When the Heart Speaks......

Hello Everyone

Well, last month saw the  birthday of my lovely Niece n  as she has appreciated my 'creations' in the past I thought I might make her an altered art piece for her bedroom to accompany her other gifts- gotta spoil ya Nieces !!

Having checked out her bedrooms colour scheme n knowing I love her loads I decided on altering a wooden 'heart' plaque!  As for how exactly I was going to alter the heart, well,  I wasn't sure as I had a few ideas in mind but no real design planned n not really knowing if it would be worthy of 'gift' status when finished I guess it was a case of trying n seeing n hoping it all came together in the end !

So here's what I did ........... A coat of gesso to prime the surface ready for whatever medium I was going to use ! After some thought I quite fancied the idea of crackling as it's a technique I haven't done in awhile n as the heart was a decent size I thought it would show the technique off well .Bearing in mind the colours of my Nieces room I chose to use Cream crackled with gold acrylic paints.

Once dry , using a couple of stamps (dotty  n very fine detail script) I  randomly stamped on to the crackle using both antique linen distress ink n archival coffee ink (stamped off onto paper first to lighten the intensity of the colour) .  Now  time for some stencil work so using my dotty stencil n gathered twigs distress ink I very gently worked the ink through the stencil to create some subtle dotty areas on the crackled surface of the heart .
Do love using stencils so out came the grunge paste which I mixed with some cream acrylic paint like I'd used for the main colour of the heart n this time using my bubble stencil I randomly created  areas of bubbly dimension onto the heart. To add a bit of sparkle I sprayed the heart with cosmic shimmer n rubbed some gilding wax around the edges then polished to give a lustre finish!   

Now ,  time to embellish........I started with the quote! After rummaging through my stash I found what I thought was the 'right' one  -  Using coffee archival ink I stamped the quote onto cream card stock cut to size, ragged the edges  n inked them up with gathered twigs distress ink n a light touch up of gilding wax.  I then manipulated the card slightly  to give it some dimension.

On to the flowers n leaves - I wanted 3 of each so  I made them using the  Itsy Bitsy spellbinder die n a Martha Stewart leaf punch. I  inked the edges of both flowers n leaves  in the same way as the quote panel but without the ragging ! Oh nearly forgot - the butterflies ( can't forget the flutterbies lol) . For those I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch n inked them up in the same way . 
After some 'faffing' around  with the placement of the embellies I finally decided on the arrangement n set to adhere them firmly onto the heart! 
Finally, I twisted some gold wire  for that extra touch n  placed them amongst the flowers n leaves , made some liquid pearl trails from the butterflies n  made a hanger with some cream decoration ribbon !  

 

I have to say it was a lovely feeling to see that my 'trying n seeing ' had actually come together in the end!

                                                                                 My Niece loved it ! 

                                                    Thanks so much for stopping by to take a peek!

                                                                      Hope to see you again soon!

                                                 I would like to enter this piece into the following challenges

                                                   Art with Heart Challenge February: Projects to Love

                                                     Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: H is for…
                                                 Craft Stamper Take It , Make It February Challenge 
                                                       Winter Blooms challenge - Frilly and Funkie