Stamps and Hearts - STAMPlorations February Challenge

For some reason this year I've been straying away from the typical color schemes on my V-day cards. Blues and purples have just spoken to me. So when the new STAMPlorations challenge was announced, I had to figure out what to do.

It's

The blogosphere is already lit up with all things frilly, glittery, and heart-filled, so this should be a stretch for anyone! :) Aaaand you don't have to have STAMPlorations stamps to join in - but you could win some!

As I said, I was really feeling more of a non-traditional color scheme and started by stamping a panel with some love words and then I embossed the tiny butterflies from the Trendy Butterflies set using clear embossing powder. 

 Then I went over the whole panel with Old Paper Distress Inks and added some tiny blue hearts using Peacock Feathers DIs. Since the hearts seemed really clean next to the rest of it, I spritzed the panel with water and the hearts began to seep a little bit. 

I stamped a sentiment from the Trendy Butterflies set using silver embossing powder and then fussy cut one of the bigger butterflies to add to the corner of the panel. I added some bling and some twine and did a little stenciling around the corner of the sentiment panel so it was so starkly white. 

For the last finishing touch, I added a tiny purple inlaid heart.

 I think the finished product is pretty sweet. 

 

I'm also going to enter my card into the following challenges: 

Mod Squad - Use water (I used lots of water to make my hearts bleed)
Mixed Media Card Challenge - Love (option of buttons) 
Addicted to Stamps - Lots of Layers
Frilly and Funkie - Valen-twine (Thanks Pamellia!) 

So stop by the STAMPlorations blog and join in the fun! We've got some amazing guest designers who've contributed some kick-butt work this month including 

Kim Makortoff

Loll Thompson

and Karen Dunbrook

 And be sure to check out the full line up of inspiration on the STAMP blog!

Just for a little added incentive, we've got some AWESOME prizes:

Winner

prize: 2 stamp sets (3" by 5") if STAMPlorations stamps are used, 1 stamp set if they aren't

+ guest designer spot in the April Challenge

Top picks

prize: 3 digi stamps 

+ the option to be a guest designer too in the April Challenge if they will use their winning

All winners and top picks will receive a personalized guest designer badge that they can display on their blogs, as well as a STAMPlorations guest designer watermark.

Frequent Players Spotlight. Play in all 3 challenges for the month for entries to the random drawing. Prize is always going to be a stamp and stencil pack valued at $10.


Thanks for stopping by! 
I'd also like to share something personal and ask you all to send some good thoughts my way this weekend. As many of you know, my grandma passed away this past year. Our yearly tradition was to spend a weekend stamping Valentine's Day cards together. This weekend was the one we'd scheduled for that. Instead of sitting at home all mopey, I decided to take her crafty spirit with me and attend a local 12-hour crop-til-you-drop event. So if you guys could send me lots of air hugs, I could use them probably! I desperately want to continue our tradition, but I think it's gonna be a tough one.