Always In My Heart...

Hello everyone!

Happy Monday and hope you all had a great weekend and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! The DT are showcasing PaperArtsy products within their projects and this week's fun theme is called ~ MAKE YOUR OWN BACKGROUND!

For my project, I created an art panel that has a handmade canvas panel, painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints and has a colourful background created with PaperArtsy Infusions and of course, I couldn't resist a few Tim Holtz products to tell the story ~ heart & soul.

So, let's get started and here's how I created this panel...

To begin with I started this project by making my own background on watercolour card, measuring 17 x 22cm. I wanted a background with quite a bit of white space around the outside, keeping the colour to the central section! So, I began by slightly misting that central area of my card panel with water and then sprinkled a combination of Rusty Car, A bit Jaded and Green Man Infusions. The particles will start to disperse as soon as they hit the water but to create a little more drama and to apply them to a larger space, I spritzed some more water over the top, allowing the crystals to do their thing and create this wonderful pattern. Now, no two projects will ever look the same, that's the amazing thing about these but you can control the colour by adding more crystals to the areas that you want ~ just sprinkle, spritz and allow to dry.

Once I was happy with the background, I then attached some randomly torn pieces of Tissue Tape from my stash, (if you don't have this, use torn book pages or you can stamp your own tissue paper) ~  I concentrated on the central area where I'd added the Infusions. After applying some Matte Collage Medium over the top, I used some gesso and an old credit card and just scraped the gesso over the taped area, heat dried the paint and then added the slightest hint of some more colour with a further sprinkle of Infusions before heat drying the watercolour card thoroughly.

I now have my background ready and I wanted this piece to look like a piece of framed art and decided to mount the background onto a canvas panel that would add a border. I didn't have a panel the size I wanted, so I made one of my own, using a piece of heavyweight mountboard and some Ranger sticky back, self adhesive canvas that I had in my stash. The canvas is 24 x 19cm in size and to add colour to the white canvas I used a combination of Chalk and Buff PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Paints, applied directly to the surface and then heat dried.

Once the canvas is completely dry, I mounted the watercolour card onto it.

Now to start telling the story and I began by making the heart using the Faceted Heart Die.

You can see how I made a red version of this heart HERE, and this one is die cut and painted in exactly the same way but using a combination of Evergreen Bough, Rusty Hinge, Black Soot and Antiqued Bronze Distress Paints to create the finish on the heart.

I added some Hardware Heads to the heart, which I rusted with a little more of the Antiqued Bronze and Rusty Hinge Distress Paints.

I attached the heart by placing it onto the left of a couple of Pinked Etcetera Trims, which I crackled with some Texture Crackle Paste, allowed to dry and do their thing before accentuating the cracks with some Gathered Twigs Distress Crayon.

I then attached my gorgeous, adorable Paper Doll (I think she's one of my favourites from this set) which I colour tinted with Distress Marker Pens and placed her on a small piece of foam and attached her to the Etcetera Trim, so she looks as if she's sitting on it.

You can see the dimension and how she sits on the trim in the photo below...

I placed some moss, together with a small offcut of Mummy Cloth and attached this behind her, spilling out along the ledge. This also acts as a support to the paper doll, keeping her upright. To complete the ledge, I added a Milk Cap.

Now for those beautiful flowers, all coloured with the gorgeous Alcohol Pearls ~ Smolder, Enchanted, Splendour and Envy, all applied to the metal with an applicator tool. For this particular piece, I used four flowers and a leaf adornment, inked them with the pearls to add some amazing shimmer and shine and then attached them to my panel, three flowers to the left with a leaf and one to the right, attaching it at the top of the Etcetera Trim. In the centres of each flower, I applied a small dot of Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue.

For the finishing touches, I added a couple of Star Adornments and an Arrow Adornment, all inked with Mineral Alcohol Pearls and attached the stars directly to the background before adhering the arrow with Matte Collage Medium, placed sticking up from behind the heart.

I then attached a Quote Chip, Heart & Soul to the project and added a number from the Clippings Stickers to the heart.

So, that's my project for this week, which I'm really pleased with and even though there's quite a bit of work in this, I just love the simplicity of the finished project and hope you love it too.

Have fun creating your projects and don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

PaperArtsy: Rusty Car Infusions, Green Man Infusions, Chalk Fresco Finish Paint, Buff Fresco Finish Paint
Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Pinked Etcetera Trims
Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Faceted Heart
Distress Paint: Black Soot, Evergreen Bough, Antiqued Bronze, Rusty Hinge, Picket Fence

Distress Crayons: Gathered Twigs
Distress Marker Pens

Idea-ology: Star Adornments, Hardware Heads, Clippings Stickers, Paper Dolls, Arrow Adornments, Milk Caps, Adornments Floral, Quote Chips

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Texture Crackle Paste, Stickles Platinum
Surfaces: Watercolour Card, Ranger Ink Media Board
Alcohol Pearls Ink: Smolder, Enchanted, Splendour, Envy, Mineral
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
Palette Knife
Moss
Big Shot
Mummy cloth, Tissue Tape, Ranger Ink Sticky Back Canvas and A Bit Jaded Infusions from my own stash