Morgan Fitzsimons Kittens Valentines card

Well its that time of the week again, when it seems that all my DT work seems to get posted on the same day, I dont know, you hear nothingness from me for days then suddenly, whoosh! I am constantly popping up in your Blog list!! So this ones a DT card for Scrapbook Stamp Society.

So to the reason for this post..............

2 little cuties!!

I love this image, so versatile, and although this is supposed to be Valentines, I think it will do very nicely for the birth of Twins, or a wedding! Just change the colour scheme!

I started with the main digi stamp which you can get Here.
I imported it into one of my graphics programs, and copied the design, and removed the inside of the heart, then I copied the copy! So I had 2 frames and one full image.
I printed them off onto a sheet of A4 supersmooth paper, and attacked them with my heat gun, to cure the ink, as I was going to use promarkers with them. Its important when using an Alcohol base pen to make sure that the ink is completely dry from an ink based printer, as the alcohol can smudge the lines if your not careful, so leave it for 24 hrs before using, or cheat like I do, and heat it with the heat gun!
So I set to with the colouring. The frame on the main image just had the 2 colours that I was going to use on the top 2 layers, no colouring on the frame for that one, as I was only going to cover it up!, and then I started to work on the main image and those cute little Kittens. I ummed and Ahh'ed over wether to make one a Tricolour, ginger Tom, Ginger and white, and in the end settled for a ginger and white, bot, and a tabby girl, as you can just see the bow peeking out from under her chin. Some of the colouring is very fine, and I have some lovely ultra fine nibs for my Promarkers which make life an awful lot easier!
I added some glittered glue to the flowers on the main image, added a yellow background to them, and a green cushion for them to sleep on.
Next up was to deal with the 2 Heart frames, the first one I trimmed inside the original lines,so that it is narrower than the base image frame, to provide more depth and dimension, and and used 3 shades of green to wipe around the frame with.
Then I turned my attention to the final layer for the frame. I carefully coloured the flowers and leaves in, and proceeded to cut the floral centre from the rest of the frame. Once that was done, I used a clear embossing padf all over it, and applied some clear embossing powder, which was heated with a heat gun, until it melted and turned opaque like a varnish. I left it to cool and did the same again. for the last coat I used a clear Holographic embossing powder so it glimmers when it catches the light.
I then carefully layered the frame up, using small sticky pads for the first layer, and a clear silicon glue for the last, as it is too narrow to use sticky pads with.
Now to the card base....... I have a Happy Cut by Artemio, an alternative to the Grand Calibur, by Spellbinders. It is an A4 Die cutter, which comes with all the necessary plates, , and seems to be a white version of the Joy Trouvaille, but better made. So I took a 5x5" square Card base, and used a Pronty A4 embossing sheet, Flowers, on it with the Happy Cut. I do have several large embossing sheets, and the Pronty ones are new to me, they only arrived yesterday, but they work a treat!!

So I had a card base embossed with the floral design, next step was to stencil some Tim Holtz distress stain, Fired Brick,  through the design, then fold the card over and create the twisted easel, line the embossing sheet up on the debossed side and repeat.
I used the Spellbinders Spiral Blossom 2 die on some, plastic backed fabric, and created a flower by rolling the strip round and round, then letting it relax a bit before gluing the spiral to the base, which was then glued onto the base of the card as a stopper.
I used a Leane Creatief Lea-abilities 001 die on some green card stock, and cut the leaves from the frame, and drew some veins on them with an Ultra fine nibbed promarker, and inserted them underneath the flower, and across the card. A touch of Glittered glue on the flower, and its as you see it. Finished.

Told you this was a wordy post those of you who have made it here from Scrapbook Stamp Society, hope you like what I did, and that you will pop to the shop, and grab the kittens for yourself,


I am entering this in the following Challenges:
Anything goes : To the one I love
Divas by design Anything goes
Happy Daze a Technique you love to use
Moving along with the times Have a Heart


Lou

xxx