Heart Stamps Reimagined

I’m reimagining heart stamps this week. I turned one into a 3D paper rose, now they’re being turned into plants. Either way, it’s great to think outside the box & stretch those supplies. Supplies listed below.

Altenew Love Letters reimagined as Zentangle® sea plants.

I knew I wanted to use the different size stamps to create fronds with leaves that were larger at the bottom and got smaller towards the top. And I knew I would add hand drawn details. That was about as far as my design went until I started creating.

Be sure to watch the video to see the creative process.

I used Altenew Green Valley Crisp Dye Inks in Firefly, Grass Field, and Mountain Pine. Darker inks were used with larger hearts at the bottom of the fronds and lighter inks with smaller stamps as the leaves got smaller.

I made sure to create curved fronds going in different directions. I used the lightest ink for the frond most behind so that the base wouldn’t blend in with the other dark leaves.

After the stamping was complete, I used a Sakura Micron 05 (not 03 as mentioned in the video) to add hand-drawn details to the leaves. Check out these cards from the BAF: Poppy release for more hand-drawn accents.

I drew a line through the tips of all the hearts from top to bottom, then added curved lines to add dimension to the leaves. Each half of a heart creates one leaf.

I added some flowers and gravel and when the drawing was complete, I used a combination Altenew Artist Markers and Copics to add shading. The background was created by swiping streaks of BG000 & B00 across the panel.

Drop shadows to the plants & flowers were added with BV20 & BV23.

For that extra bit of dimension I smudged white charcoal pencil on the tops of the leaves and flowers. I stamped & die cut a sentiment a Altenew Circled Sentiments.

I added BG000 around the edge of the die cut and flicked it up from the bottom of the letters as the black & white was too plain against all that color. I matted the panel in black, popped up the panel and sentiment, added it to an A2 card base and called it done.

I really enjoyed the creative process on this one. I hope you feel inspired to reimagine your supplies and find time to get creative and Breathe · Ink · Inspire.