We have a fairly relaxed take on Valentines here, and though we mark the occasion each year, usually with a card and a small gift, it’s not just about the one day. This year was more relaxed than normal and we ate a lovely home cooked meal. I’d been contemplating the style of card I’d make this year, but right up until the day before I didn’t know exactly what form it would take.
I’d seen, and thought I’d saved but hadn’t as it turned out, an idea on Instagram using heart shaped cookie cutters to stamp an outline using watercolours and then using water to flood the shape. That appealed, and so I dug out an appropriately sized cookie cutter and my watercolours, and started to look for the reel I thought I’d saved.
I couldn’t find it, but thought the idea was simple enough, and started thinking what’s the worst that could happen. It didn’t work exactly as my memory thought it should, but you know what, that didn’t matter and so I spent the afternoon doodling some watercolour hearts, with no plan other than to use them somehow on a card for MOH.
The plan was to mix some watercolours, dunk in the cookie cutter and stamp that onto the paper. My plastic heart didn’t really pick up the paint that way, and so I soon adapted my approach to paint the colours directly onto the edge. This left a pretty melee of colours on the white plastic, which almost looks as if it belongs to someone who knows what they’re doing!
And don’t worry, this cookie cutter has been retired from the kitchen and is now labelled a permanent addition to my craft kit!
With my new approach working pretty well there was no stopping me, and hearts of many colours quickly decorated my page. I even managed to wait for it to dry before adding colour for depth and interest. I soon realised that I much preferred the bolder colours once more layers were added, but also realised I probably should have started with a background rather than diving straight in with the hearts.
I didn’t want to risk adding a watercolour background and disturbing what was already there, the bleeding heart look wasn’t quite what I was going for. So instead I used some more pastel-shaded pencils to doodle in a background, and deeper complementary colours to add further depth to the hearts. Then I finally worked out how I would use this and out came my die cutter.
As experiments go, it was quite an enjoyable afternoon and productive too as MOH was once again the recipient of a truly unique card made with love.
