Monday Challenge - "A is for..."

This is one of those "throw the kitchen sink at it" type of card. The inspiration for it was the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge blog. This time the challenge is "A is for...". With it being almost February, and me not having even started on my Valentine's day cards, my "A" was definitely for Amore. Well, my other idea was Alligator, but it turns out I don't have an alligator stamp, so Amore it was. I decided to use colours and techniques which are far outside my comfort zone to see what the result would be of being a bit experimental.

I created the background by stamping the small heart stamp from the Stampin' Up Tiny Tags set using black and clear embossing inks and heat embossed them using clear embossing powder. Then I added the colour using Tim Holtz distress paints, by dabbing them onto my crafting mat, spritzing with water and then swirling the paper around in the paint.
After that I just went crazy with stamps, I used the Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge and Tiny Tags stamps as well as Tim Holtz Set-Sketch and  Heartfelt in Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo. To top it all up, I used a doily stencil and inked through it in Aged Mahogany.

I printed the word amore using the font Lucida Blackletter, cut out the letters and used them as templates to cut the letters out in black cardstock. I then added several layers of Tim Holtz distress stickles in Worn Lipstick. I stamped the Tim Holtz Heart n' Soul stamp onto watercolour paper and coloured using distress markers. I fussycut the image, and stamped it in black soot onto the background before adding on the cut out using dimensionals. 

To finish, I made the flower based on the instructions here using a paper I had previously coloured with Distess paints. I also stamped the Tim Holtz Curiosity stamp in Vintage photo before assembling the flower. I matted everything onto dark red and attached everything onto Kraft cardstock. 

The card turned out very different from how I usually make them, much more grungy and messy. It's nice to push yourself a bit out of your comfort zone every once in a while. 

This card just might have left the
InvisiblePinkCraftroom in a bit of a mess...

Colours: Distress paints Barn Door, Picked Raspberry, Victorian Velvet, Mustard Seed and Antiqued Bronze. Distress inks: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Aged Mahogany. Distress markers: Barn Door, Bundled Sage, Weathered Wood, Victorian Velvet
Stamps: Stampin' Up: Tiny Tags, Gorgeous Grunge, Tim Holtz: Heart n' Soul, Set-Sketch, Curiosity, Heartfelt
Cardstock: Watercolour paper, black cardstock from my stash
Other: Finnabair doily stencil, Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Worn Lipstick