Valentine Hearts Mixed Media

I've been inspired by artists I've met in blogland and by images in Somerset Studio that led me in this new direction for me. It all started with little wood hearts I picked up at Hobby Lobby and a Dover publication of vintage images.

The hearts were painted with gesso, walnut ink and blue acrylic paint. The vintage images were adhered with Liquitex matte medium. I distressed the edges a bit by filing them with a nail file (yeah, the kind you get at Sally Beauty Supply.)

I wasn't sure what to do with the hearts at this point. The backs were also finished. I had adhered tissue paper and added some distressed paint finish. I thought about adhering them to ribbons for bookmarks. I even dyed some jacquard ribbon in walnut ink, but I wasn't satisfied with what I came up with.

I decided to try laying some hearts out on a 6x6 gallery wrapped canvas. Hmmm - there were possibilities to this idea.

I covered the canvas with gesso that I mixed with a little walnut ink and matte medium. Then I brushed in some verdi gris paint. I loved the colors together. Once that was dry, I stamped scrolls using a dark brown chalk ink pad, which I heat set with my heat gun. After playing around with several ideas, I finally ended up layering squares of cardstock (filed the edges), painted wonder under, the hearts and a stamped message. Final embellishments are silk & plastic flowers that I added acrylic & Shiva paint accents. The paper and wonder under were adhered with Liquitex Matte medium. I used heavy gel medium to adhere the hearts and flowers. The stamped message is on card stock that I adhered with foam tape.

To paint the wonder under, I mixed about equal amounts of gesso, matte medium and walnut ink. I heat set and distressed the painted wonder under by placing it between sheets of parchment paper and applying heat with my heat gun. Then I just tore sections of it to layer. Once it was adhered to my canvas, I added touches of copper and gold Shiva Stick.