Send A "Love You!" Card This Valentine's Day

Show how much you care!  Send a personal message to someone you love by making the card yourself.  Did you know that watercolor paper can be dyed and heat set in the microwave?  Roberta Wax made this card by stamping hearts with a washable resist on watercolor paper and then brushing Rit dye around the resist to create a batik-like effect.  To add extra dimension, hearts and messages were ink stamped over the batik-dyed hearts, and the blue hearts were stamped and embossed.  What a sweet message!

Here's the tutorial:

SUPPLIES:

• Rit Liquid Dye:  Fuchsia & Royal Blue
• Watercolor Paper, 90 lb. (cut to approx. 5 ½” x 3 ½” or use an 8 ½” x 11” sheet and then cut to size) You will need a larger piece for the background and smaller scraps for the cut out hearts.
• Blue Card Base, 5 ½” x 4 ¼” finished size folded
• Batik-EZ Resist Medium by Crafter’s Pick
• 1 Blue & 2 White Prima Paper Flowers
• Black Stamping Ink
• Clear Embossing Ink
• White Embossing Powder
• Embossing Heating Tool
• Judkins Relish Cube (Heart) 6318G
• Fiskars Punch Love Clear Stamp Set
• Foam Dimensional Tape or Glue Dots
• Self-Adhesive Rhinestone
• Glue or Double-Sided Tape
• Small Paint Bushes or Foam Brushes; optional Mister
• Corner Rounder
• Microwave or Heat Tool
• Dyeing Supplies:  Latex Gloves, measuring cup, measuring spoons, disposable spoon, 2 small 1-cup plastic containers, small sea sponge, paper towels
• Plastic Table Cover or Newspapers

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Protect work area with plastic table cover or newspapers.

2.  Use foam brush to apply Batik-EZ Resist Medium on curly heart stamp.  Then stamp repeatedly on the larger piece of watercolor paper, brushing on more medium after each impression.  Wash stamp immediately.  Let paper dry or dry with heat tool.

3.  Mix Rit Dye:  Mix 1 teaspoon Fuchsia dye with ½ cup hot tap water; stir well.  Mix 2 teaspoons Royal Blue dye with ½ cup hot tap water; stir well.  (For darker shades, use more dye.)   

4.  Brush or spray Fuchsia dye liberally on the watercolor paper that has been stamped with the Batik-EZ Resist Medium.

5.  Bush or spray the Royal Blue dye on scrap pieces of plain white watercolor paper.

6.  Dry dyed watercolor papers in the microwave:  Line bottom of microwave with paper towels.  Place the dyed paper in the microwave and set on high for 1 – 2 minutes.

7.  Remove paper and gently rinse off the resist medium using a wet sponge or foam brush.  Let paper air dry or dry in the microwave.

8.  Using black stamping ink, randomly over stamp the curly heart on the Fuchsia dyed resist paper.  Then using the black ink, randomly stamp “love words” on the same paper.

9.  Round corners of card base using a corner rounder.  Cut Fuchsia dyed and stamped  paper to fit on base card, leaving a ¼” border; round corners and adhere to base card.

10.  Stamp the other hearts from the clear set on scraps of the Royal Blue dyed paper using clear embossing ink.  Apply white embossing powder, shake off the excess, then heat the powder.  (Pour excess powder back into jar.)  Cut out the hearts and use dimensional foam or Glue Dots to affix the hearts to the card, as shown.

11.  Fold one white and one blue flower in half and glue to bottom right of card using Glue Dots.  Glue another white flower open, next to the other flowers, and glue a rhinestone in the center of the flower.