Be My Valentine? for Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Zoe Hillman's turn to host the latest challenge over at Frilly and Funkie and the chosen theme, appropriately for the beginning of February, is 'Be My Valentine?' Love is in the air, and with Valentines Day just around the corner, this challenge is to make a card for your sweet Valentine in a vintage or shabby chic style.

The team will choose their top four picks with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie and the next three will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

For my Valentine's Day card I took the opportunity to play with some brand new Wendy Vecchi designs and gave a decidedly more masculine look to it. You'll be seeing much more of this fella in the coming weeks but for now he has been christened 'Mr Valentine', and though he may have a tough exterior, inside he's just like marshmallow; all soft and gooey.

Guessing you'd want to know how this came together I've whipped up a tutorial for you;

Start with a square of card covered in a mix of orange and brown Distress Paints (colours listed at the end). Repeat stamp over with the Les Roses background using Jet Black Archival Ink.

Use Matte Distress Collage Medium to apply torn and wrinkled pieces of Tissue Wrap over the top as unevenly as possible before trimming away any excess from the edges of the card.

Using a mixture of blending and direct to paper methods apply Orange Blossom and Potting Soil Archival Inks over the whole background to give it more of an aged appearance.

Apply white gesso to your craft mat and dab the background in to pick up random patches. I finished mine by splattering Ripe Persimmon and Spiced Marmalade Distress Paints over the top.

Stamp Mr Valentine a couple of times in Jet Black Archival Ink to get a main image and extras of his head, his hat and his hand. Colour his face and hand with Tea Rose Archival Ink and his hat with Potting Soil Archival Ink. I used a little Candied Apple Distress Crayon to colour his tie. Fussy cut and layer together with dimensional tape or glue.

I cut two hearts by tracing them from the Not Enough Hearts stencil before colouring them with Red Geranium Archival Ink. After sticking them together I stamped them unevenly with the new Herringbone background in Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I worked out where Mr Valentine would be positioned on the card and drew round him before adding a little dilute Walnut Stain Distress Crayon to add shading. I then applied Black Embossing Paste through the new Rectangle Grate stencil (which reminds me of film tape) and allowed it to air dry.

To finish Mr Valentine and those hearts were layered over the background before being matted onto black card and a white card blank. The sentiments from the new Quotations set were scuffed at the edges to reveal their white core before being stuck in place.

And here are a couple of close ups of the card so you can see more of the dimension and detail;

His eyes follow you around don't they! So that's it for my DT project (and additional tutorial) for the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'Be My Valentine?' Please make sure you hop on over to see what my talented team mates have created for their Valentines and remember to link up your own projects to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes.

I have some shows coming up at the weekend (details on my sidebar) so it's back to the craft room to prep for those.
For now take care of yourselves and go have fun! Jenny xxx