We're celebrating Valentine's Day on our Simple Set Saturday this month! I generally do not make traditional valentines and this year is no exception. I've gone quite simple using only standard cardstock, glossy paper and watercolor paper. I kept the color palette simple - 2 shades of pink and 3 shades of brown. Layering a backgrounds, one waterstamped and the other traditionally stamped gave teh backgrounds a lovely depth and complexity of texture. I did not use any cupids or hearts and instead relied on vintage images and romantic sentiments.

To keep the required time to create these nice and tight, I organized my tasks. I started by cutting the glossy paper into 4 panels measuring 4.0" x 5.25". For the next step, I did each panel individually as I did not want the ink to by too dry. I used a direct-to-paper inking technique with some Victorian Velvet Distress Ink on the glossy panel and smoothed out the result with a cotton ball. I choose my first backgound and spritzed it with water. I pressed it onto the distress inked glossy panel and then removed the stamp. A lovely inverse of the background stamp appeared. I repeated this procedure with the other three panels, choosing a different background stamp each time. I set these aside to dry a bit.
You can see in this first card the layered background. For this card, I waterstamped the
Bubble Wrap background from the new
Behind the Scenes collection and overstamped with the
Sandy Beach background from Beach Babes. The boat and sentiment are also from
Beach Babes.
Here you can see a detail of the two texture backgrounds layered together.
My next step was to stamp my desired vintage images onto the watercolor paper. I used Timber Brown StazOn ink so that I could immediately start watercoloring them with an aquabrush and my distress inks. I wanted to keep a minimal color palette so I chose to use the Victorian Velvet again with Spun Sugar, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo. The last two colors remain on my craft table as go-to colors. I usually stamp the inks I want to watercolor with onto an acrylic block so that I can pick them up easily and I don't damage my ink pads.
You can see on this next card that I kept the watercoloring merely a hint of color. I just wanted to give some dimension to the images. For this card, I had waterstamped my
Handwritten background (Behind the Scenes) and overstamped with the
Handwritten Music from the same set. The couple is from
Just Sayin' and the sentiment is from
Snow Hugs.
While my first round of painted ink was drying, I overstamped my second background images onto each of my four glossy panels using Victorian Velvet again. As the direct-to-paper and sponging had laid a light hue of color on the panels, the full strength version of the ink gave wonderful contrast.
The background below is the inverse of the one above. I waterstamped the
Handwritten Music and then overstamped the
Handwriting background.
From here, I added a second layer of detail to my watercolored images. I like to let them dry and then apply my next layer of ink to give a little shading without having to use additional colors.
You can see the extra shading on my third card. I used Dot and one of the sentiments from
Milliner Misses. To cut down the whiteness of the watercolor paper, I used a soft wash of Spun Sugar around the image.
To finish off the cards, I cut 4 card bases from burgundy cardstock. I used an additional sheet of cardstock to mat my images which I had cut into ovals and circles. When matting my images, I offset my images slightly for a little different look.
I especially liked the look for my final card, a simple floral valentine. To create this card, I had waterstamped the
Sequin Waste background (Behind the Scenes) and added the
Almanac background from Relish Reading overtop.
For my images, I chose the cosmos blossom and "Je t'aime" from
Floriculture and added very minimal color.
Once assembled, I really liked the unified color and look. Hope you do as well!
Don't forget to check out our newest plate -
Behind the Scenes - on sale for US$17.60 until February 28, 2013.