All time faves!

Hearts like flowers and butterflies are universal favourites for most creative people from card makers to quilters. Hearts come in a variety of shapes and sizes and we all have our favourites and the Bigz Hearts, Primitive die is mine!

Not only are they my favourite hearts but it is also one of my all time favourite dies too!

 This autumn I am scheduled to attend quite a few events and shows and one of the things I always like to have with me is a materials swatch which is in the form of die-cut flowers cut from several materials attached to a large jump ring the purpose of which is to show what can be cut using a Bigz die. I was thinking the other day that it is time to retire my old swatch as, much like myself it is getting a little tatty around the edges.

Today's post will show the start of what is quite a long process. I have created three separate die-cut hearts in gingham, marquetry wood and card and attached each to a die-cut tag. When finished they will all be loaded onto a big ol' jump ring and taken out on the road.

Card is always a good place to start so I cut the medium heart and applied a little Old Paper Distress Ink before adding the stamped detail. once dry I scuffed the edges using the blade of my scissors to add to the care worn appearance.

The tag used is from another of my favourite die sets namely the Framelits Tag Collection By Tim Holtz very handy and versatile indeed.

Gingham fabric has a lovely texture and is great for use in mixed media projects. I started by attaching a strip of the fabric to a piece of kraft card and die-cutting my heart shape and next, I applied a little white gesso with my brayer.

After inking the edges using Pumice Stone Distress Ink I stencilled the number 2 using grey acrylic. Once the paint had dried I used another stencil to apply white spots in a random fashion, it's far more controllable than the splatter effect for this project.

I also used the blade of my scissors to gently lift the edges before attaching to the tag.

Marquetry wood is great to use but it is very brittle. I always advise backing it with card or tape to hold it together and add a little strength. I cut a few strips into 'planks' and used Distress Paints to add the colours. Distress Paints are great for this particular project because if you use the sponge applicator on the end of the bottle it's really easy to vary the amount of paint applied giving a distressed appearance without having to lift a finger!

I attached the strips to a piece of dark card beore die-cutting the shape and I also applied a typewriter text stamp using a light grey ink, the effect is very subtle as intended and it all looks pretty cool!

More of these on the way, I'm off to dig out some quirky materials to have fun with... Suggestions welcome!!