DBC ~ You Make My Heart Melt!

 Hi friends!

I'm on the Drive By Crafts blog today with this card ~ You Make My Heart Melt ♥

I think this is probably one of my favorite cards of this year :)

I absolutely adore it ~ 

from the distress ink blending to the shimmery snow to the cute little kitties ...

it's just so cheerful :)

{and we can always use cheer and happiness} :)

Here's how I made this card from Products at Drive By Crafts online store:

I used the You Make My Heart Melt stamp from the My Favorite Things stamp selections and stamped those out with Brutus Monroe Raven ink.

Oh I love this ink!  So crisp and clean and spot on!

Then, I ran the images through the Cuttlebug with the matching die-namics ~

but remember, you don't need the dies - just fussy cut your images!

I colored the images and then set them aside to work on my background.

 

Since this card is going to a sweet friend,

I knew I wanted pinks and purples as a background.

The exact shades I wanted were Ranger Tim Holtz Picked Raspberry Distress Ink

and Ranger Archival Ink is Magestic Violet.

Using my mini blending tool, I blended both the raspberry and violet inks outward 

until the entire A2 size cardstock was covered and put it aside to set.

For the lake, I wanted to simulate the sparkle of the sun on the ice,

so I added clear Wink of Stella to the image - instant ice skating shimmer!

*A little tip!  I'm a little (okay - a lot!) heavy handed when it comes to blending,

so I hold a scrap piece of paper over the area as I've blended ...

keeps the ink off my fingers AND smudges off your paper! :)

For the frame, this part took a bit of creativity

 and thinking outside the box ... or outside the frame!

I used my My Favorite Things die-namic frame but discarded the actual die cut,

and used the outer area that looked like a window box frame.

So I basically kept the part you toss and tossed saved the part you keep!

I added Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam to the under side of the white A2 size frame and inverted it and attached that to background to frame it out.
I repeated this with the kitties and the owl - popped up on 3d foam for dimension.

And lastly, I used my white embossing powder and heat gun to 

embossed the sentiment to the card and popped that up, 

too.

To create the water color movement in the ink,

I took a medium size paintbrush with plain water and flicked it onto the ink

background.  It breaks up the monotony of the background color.

 And that's my card .. I hope you enjoyed my rambling today :)

You can stop by the DBC blog and see more inspiration,

as well as take a little drive through the DBC store here or the blog here.

 

My time is almost up being on the Drive By Crafts Design Team ~

it's been a fun ride! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big hugs, bigger blessings ♥

~Kelly