A Different Kind of Valentine...

Hello Everyone! Lynne here (smile) and today for my Susan K. Weckesser design team post I want to share with you how I celebrate Valentines Day. A long time ago when I was a stressed-out single-mom who did not feel very loved or lovable I decided that I was going to celebrate Valentines Day by honouring my love for myself and "my people".  I would stay up late the night before to set up the most BEAUTIFUL breakfast table for me and the kiddos and there would be chocolate and maybe a small gift and always a card for each of us expressing how very, very much I loved them and why, including a card for ME - from ME.  It was a beautiful and empowering way to start the day and to celebrate Love in its most basic form... the Love of ourselves.

Today I still send Valentines all over the world to people who have touched my life and I still keep up the tradition of giving myself a card.  This year I had fun using the Susan K. Weckesser "Birds of a Feather" digital stamp for some of my cards because I LOVE this little guy!

I dragged the digital stamp into a Word document, sized it and then copied it until I had six of him on one page, I printed the page out onto 100lbs matt card stock ready to be colored however I like.  I decided to paint him using my new Silks acrylic glaze paints - the colors are so vibrant they make me happy and they don't mix together to form a muddy mess, but rather layer so you can see colors through other colors, the possibilities are endless.  

On this card I created a lovely rainbow background using a New-to-Me product, the Kaleidacolor Raised Rainbow Dye ink pad.  

This color combo is called Melon Melody and goes from green to yellow to orange; 

the pads are raised and a button slides them all together so you can run a brayer over them or just slide the entire pad over your card stock, the button also slides the pads apart for storage so the inks do not bleed into each other. 

I used a brayer, ran it over the ink pads a few times and then right onto my card base and just look a the results!

I added my favorite swirly heart background stamp with red ink and some clear embossing powder, and I popped one wee guy just to give the card more interest.  A waterproof ink pen added that little bit of black for contrast and taa daaa, I'm done.

For this second card I really went to town with lots of mixed media technique. 

I used the Desert Heat Kaleidacolor raised rainbow dye ink pad (oranges to reds) for the background color and then I used a makeup sponge to dab on more color through the Tim Holtz Rays stencil...

I stamped some large flowers and used another New-to-Me product, the Stampendous Shabby White Embossing Enamel... it has fine and chunky white grains as well as gold flecks and you get a subtle distressed look with it. 

My birdie and hearts are all painted with Silks in pink and red and I added a bit of paper string for contrast.

For both these cards I used my New "old" vintage typewriter (a major find in my local second-hand store!) to type out my sentiments... I think they go perfectly with these cards...

So Thanks for stopping by today to share my stuff, and maybe you will want to give Yourself a Valentine this year... Smile
Scrapbook Lynne Mizera
Susan K. Weckesser Design Team Member

Products used on these projects
"Birds of a Feather" Susan K. Weckesser digital stamp

Copic black multi-liner
Kaleidacolor Raised Rainbow dye ink pad
Silks acrylic glaze 
Stampendous Shabby White embossing enamel

Tim Holtz Collection Rays layering stencil
Tim Holtz Ideaology paper string
Want2Scrap jewels