Sending Prayers & Love

Hero Arts is having a "Makeover" challenge on their blog. Participants are to take a project that they had made previously, and make a new one based on that.

My inspiration for this card came from this one that I made some time ago, based on a tutorial by Sandy Allnock:

For my makeover card, I used the same Hero Arts stamp set, but left out the largest butterfly, since it wouldn't fit on the heart. I began by die cutting a heart from 140 lb. watercolor paper, using one of the Little B "Hearts" dies. This set is different, in that it has 4 "sub-sets" of dies. Each of these sub-sets has a smaller die that cuts, one slightly larger that just embosses little x's in your paper, and then the largest one that die cuts just outside the embossing. I used the smaller one in the next to largest of these sub-sets to die cut my focal heart, and then all 3 of those dies to cut the frame.

Once I'd finished my die cutting, I stamped the 2 smaller butterflies on the heart, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and heat embossed them with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. I used 2 of my Winsor & Newton Cotman tube watercolors to color the heart. I wet the heart with clean water first, then dropped in the colors and let them blend together. Finally, I sprayed it liberally with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist, and used my heat tool to dry that. I could have let it air dry, but I'm just impatient that way! :)

When my heart was dry, I laid it and the frame on a white, top-folding A2 card base. I decided to place my greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "Sending Happy Thoughts" stamp set, on the lower left. So I stamped that on the card base with Versafine, and clear heat embossed that. It looked rather heavy on that side, though, so I ended up stamping the smallest butterfly on the other side, and clear heat embossed that as well. Finally, I adhered the heart and frame in place.

I wanted the bottom edge to be a bit fancy, so I die cut it with one of the "Stitched Borders 3" dies by Pretty Pink Posh. Then I backed the cut-away portion with a piece of patterned cardstock by Momenta. And that finished this card.

I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Stamp & Punch/Die Cut"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "STAMPtember Use a Stamp Challenge & Blog Hop"