January Mediterranean Achievers Blog Hop . . . All you need is LOVE!

Welcome to the Grand Vacation Achievers Blog Hop for January. This month our theme is All You Need Is Love. We are sure that you will find some incredible inspiration from the projects that you are about to see. 

You may just be starting the blog hop here at my blog or may have come from the person previous to me in the list. If you get off track at any time, the full lineup below will help you move along from blog to blog so you see all the projects. 

At the moment you are visiting Bec Ross. 

You know,  think I might be just about the only Stampin' Up! Demonstrator who didn't purchase the Love Blossoms suite of products from the Occasions catalogue! So when it came to this "All you need is love" themed blog hop, I had to look elsewhere for some love themed stamps. What I discovered is that almost all the other stamps that I did purchase could work really well for a Valentines card. Many of the sets in that catalogue can cater for a variety of occasions within just one stamp set!

I decided to go with the Balloon Builders stamp set once I spotted the heart shaped balloon.  The set even has a great love themed sentiment.

When it came to colour choices I decided on Rose Red in an effort to show that colour some love after a long period of 'neglect' - I think it has been well over 6 months of not being used on my projects! Oops!  I teamed it up with Soft Sky as well as Sahara Sand - a great neutral colour. 

Although the Balloon Bouquet punch coordinates with the Balloon Builders stamp set, it doesn't punch out the heart shape so I hand-cut those with my paper snips (best scissors ever for that sort of work!)

Do you like the spotty background? I sponged some Soft Sky ink onto the Color Me Irresistible Specialty paper - since I didn't have any ready-made soft sky patterned paper, this was a good alternative and a fun technique.

Something that I have found to be very beneficial when using photopolymer stamps is the Stampin' Pierce Mat underneath the Card stock that I'm stamping onto.  I have found this makes a huge difference in getting a nice clean image.  If you ever have trouble getting your photopolymer stamps to stamp nicely, try that mat underneath - I'm sure it will help.  I have one mat for piercing (so its full of holes! lol!) and the other one I keep for stamping only, so its nice and smooth for a good result.

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Thanks for taking part in our blog hop, there are so many amazing ideas and inspiration you don't want to miss. Remember that currently you are at my blog -Bec Ross - so check the blog hop line up list to see who is next in the list