Heart of Stone!!!

No, not me! That's the title I've given to today's Creative Expressions Design Team project!
This Month’s goodies includes lot's of "non card making" products, MDF Shapes and alike!
So, to show them off to their best I guess it's time to roll up the sleeves and get creative with some crafting techniques..

For today's offering I have taken one of the Shaker Hearts and transformed it from its initial MDF state into what I hope looks like a piece of stone?!

To achieve some texture onto the Heart I decided to "crackle" onto it. You will be able to achieve this technique with products you probably already have rather than forking out for expensive Crackle Glazes.

Firstly, paint the image with your chosen colour of paint and allow it to dry. You can use a Heat Gun to speed up the drying process.

Next, apply a generous layer of Cosmic Shimmer PVA Glue,

Whilst the Glue is still wet paint over the top of it with your second colour of Paint. Try not to move the Glue layer around too much, the paint should be on the top of the Glue not in it!!

Now for the crackle bit!! Because the drying time between the Paint and the Glue are different, this is what causes the Glue to split or "crackle". This will happen quite naturally, but you can also encourage this process to happen with your Heat Gun...

Depending on how you have applied the paint and the Glue and in which direction will depend on how the crackle will react! The results can vary and is just the nature of the beast!!

As mine didn't seem to react much on the left hand side I decided to add my own technique by way of "Blistering"! This is taking the crackle stage a little further and really just means leaving your Heat Gun in one position longer than is necessary so that the paint starts to bubble.. This creates yet more valuable texture to your project.

Now you have your base, all's left to do is colour it!!! Now, I would list the products used and show the pictures of each stage, but it took ages and about 12 different colours of Ink and Gilding Wax to get to this stage, a stage I was finally happy with it, sort of!
Any hooslebees!! what to do with it? I wanted to add something (not quite sure what)

so I went with a Peel Off word. The Peel Off was initially Gold which I coloured with a Black ProMarker so that it would stand out from the background!!
Then thinking that the recipient of this heart may wish to hang it outside I thought that I would seal the Peel Off to protect it from the elements!!

Not a good idea. The Spray and Shine I used to seal the image seems to have had a reaction with the Ink on the Peel Off and it started to bleed...I think I caught it just in time and in fact I really quite like this outline effect it has created. Close up it almost looks like the word has been etched into the "stone" effect!! Happy accidents do happen then!??

So, a little Ribbon, Stick Pin and Dazzler to create a hanger for it and its good to go...
Thanks for checking us out, see you soon.
Andy.