Hello from the Creative Squad. Today we have a super cool project from Maura Hibbitts – a Love Alphabet – Wow! Read on to see how Maura pulls it together with my Small Circle Jumble rubber stamps, my Batik 1 & 2 foam stamps, my Far Out foam stamp, my Batik stencil and my New Orleans stencil. This month’s theme is: Whole Lotta Love – Who or what sets your heart aflutter this time of year? Let’s pay tribute this month to those warm fuzzy feelings of love and create something that celebrates that universal emotion.

Happy February – the month for love of course, with Valentine’s Day smack dab in the middle! I pulled out lots of red, pink and white paint to play with, in traditional holiday colors. Originally when I started working, I was going to make cards, then that morphed into the idea of a mini album, and finally as I was putting the final touches on it, it became a Love Alphabet. Yes, you can find words from A to Z in it, all about Love and Valentines.

I started my first layer with Pyrrole Red and the Batik stencil on the gelli plate. I love stenciling in different ways – laying the stencil down and pressing the paper over it, pulling the painty stencil up and putting it down on paper, and pressing a piece of paper into the gel plate. This gives a wide variety of backgrounds to work with. I printed on both cardstock and copy paper, which later on turned out to work beautifully.

A little gold was needed as the second layer, so on some papers, I added it with the New Orleans stencil, and on others, I used the brayer.

Time for the pink layer! I added a mix of pinks over the printed papers with paint and a brayer.

I added a final translucent layer on top with the fluid acrylics. For this layer, I just smudged the paint in with my fingers, which are great tools for blending, even if you get a bit dirty, it all comes out eventually. (Or use gloves)

Now that the background is done, it’s time for some stamping. But first, I used matte medium to glue a piece of cardstock and a piece of copy paper together. Then, I used the Batik 2 and Far Out art foamies with white paint and repeated the pattern several times to cover the page. Once dry, I trimmed off the edges, and cut them approximately 3 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches to make my book.

Now, to make things pop, I’m stamping with black ink using X’s and O’s (remember those XXXOOO’s? – hugs and kisses). I only want the X portion of the Batik 1 stamp, so I’ve masked off the rest with sticky notes. I’m stamping these with black archival ink and then the Circle Drive rubber stamps from the Small Circle Jumble set.

I cut out images from a Gudrun Sjoden catalog (now, I love these because they aren’t glossy, plus they are interesting) but you can use any magazine. I also found pages with neutral backgrounds and cut hearts. Then, I looked at my junk paper I use to wipe off extra paint from the brayer, and used it to cut more hearts to glue in.

Final steps are to edge the pages with the black ink, add details with the Posca Paint pens, and write in my words. Then, I punched two holes in the center and tied it together with Sari ribbon. (I found it handy to mark the holes through all pages with an awl, then use the hole punch on each page.)

You too can make your own fun little alphabet book of love to give to that special someone. Or, it could be fun to fill it with snarky words instead!

Sometimes I think Valentines Day is in the perfect place…all that love, giving and pinks and reds certainly brighten up the long winter around here. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! Maura

Thank you Maura! We just love this project from A-Z!

Want to give Maura’s project a try? You can find all my Stencils, Foam Stamps and Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop. In addition to magazine images, here are some of the other supplies Maura used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat