Always In My Heart

Hello once again and Happy Friday! I made this card a couple months ago while working on potential samples for my Convention Swaps. I ended up making a simplified version using current colors because I was pleased with how the double heart turned out. It was created by making a reverse-mask of sorts and is really easy to do too, so I hope you might get a chance to try out this technique and see. The first step is to stamp your main image on scrap paper - I used regular printer paper for this and stamped the large heart from Stampin' Up!'s Always set. I lightly sketched a larger heart shape about 3/8 inch away from the edges of the stamped heart and carefully trimmed out the heart using scissors, keeping the inner heart shape intact. So now there are two templates, the outer heart and the inner heart. Because I wanted to use my templates over and over, I used scotch tape to line my outer heart... you can see what I mean on the pic below. This kept my paper edge nice and sharp so that I could re-use it.

Referencing the card picture at the beginning of this post, I cut my main heart panel from River Rock cardstock (3 1/4 inches wide to 4 inches high) and heat embossed the large heart using Versamark/Elegant Eggplant ink and clear embossing powder. I placed my outer heart template over the embossed heart and used a sponge dauber to ink along the edges in Elegant Eggplant ink to create the reverse-mask heart (the picture directly above shows you my used template with purple inky edges - I simply wiped the scotch tape dry after using this template so ink wouldn't transfer where I didn't want it! Also, don't let the red heart throw you... I created my simplified version for Convention swaps using Real Red and had taken a pic at that time). Getting back to the main panel details, I used repositionable tape and placed the inner heart template that was cut out of printer paper over my embossed heart/reverse-masked heart. Next, I inked up my Canvas background with Elegant Eggplant ink and stamped that on the main heart panel, then removed my inner heart template. Voila!

In case you're interested in the rest of the card details, I layered this main heart panel on Elegant Eggplant cardstock, and glued on 4 black corners punched from the Photo Corner Punch as shown in the top picture. As you can see, 3 black brads were added, and I also dotted around the perimeter of the main heart panel with my black marker. My background was stamped with the small flower stamp in the Always set in Versamark ink onto River Rock cardstock, dotted with my black marker, then glued to my Elegant Eggplant cardbase. The main heart panel was glued on, and I finished by stamping the Always circle in Eggplant ink and punched it out with the Designer Label punch. This was dotted, and to bring a little bling to the card, I used my mono glue and sprinkled glitter on the letter "a". I backed this with the 1 3/8 inch circle punch and mounted with dimensional popdots..... ta-da..... done!

Whew, I hope you can follow all of that! I hope I didn't make it sound more complicated that it really was to do. Really, it's quite simple, and I thought that you may want to try out my version of the reverse-mask technique used on this card, so some details might prove helpful. I hope that you get a chance to sit down this weekend and create something fun! I plan to scrapbook alittle and share with you next week... till next time.... :)