Cardstock:	Papertrey Ink ‘Kraft’, ‘Aqua Mist’; Stampin’ Up! ‘Confetti White’
Patterned Paper:	Fancy Pants ‘Love’ 6x6; scraps
SVG:	The Creative Pointe ‘Valentine’
Inks:	Distress Stain ‘Barn Door’, ‘Tumbled Glass’; Adirondack paint dabber ‘Snow Cap’; Glaze pen ‘White’
Embellishments:	Distress Crackle Paint ‘Clear Rock Candy’
Tools:	Toothbrush; SCAL; Cricut Expression; 3M spray adhesive; ruler