Working On A Valentine~Inspired Keepsake...

"loVe ~ forEver"

8''x8'' Mixed Media on gessoboard

The idea for creating this new mixed media keepsake is the result of my desire to write another photo-tutorial article and I thought that I coordinate my project with the upcoming Valentine's Day... First of all I did not realize that it will take me sooooo much time to actually complete it. It turns out that although I had purchased majority of the embellishments in a ready-to-apply form, the process to bringing the entire keepsake to life was bordering on never~ending at times.... But enough of whining, I really like the final result, in fact it turned out to be 'cuter' that I had anticipated, perhaps a bit too scrapbook~y, if you will, however I was aiming at simplicity and ease of the assembling as a vital criterion for writing a how-to article. Perhaps, after all, this soon to be an article project contains all the necessary ingredients to spark one's creative curiosity and venture onto the high waters of an art~making adventure....?

I'll try to stay very brief in my description of the process underneath the below photos as a more in-depth, step-by-step outline will come in the form of my article once it's completed.

I have spent about $30 on black&pink themed embellishments and materials at Michael's

I searched online for 'heart shape templates' and after printing a page I chose one shape that I decided to work with and I cut it out.

I used a strip of and illustration board to outline my hearts and later on I cut the out with an exacto knife.

.... let the long and arduous embellishing process begin... all of the hearts were first covered with a cut out layer of a dictionary page and sealed/glued with a Golden Soft Gel Semi-Gloss

I used a sheet of clear plastic pre-printed with a black, flowery pattern as a background which I attached to the surface with a coat of Golden Self-Leveling Gel and later I applied a thin coat of Liquitex Matte Medium to 'break' the sheen of plastic a bit...

....oh, my four hearts... I used a paper ribbon to cover the outer edges of the hearts with some help from a heating gun... this was first of many tedious task ahead of me...

I felt that a coat of Golden Fluid Acrylics Green Gold followed by a very thin layer of Sap Green would give~off a nice contrasting background to my keepsake while also accentuate its elaborate pattern and add some visual depth by varying the shades of green here and there...

Before I finally arrived at the moment captured at the above photograph, I spend some time on attaching black ribbon to the edges of the keepsake. So, the word 'love' was spelled out with single letters alphabet stickers attached onto a ribbon...

Working with every single heart was definitely a very fun and creatively stimulating task if only I'd pre~planned ahead to make enough time available.... I wanted to create a bit old~distressed yet 'cute' look, so each application of paint was smeared across the surface with a paper towel over and over again...

Rubber stamps have definitely provided their beautiful and texture~rich contribution in bringing my keepsake into existence.

.... image transfers always remind me of my early school years when the process itself of transferring letters onto different surfaces was bordering on hands~on magic for me. Nowadays image transfer papers offer a goldmine of creative ideas and save loooots of time on drawing and painting activities (once again, I chose those handy 'time savers' for the practical purposes of my tutorials).

With more color 'help' from my fluid acrylic paints I filled in some elements of image transfers with a more deeply saturated brush in order to differentiate certain areas of a heart shape...

I weaved a piece of ribbon through an antiquated embellishment...

I spent more time than I wanted to recall on trying to settle on a final placement and arrangement of all four hearts.... the above is one of dozens of combinations my patience was tested upon...

As an additional option I decided to attach four different ribbons with various lenghts across the bottom of the keepsake. Each ribbon was decorated ~ embellished with plastic sticker buttons, mini self-adhesive bows, rubber stamped mini-notes, and more. If the keepsake is to be hung on the wall I think it'd be fun to attach different mementos, photos, old movie tickets to the ribbons, or perhaps a good, old sticky note.... whatever you feel attracted to include in your very own hanging treasure display of affection....

A close-up at a string of a hanging ribbon

.... and zoomming out...