Let's Celebrate. . . . .

Good morning everyone. Today sees a new challenge at Artist Trading Post Exchange and our host is the lovely Toni. Here's Toni's challenge for you:

I hope everyone has had something to celebrate over the last year. It may have been a wedding, a significant birthday, a new baby, or religious festival such as  Diwali and now, of course, Christmas ! We'd love to see your celebration crafty makes. It may be a card, a layout or piece of altered art. Just let your imagination fly! Remember that we are a Mixed Media Challenge and stamping must feature in your entries and please, no digital images. Although your celebration may have taken place a while ago, please ensure that your entry hasn't been featured previously on your blog.

Now, I didn't think Christmas, birthdays, weddings etc. No, my mind was on another wave length and I decided to make something to celebrate my daughter passing her degree this year. She studied Illustration for three years and an art foundation course for one year to start with. 

Here's what I made this time. I decided to use two pieces of my Daughter's art to alter a large wooden heart (similar to these). These images show the two sides of the piece:

Here are the two pieces I used belonging to my daughter:

These are both pencil drawings which I altered in an image editing programme and made them into 'threshold' images which make them easier to work with and look a little funky!

The software converts the images to these black and white versions which can be transferred in several different ways onto your substrate.

The heart is given three coats of gesso and is dried and lightly sanded between coats to provide a smooth surface.

Both sides of the heart are roughly coloured with the shades of acrylic shown. You can do this with a brush, sponge or your fingers.

Stencilling is then added to both sides using metallic gold paint, a stencil brush and stencil.

Random stamping is then added using Archival inks, with the addition some white acrylic paint for the raindrop stamp.

The design is traced onto the heart using artists carbon paper. Black acrylic then fills the traced design. In this image you can clearly see the raindrop stamp with tiny little white paint highlighting dots. The stencilling sits under the stamping but is allowed to show through in some areas without any distractions. The flagstone stamp (in turquoise) is much paler in colour and this helps to build depth.

Both sides of the heart are developed using the same techniques for continuity.

I love the way that Audrey peeps through the design on both sides.

The top of the tag is finished with some wired paper 'twine' which curls beautifully.

The letters are die cut from a piece of scrap card which has been painted and finished with crackle glaze plus a little antiquing cream to highlight the cracks.

The threshold images were transferred using the transfer paper shown - it's very much the same as carbon paper and comes in black and white. The matte medium (find similar here) was used to finish the image painting and a layer of Triple Thick glaze is applied and left to dry for 24 hours.

If you'd like to see more inspiration then please visit my teamies here and over on their blogs. An outright winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend at the Artist Trading Post who stock an endless array of goodies to tempt you. The challenge designer will choose their top three to appear on the blog. All winners can download our badge and pop it on their blog.

You have until January 7th 2015 to get your entries in - we're having a Christmas break!

Thanks so much for visiting and looking at what I've made. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have - just use the email contact point on the side bar.

I do hope your Christmas/Holidays preparations are going well!