From the HeArt Shadowbox

Happy Valentine's Day

How about this for a present to a loved one on this special day?

Cut some patterned paper the size of the back of the frame and using a stencil and modeling paste create a textured pattern.

Scrape through some white gesso, heat dry and then random stamp with permanent ink. I used vermillion with black over the top to get a two tone effect.

Take a greyboard square and scrape some gesso lightly over the top to create a little texture.

 When the gesso is dry paint it with a coat of cadmium red and quinacridone magenta, dry it and give a coat of transparent red iron oxide mixed with raw umber and before it dries flick some water over the surface let it stand for half a minute or so and then gently roll over some kitchen towel to remove the water and some of the paint underneath it. This technique gives you that mottled effect.

Take a small wooden heart (did Elvis pop into your head then? It did mine lol). Daub a little white gesso onto it, turn it over and press the gessoed side onto your craft mat (or something similar). This gives you a very quick way to create a different texture.

Daub a little paynes grey over the heart, dab most of it off and then repeat in a couple of random areas so you get contrasting depths of the colour.

I painted on the reds and raw umber dabbing off with kitchen roll to continue the mixed colour effects ....

..... and dry-brushed white gesso over it to reveal the texture again.

I then swiped over the vermillion red ink pad to bring the reds to life more.

Again I added some white dry-brushing but this time nearer to the edges.

I painted the edge of the heart with white gesso and sanded it back when it was dry, finishing with blended ground espresso distress ink.

To finish the square I sanded over it and around the edges and blended that with the distress ink too.

I took a cheap craft metal frame painted it with a mix of the reds and raw umber paints, let it dry and then blended over some iced espresso metallic lustre.

All I needed to do to complete the shadowbox was to make my own sentient for the metal frame .....

.... and put it together.

No embellishments, no collage just a simple design with lots of technique.

I dipped the white frame into a few watery washes of the colours I had been using but was not happy with the overall finished result ...

.... so that's when it got sanded and grunged up a bit with the sanding block and ground espresso distress ink.

That's better!

Now I'm happier with it.

Enjoy your Valentine's day with special people in your life and listen to your own HeArt.

hugs Brenda xxx

DecoArt white modeling paste DecoArt Mixed Media - White Gesso Ranger Archival Ink - Vermillion Ranger Archival ink pad - Jet black Decoart media-fluid-acrylic paint---cadmium-red DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic Quinacrodone magentaww.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-medi DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Paynes Grey DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Raw Umber Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Ground Espresso

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