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.
