You melt my heart

I created this page with my hubby in mind, as we are celebrating our 30^th Wedding Anniversary in a few days (grin!). The colours I used were also inspired by the turquoise pools and glazier photos of the Austrian Mountains over at Apple Apricot, I love these colours and had fun creating this page.

I started by stamping a Script stamp from Kaisercraft onto the page using black Archival Ink. Then I applied Emboss ink using a blending tool through a heart stencil from Creative Expressions and covered it with white Stampendous embossing powder. I shook off the excess powder onto a piece of scrap paper and also tapped the page to make sure any stray powder was removed and then I used a heat gun to gently melt the embossing powder until it became glossy and dimensional. I repeated this process for all the embossing powder and enamel which included: a crackle stamp from BoBunny which I stamped using the Emboss ink and covered with white Stampendous embossing powder; a Serpentine Background stamp from Art Impressions using Emboss ink and Chunky Silver Stampendous Frantage embossing enamel; and stamping the Emboss ink pad directly to the edges of the page then adding the Chunky Silver embossing enamel. I also sprinkled some of the enamel pieces onto the page and heated it from a height to stop it blowing away until it adhered to the page, and then I moved my heat gun closer to melt it fully. With the background heat embossing finished, I applied some Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain and left it to dry. Then I added some white gesso using my finger and when dry I applied more of the Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain and also some diluted Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink using a paintbrush to layer and blend the colours together; the gesso gave the ink colours more of a chalky look which I was after.

For the heart, I used a wooden heart tag which I covered in Emboss ink and the Chunky Silver Stampendous Frantage embossing enamel. I used a heat gun to melt the embossing enamel to a smooth glossy finish and before the enamel had cooled fully, I imprinted it using the Serpentine Background stamp again, being careful not to touch the enamel with my fingers as it gets super hot. I also covered a metal key embellishment with the same embossing enamel using the Emboss ink. They are all stuck in place using Ranger Glossy Accents.

For the dragonfly “love…” trails, I stamped some white tissue paper with a stamp from Craft Sensations using the black Archival Ink and covered it with black Papermania embossing powder. I was careful with the heat gun as the embossing powder melted very quickly due to it being on tissue paper. I repeated this process for the “You melt my heart” which is from a BoBunny stamp set. They are all fussy cut from the tissue paper and stuck in place using a UHU Stic. Then I attached the dragonfly brads and also some black round brads by pushing them through the page and fastening them into place; I also covered the back of the brads with masking tape to protect my next journal page. To finish, I splattered the page with Cracked Pistachio Distress Stain, some diluted Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink and also black DecoArt acrylic paint using a paintbrush.

Here’s me and my hubby, it’s been a wonderful 30 years and he has always and will forever “melt my heart” (grin!).

If I remember correctly we won’t be the only ones celebrating our 30^th Wedding Anniversary in October so will Erika and her hubby – Happy Anniversary!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Linda, who is hosting Creature Comforts challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my art journal page as to love and be loved brings me comfort.

I had fun creating this page with all the different inks and stains so I’m joining the Inktober challenge over at The Artistic Stamper too.

With the quote and all the stamping I used to create this page, I’m also joining Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Quote Away challenge.

I’m also pleased to join Topic 17 Colour Challenge is A Box of Eggs over at PaperArtsy with the blue and green pastel shades that I used for this page.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday the challenge is Celebrating Stamping & STAMPtember®! so I’m pleased to join them too.

I’m also pleased to join the September Link Party #44 – Anything Goes over at Cropstop Blog with my page as I included some products from companies that they carry in their store.

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tsukineko Emboss Embossing Stamp Pad (Clear)
• Tim Holtz Distress Stain (Cracked Pistachio)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mermaid Lagoon)
• Stampendous Embossing Powder (Detail White Opaque)
• Stampendous Frantage embossing enamel (Chunky Silver)
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Black PMA4021006)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Script CS752)
• Creative Expressions Mini Stencil (Heart Cluster CEMSHEART)
• BoBunny Stamps (Rough it up #12105155, Snow Day #13705563)
• Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Serpentine Background T-2773)
• Craft Sensations (Clear Stamps CRO274/16R1)
• White tissue paper
• The Works (Chalkboard Tags)
• The Range (Key Embellishments CRO954)
• Brads (Dragonflies – Black, Round – Black)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic