Purple Valentine's Blog Hop Giveaway

Hello friends, a few weeks ago I received an invitation to participate in a Valentine's blog hop from my friend Tracie Dean of Dean Designs.  The catch - it's a purple Valentine's blog hop.  Here's my take on a purple Valentine.  As you can see, I had a little shabby chic fun making this card!  I hand painted the Venise Lace and the Tri-bud using Dusty Concord and Bundled Sage distress stains, embossed the filigree corner with Ranger Antiquities Weathered White Embossing Powder and sponged a white heart doily with Dusty Concord DI.  The stamp is from the Tim Holtz Love Struck set, stamped in Jet Black archival ink and edged with Vintage Photo.  

I hd a question from a new follower the other day about making flowers from canvas so I thought I would give you a short tutorial along with this post.  I cut three "flowers" from canvas using the Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecones die.  I stack three pieces of canvas together and cut them all at once - those Sizzix BIGZ dies are sensational cutters!

I squeezed a puddle of Dusty Concord and another puddle of Milled Lavender distress stains on my craft sheet and gave them a couple of sprays of water to dilute them somewhat.  

I carefully smooshed the three flowers into the distress stains- carefully because my Tattered Pinecone die cuts a very thin area about 3/4 around the circle and that tends to pull apart when using canvas so you end up with two pieces instead of one.  

I had to add more stain and also dabbed some directly onto the canvas.  Then I spritzed water directly on the canvas so the ink would bleed and be absorbed throughout.  

Then I dried the flowers with my heat tool and yes, one came apart, but no worries.

Each time I needed to clean up my craft sheet, I spritzed a misting of water on the craft sheet and then absorbed the excess stains with a blank tag, drying the tag with my heat tool after each blotting.

I hate to waste the excess stains and I love having some pre-colored tags ready to grab when I want to start a project.  Drying each layer between blottings helps the blots stay individual rather than running all in together.  I even blotted up some Bundled Sage after I used it to stain the canvas leaves.

Now it's time to roll up the flowers.  Starting on the other end, I roll and pinch the first half inch or so, adding some hot glue to the bottom and pinching to create the center.

Then I just roll, add a drop of hot glue, adjust the placement and roll a bit more.  The flower below has one and 3/4 diecut canvas flowers in it.  The 3/4 was one that broke apart so I used each piece separately.  You can take tweezers and pick off the loose frayed canvas and even snip off longer pieces of they bother you.  

From the three tattered pinecone die cuts, I made three flowers.  The large one used 1 and 3/4 die cuts, the mid-sized one used one and the small one was made with the 1/4 piece left over broken piece.

You can blow up any of these photos to see the tiny details by clicking twice on the photo.  This is just one way to make canvas flowers.  You can make as many variations as there dies available.

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog for the Purple Valentine's Blog Hop. (If you've hoped into the middle, you can find all the participants linked on the Dean Designs blog)  I have a lovely prize package for one lucky winner consisting of three one-yard lengths of Venise Lace and a set of three Venise heart appliqués plus three tiny tri-bud appliqués.  And there is more - a lovely set of three vintage style ivory butterfly appliques and shabby white enameled corner filigree like I used on my card.  All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment here on this post, no requirement to become a follower unless you want to.  I'll do the drawing early on the 15th and announce the winner here.  And if you don't win, these products and many, many for are for sale in my Funkie Junkie Boutique.








These products used to create this card can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Tim Holtz/Ranger and Melissa Frances products are always 20% below MSRP.

White & Green Tri-bud Venise Lace Appliques	Venise Lace Trim1.375 Inches Wide	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Dusty Concord	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Bundled Sage	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Reinker	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecones Die	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves Die	Melissa Frances Cream Pearl Embellishments
Shabby Paper Crafting Embellishments - White Filigree Metals	Paper Crafting Embellishments - Filigree Metals	Ranger Embossing Powder - Weathered White Antiquities	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink Pad