Very Vintage Valentine with Lori

I decided to make a Valentine that looked truly vintage, so I started with the awesome Crafty Secrets Homespun Cotton Scraps in the Romance theme.

 I cut out the image I wanted, leaving a border, then peeled it off the backing sheet.  Did you know that if you pick at the threads with your fingernails, you can unravel them?  I like to unravel a few rows to give it a little older feel.  Next, I mounted the Cotton Scraps on a coordinating cardstock mat. 

Next, I used my handy Make The Cut software with a free SVG file to make that super cute doily heart.  I altered the original SVG a little to remove some extra cuts, and it's only one layer of a complete card.  This particular SVG file came from Paulo's blog.  He is an awesomely talented artist who chooses to share his work with the rest of us!  I distressed the cut some by using some distress ink direct from the ink pad - the Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads work great for this.  (I particularly recommend Old Paper, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain for maker paper look aged.)  Finally, I pulled a "Valentine" stamp from my stash and stamped the upper center of the heart.

I made a 5x7 card base from cardstock, then a 4.75 x 6.75 panel from a darker color.  I embossed this panel using my Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder.  Now, because this folder is an A2 size, I embossed the left side (horizontal orientation), then the right side.  This folder is really easy to line up the design for this technique!  After embossing, I ran my distress ink pad over the raised areas and along the edges.  I then used an edge distresser tool along the edges of the panel as well, and adhered it to the front of my card base.

On top of the panel, I adhered the heart doily and the matted Cotton Scraps image.  Finally, I pulled out my Fired Brick Distress Stickles to accent my sentiment and fill in all of the little heart cut-outs on the edge of my heart doily.