Where did you go to my lovely?

I blame sport, the sheer quantity of inspiring, stunning, awesome, fantastic sport that was London 2012. I enjoyed watching every minute both on TV and in person.  To see two gold medals won at paralympic events, to stand up and cheer athletics home, to scream so loud it hurt your ears, to cry as you stood together with so many people and sang the national anthem will stay with me for a very long time.

Also I just didn't want to craft.  I've still been making stuff like huge quantities of jam and chutney, but I just didn't feel like getting inky.

So what made me get all the stuff out?  Well going and buying new stuff last weekend at Colemans Demo Day and catching up with good friends (you know who you are xx).

The frame has been made for a little while (French Roast base coat, crackle glaze and Nougat top coat) and sat on my desk.  I was going to use one of my photo's of a mussel shell I took whilst in Southwold, but the size of the photo and the frame just weren't working.  I've realised that the photo needs to be incorporated into a bigger piece (next project or the one after).

So pondering on it for a bit I knew I wanted to keep it simple, the frame is gorgeous and I didn't want to overpower it, so a heart simply framed would work I figured.

I started off adding strips of ribbon, lace, fabric and fibres to a felt background.  Some watered down fresco paints in Pansy and Hyde Park were added in places to give a worn shabby look. 

On top of this I painted some PaperArtsy metal card with Pansy and Hyde Park and ran it through an nice new sewing tape embossing folder.  Rubbed it back to reveal some silver and added walnut stain Distress Ink in places to further do the shabby thing. Stapled that to the fabric background.

After purchasing some new Stampendous mica fragments, glass glitter, embossing powder I knew I wanted to test them out and the heart seemed a good place to start!  Cut out a cardboard heart using a PaperArtsy die.  Painted it in Nougat, then added some walnut stain and then covered it all up with layers of gold embossing powder mixed with Vintage Photo distress embossing powder, various bits of glitter and mica sprinkled here and there.  Added some eyelets which were brown but when sanded went purple (!!!!!) and edged in Walnut stain.

Then I started sewing!  

Started off with some flowers and buttons and then gave it a light misting with Cinnamon Glimmer Mist Finnabair style.  After this had dried I started adding various beads and pearls to give event more texture.

Finally stuck the felt to the acetate that comes with the frame and stuck that to the frame.

It was really nice to get back into things from a textile / paper perspective rather than a sugar and fruit perspective (still doing that though.lots of plums on the tree and a big sack of jars that need filling - anyone got any good plum chutney recipes?).  

Right need to make a birthday card for my most gorgeous grown up niece who is eighteen today - where did that time go, but more importantly all that time in front of her to continue experiencing life.

Hugs

jo
xx