February 14 fever

I know it's not even February, yet I've made enough Valentine's Day cards this past week or so to last me for years to come!

So these three cards use basic stamping and masking, but maybe you'll learn something along the way or see something that inspires you.(Stampin Up - A Happy Heart)

Basic masking using two chalk ink tones. I like the soft effect of the chalk. Now if you don't have any chalk inkpads, you can easily create a softer tone using your regular inkpads. Often you can stamp an image 2 or 3 times or more before re-inking your stamps, each time acheiving a more subtle tone. Experiment with you ink colours. If it's too dark stamp it off once or twice on a scrap piece first.
(Stampin Up - Upsy Daisy, Sweet little sentiments)
Now after stamping off on a scrap piece once or twice, using the same colour go over parts of the stamp with the edge of your inkpad or inked sponge dauber before stamping. You could also do something like this using 2 colours as long as the second colour added is darker or you'll stain your lighter colour inkpad.

( Stampin Up - A Happy Heart)
Keep it soft and simple. But if it looks like it's not quite finished, make the focal point pop out of the background using crystal effects or glitter glue like I have on the previous two images.
Click on any image to get a better supersized look.