Valentine with Quietfire Designs

First, let me say that if you have never been to Quietfire Designs, click on the link once, choose "open in another tab" from the dropdown menu you will get another tab and open the store up so you can go there as soon as you are done reading.  Suzanne is the owner & operator and I have been in love with her stamps (and now her cut files at the Silhouette Store!) sine I started to rubber stamp.  Even if you aren't a huge calligraphy fan she has the best quotes and sets to choose from, I dare you to not find something you fall in love with. I just got an order I placed and this stamp screamed to me the moment I opened the package.

 What I Used to Make my Card
White Cardstock Base
Twinkling H20's in Fairy Plum, Pink Crocus & Purple Sage
Watercolor paper
Archival Ink by Ranger in Jet Black
Pink Cardstock
Quietfire Designs, #6304, The Heart has it's Reasons stamp
Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist
Vellum (embossed with Darice Embossing Folder Damask)

The Sparkle!!

This is a fairly straight forward card.  I had already embossed the vellum as I was going to use it on a Christmas card (in fact, it has little snowflakes on it, but you can't see them due to the embossing) but never did - a heads up, if you have older vellum, I have vellum that I have had for 15 plus years, embossing folders can cause the vellum to crack in spots, so be gentle.  And don't use any more shims in the die cut machine than you need - I have a metal plate that helps dies cut better when I used it with an embossing folder and some vellum  it embossed so hard the vellum literally broke. I used a Darice embossing folder, called Damask when I embossed the vellum.  Anyway, what you want to do first is get out your Twinkling H20's, drip a bit of water in them and let them sit so they get nice and creamy.  I use an old dropper to put water in mine in mine.  Once they were ready, take your watercolor paper and your lightest color and just swish the H20 all around

Close up of the sentiment

your paper.  Let that dry a bit and then swish your middle color, let that dry a bit and finish with your darkest color.  The screen does not due justice when it comes to the beauty of H20's.  I set that aside to fully dry and when it was I spritzed the iridescent  gold mist lightly to give it an extra boost of sparkle.  Then I stamped my sentiment with the Jet Black ink and cut it to size.  I found a

piece of pink cardstock that matched the H20 colors, trimmed that down and glued it to the card base.  Then I attached the vellum, followed by the sentiment.  The hardest part was finding the right shade of pink to match the colors I made with the Twinkling H20's. I love the sentiment because it can be used on so many different cards!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my short tutorial - I hope this inspires you to make something, be it a card, or anything else ~ Christi

A last look - tell me I am not the only one who takes a TON of pictures of each project!!

I would like to enter my Valentine with Quitefire Designs card in the following challenge:
The Pink Elephant Challenge - #283, Anything Goes
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Valentine Challenge
Time Out Challenge - #23, Valentine's Day with option twist of Hearts
Red Rubber Designs - #204, Focus on Stamping, Anything Goes
Die Cut Divas - January Challenge, Anything Goes (embossing folder)