guest tutorial: Melanie Testa makes ...

My good friend and fellow artist Melanie Testa is currently a vagabond blogger. Sad for her - lucky for us. We wish her blog a very speedy recovery. In the meantime today I have the great good pleasure of hosting her fabulous

Artspark heARTfest tutorial

 Here she goes.....

If you haven’t noticed, I am having blog troubles, yup! it is totally broken! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have fabulous friends that don’t want to help  blogless girl out! And don’t worry, I will have a new blog and web site soon. So let’s all thank Lyric for helping me bring a Tute Toot Tutorial to you for our Heartfelt Blog Hop.

When I was a girl, I loved going to the pharmacy around Valentine’s Day to purchase a plastic wrapped box of Valentines. They would come with little envelopes and need to be torn down to size along perforated edges. This was so very exciting to do, and going home to make an envelope out to each person in my class was excitement beyond measure! So I present a tutorial using stamps, sweet imagery and perforated edges.

You will need:

Paper to print on

Sticky back fun foam

Pencil

Exacto knife

Tracing paper

Stamp pads

Tracing wheel 

plastic ruler

Fun foam is the way to go, create a stamp (or 4) that fits your valentine design. My valentine’s are 2x3”, so my stamps fit within this size. I drew my design on tissue and rubbed it onto the foam.

Cut your design. 

Peel the backing off the fun foam and adhere to acetate or a backing of your choice. I put my tracing paper wrong side up underneath my acetate.

Pencil in a grid to size and begin printing your stamps, using stamp pads, within the grid.

Using the Pattern Wheel and plastic ruler, perforate your design along the penciled grid.

Fold and tear your valentine’s apart.

Write a special message on the back of your design and start giving your special Valentine’s to your best friends, buddies and and of course, your most cherished loved one(s)! 

Enjoy!

-Melly