So apparently, my daughters not only think they can make requests for the crafts they receive, they think they should.  This year, my 10 year requested a heartless valentine she can hang in her room, oh and it still needed to be pink, pink, and pink… cause sure that isn’t a tall order.  I was just going to make her a little card and stick it in her lunch box, but apparently, she had other ideas for herself.  So today I am sharing with you (but please keep it a secret from her), how I created an almost heartless valentine for my demanding kiddo.

I started with an old broken frame that I found at a thrift store for about a quarter.  I figured this would be the perfect ‘thing’ to get my valentine hanging.  It is amazing how you can take a broken old frame and make it special with just a little paint and glitter.

Step One:  Lightly sand the frame.  Add a primer of paint over the wood.  I used White Gesso.  Let Dry.

Step Two:  Add a thin coat of metallic gold paint over the frame.  Keep things looking vintage by keeping the paint thin and less than perfect.  It is okay to let the white gesso peek through in places.  Let Dry.

Step Three:  In the crease of the frame, add 3mm Clear Double Sided Adhesive.

Step Four:  Add Bright Cranberry Silk Microfine Glitter to the adhesive.  Brush off any excess.  Set frame aside.

Step Five:  Create a background using alcohol ink and silver foil.  I used Pink Serbert, Raspberry and Watermelon Ranger inks.  I placed the silver foil over the background and let it stick to the sticky parts of the paper.

Step Six:  Add Clear Double Sided Adhesive from a 5×12 sheet to a piece of 100lb White Soft Finish Cardstock.  Die cut the cage from the Free as a Bird die set.  Add Silver Microfine Glitter to the adhesive.

Step Seven:  Die cut four birds from the Free as a Bird die set and the prepared adhesive cardstock.  Add Bright Cranberry Silk Microfine Glitter to two birds and Copper Rose Silk Microfine Glitter to the other two.

Step Eight:  Using Kids Choice Glue, adhere the the bird cage to the alcohol ink background.

Step Nine:  Trim a piece of Dusky Lavender Soft Finish Cardstock to 5x7inches.  Die cut the cardstock with the largest Frame It/Stitched Rectangle die.

Step Ten:  Add a sentiment from the Love Sentiments stamp set in pink ink.  I used Archival Rose Madder.  I also stamped a few hearts around the frame from the Love Sentiments stamp set.

Step Eleven:  Tape on the backside the stamped frame around the alcohol inked background.  Using Kids Choice glue add the four birds artistically to the frame and inked background.

When you add the paper goods to the frame you get a really sweet Valentine that might be all the right colors, but isn’t a traditional Valentine image.

Thanks for peeking in today.  Make sure you pop over the the ECD Blog and see all the Valentine’s day projects the ECD design team has come up with.

Until then, Happy Crafting.