Stampin for the weekend Distressed

Happy Friday everyone I hope you are all well out there in blogland!

I hope you all had nice Valentines day yesterday, those of you who choose to celebrate it!
We have a new challenge over at Stampin for the weekend today and we are super lucky to be sponsored by the superb Lilli of the Valley.
Our challenge this time is to get DISTRESSED so get out your inks, tear your edges and rough up your stash! We are also looking for a couple of new DT members so why not give it a go?!
As I said in my post yesterday I would be showing you what Valentines I made for the kiddies yesterday and here they are (warning a bit more photo heavy today!)

Here is my hanging valentines string ball! I saw something similar to this on PInterest for Easter baskets and wanted to try it for valentines. They are a bit bigger than I planned but I love how they have turned out! My distressed element is the handmade tag.

I made 3 of these as I have 3 kiddies, actually I made 5 balls but only made 3 tags. There are some tiny chocolates inside too but how did they get there?!
It's simple, although fiddly lol!
Just take a balloon and push inside the chocolates, small egg shaped ones work best to get inside the non inflated balloon. Then you blow up the balloon and the chocs are rolling about inside!
The string is crochet string (size3) soaked in sugar water. Boil 2 parts sugar to 1 part equal water for the solution. Then you wrap the string around the balloon, this part is icky sticky! Leave to dry for 24 hours then pop the balloon and take out the bits through the string holes. This part is also fiddly as I found my popped balloon wrapped itself around the chocs but with a lot of prodding and fiddling I managed to get out the bits of balloon, leaving the chocs inside the string balls!

Here you can just about see some chocs inside! There aren't many as it is hard to get them in non inflated balloons! I then tied a piece of ribbon to form a loop for the top and added a bigger ribbon for a bow to hide any unsightly knots.

I guess I should show you my tag though! I have used Tea Dye and Victorian Velvet DI along with a stempelglede flourish stamp and prima script stamp to the edges. I painted some white crackle paint in the middle and stamped over that with the "I love you" stamp which is Papertrey Ink. My heart is a TH Alteration die and my butterflies are Cheery Lynn which have all had Tea dye ink and crackle paint on them. I have added a rose, ribbon and lace to the top of the tag and some bling and pearls too.

I am entering this today into...

Paper shelter be my valentine, Addicted to stamps and more bingo (heart stamp love), flutterby weds hearts,  Charisma anything goes, MAWTT love is in the air, Crafty sentiments valentines, Sarah Hurley anything but  a card, Happy campers shabby chic and In the pink pink valentines.

Do check out what the rest of the team have made for this excellent challenge and please join us you have 2 wks to enter!

Thanks so much for coming by my blog everyone

Big hugs