XOXO

Here we are almost at the end of January!  I'm beginning to think ahead to Valentine's day.  I know you have probably been bombarded with Valentine goodies at every store you go to.  I just love looking at all of the pretty things, even if I don't tend to decorate for it.  My mom was always so good at decorating for every holiday, I don't think I inherited that particular gene.  But I do make a mean Valentine's Day card!

Today's project features one of the newer digi's at Craftin Desert Divas, in fact there were a couple different digi's recently added featuring Cupid.  The one I'm using is Cupid in Clouds.

Sometimes I don't get to sit down and make my projects all at once.  In fact, sometimes my creativity only flows in bits and pieces at a time.  So this project was made over a several day span.  

I started by embossing a piece of watercolor paper with one of my heart embossing folders in my stash.  Then I had to decide what colors to use.  I wasn't sure which ones I wanted as I didn't really have a plan in my head yet.  I figured using a variety of pinks was probably a pretty safe bet for a Valentine's card.  I pulled out three different distress inks.  Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.  I put clean water down on the paper and then randomly added bits of the different colors.  I set it with my heat tool and when back over it with a second layer of colors.  I then spritzed it with some water and dabbed it off with a paper towel to make some lighter areas.

I let it sit overnight and came back to it.  This time I decided to add some more contrast.  I splattered a bunch of black paint first.  Then I added silver splatters.  Another round of drying overnight.  So the next chance I had to sit down I had to figure out where I was gong next.  I'd like to say that I always have these awesome ideas in my head.  Well, it's not exactly true.  If you struggle with your creativity don't worry about it.  We all deal with it at least now and then!

I decided to pick up the Cupid digi that I had printed out a few nights before.  I dug around in my copic collection and pulled out a handful of colors that I felt coordinated nicely with the background. Pinks on her shirt and the heart arrow and purple hair!  For the wings I picked out three very light shades and sort of dabbed them on.  No real blending.  I went over it with irresistible Pico Embellisher in the Shimmer color.  Nothing says wings more than a bit of shimmer!

I cut her out using the smallest die from the Fancy Frames die set.  I hand cut a black layer and adhered it to the Cupid layer.  The watercolored back ground I cut down by hand as well and adhered it to a black card base.  I put foam tape on the back of the cupid piece and glued it down.

I had a few scraps left of the watercolored background.  They were just big enough to use the heart dies from the Pocket Pieces Hi die set.  I went over them with my Wink of Stella.  Can never have enough sparkle!  I randomly glued them down.  I also added wink of stella to the swirls on the cloud portion of the digi.  The very last thing I did was to add the XOXO sentiment from the Simply Said set.

Whew!  And at last my project was complete.  I am very happy with how she turned out and I hope you like her too!

Thanks for stopping by today!

~Kristina