Operation Write Home Be my Valentine

Good Morning everyone! I am so excited to be part of the Operation Write Home Be my Valentine Blog Hop! This is such a wonderful cause! They send handmade cards over seas to our troops :) You can either send blank cards for soldiers to fill out and send to loved ones or you can send cards of encouragement for the soldiers themselves. Check out Operation Write Home for all the info if you would like to donate some cards to this fantastic cause.
A few things to note:

• The Christmas deadline has passed. They are now collecting Valentines day cards
• The deadline to get your Valentine's day cards in is January 7th
• Joann's is giving $50,000 to the charity with the most votes. If you can spare a moment please go vote for Operation Write Home. You can Vote Here
• Archway has offered to match cards for cookies. If we can meet the goal of 4000 cards they will send that amount of cookies to our soldiers :) You can go Here for more info

Now on to the card  . . . .a tutorial and a giveaway :)

I used Hero Arts Whoo Loves You stamp set for this card.

To start I stamped my images on inkadinkado's masking paper.

Even though I know I'm going to need two tree stumps I only stamped one. I'm a big fan of less work so I use my Zig two-way glue pen to make the backing sticky. This way I don't have to cut out two masks. I cut them out and set them aside.
Next you'll need to rip a piece of card stock in two. Keep both pieces you'll need them. I've used this particular piece on a few other projects.

I cut a panel of white card stock at 5 1/4 x 4. I lay my ripped card stock next to the panel to get an idea where I want my bird to be. When building a scene you have to stamp first what you want in the forefront. Sometimes (like in this case) it means doing it with just a general idea of where your other elements are going to fit in. I stamped the bird. All my images are stamped in jet black archival ink by ranger. This way I don't have to worry about them mingling with my distress inks.

and then added the squirrel (he is sooo cute)

mask them off

I inked up the tree stump with walnut stain distress ink and stamped them so that the previous images would be sitting on them.

mask off the trunks. (see the backing mask)

Since I just used cards stock to mask for my horizon I make the edge sticky with the two way glue. Just pack sure it is really dry otherwise you can risk permanently adhering it to your project

I wanted to add clouds but I don't own a cloud stamp. What I did have on hand was a talk bubble from another Hero Arts set. Don't be afraid to turn your stamps into something else. Get the most for your money ;)
I mask off the little bubbles when I inked.

then when you remove it there is no ink where you didn't want it and you can stamp freely :)

stamp cute little clouds

I had cloud masks from a previous project so I just reused them. If you are gentle with your masks you can use them a couple of times before having to create new. Mask clouds

I rubbed on faded jeans distress ink. These masks are sometimes tricky if you noticed them pulling up when you rub a certain direction switch so your movement forces it down instead of up.

remove cloud and horizon masks. We have a sky!

You'll need your second piece of ripped card stock to mask the sky and color your ground. (sorry for the terrible photo I took this picture like 20 times and they were all bad )

I rubbed on crushed olive distress ink first and then added peeled paint to the bottom and edges.
remove horizon mask.

I stamped the tree twice with archival ink at the very edges.

unmask your images.

you can see on my squirrel my masked pulled up a bit. It's no big deal I'll be covering it with a darker color. For the sentiment I wanted to put it in a cloud. However my clouds were too small. So I laid down the mask on white card stock and drew around it with a pencil. For  those of you who can freehand you probably don't need the mask, unfortunately for me I can't draw to save my life :)

I removed the mask and stamped my sentiment inside. Then I used a black gel pen to trace around my pencil mark and cut it out.

Here is my favorite part . . . .the coloring!! I used distress inks and my H20 pen

For the bird: barn door and fired brick
For the squirrel: vintage photo and worn lipstick
For the tree stump: walnut stain.
For the tree trunks: walnut stain

I added some shading to the tree and tree stump bases with peeled paint. I then adhered the panel to a Kraft card base.

I popped the sentiment up on foam and adhered it over the previous stamped cloud

Now normally I would reach for my stickles but since glitter that comes off can be dangerous to our soldiers I opted for liquid pearls and glossy accents. If you really must use glitter (some projects do call for it) I use the stickles wait for them to dry and encapsulate them in glossy accents. This way there is no chance of it flaking off. If you don't like the extra shine provided my glossy accents they also have a matte.
Here are some close ups

first is the glossy accents

 dimension on the sentiment

and shine from the liquid pearls

Here is the finished card again, I did move my sentiment up a little. I felt like it was consuming my wee little squirrel. :)

Moving on to the giveaway

I had a wonderful experience shopping at I Heart Papers last month. Kate is so sweet and very professional.

So in order to reward you hoppers and spread the word about a great store I am giving away a $20.00 gift certificate to one random commenter. Leave a comment by midnight on Sunday, November 14.

You don't need to be a follower to win. I want you to follow because you want to not because I made you :) however I would love if you did want to follow. Also I do hope you'll go check out the store I would never recommend something to you that I personally didn't think was excellent.

So on to the next blog with you and God Bless!!

I know Melissa at What do you (th)Ink? has super cute creations in store for you!