Key to my heart

Good Morning everyone

Gosh the weeks are flying by and now its June - scary and time for a new challenge over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media where the theme is always anything goes as long as you mix those medias!

This year Im trying to use old stash and I found these greyboard hearts in the back of my craftdrobe while looking for something else - I also dug out my box of very old tim holtz grunge board shapes and came up with this wall hanging. 

Sizes approx - biggest heart is 5.5x5"  Med 3x2.5"  Small 1.75x1"

See below for full details.  Once finished I punched holes in the hearts and connected together using metal jump rings.  

Large Heart - after doing backgound (details below) - I took some grungeboard & metal keys - the grungeboard ones I first covered with black gesso, stippling it on so some areas are thicker than others thus giving a more rusty old appearance and then added the same paints used in the background so orange, greens and blues. To the metal keys I added some of the same colours of paint to tie them together, then arranged them all the on background. I found some old plastic alpha's which I black gesso'd and added touches of paint and adhered to say 'key'

Medium heart - I added a grungeboard lock which id black gesso'd and painted the same as the keys.  I added screw top brads through the holes and added to the heart.  I took 2 kraft chit chat sticker saying 'to' & 'my', added to black card and covered with glossy accents for an enamel look.

Small heart - I found a really small grungeboard heart, covered with the orange paint used on the other elements and covered with glossy accents.  Chit chat sticker reads 'heart'

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See below for how I did backgrounds

I first adhered flowers I had die cut from grunge paper eons ago and covered it all in black gesso.  I added crackle paste in areas and then added blue, green, orange & yellow acrylic paints. once dry I knocked back the vibrancy by dry brushing on antique white chalk paint. 

 I then added torn pieces of script printed tissue paper in areas and added orange paint through a script stencil.  I then dry brushed on gold & orange dora cadence paints which is beautifully shimmery when the light hits it. 

I finished by sealing it all with mod podge

I edged all the hearts with black gesso to help frame them and draw the eye inwards, for neatness I also covered the back of the hearts with black gesso.  

You can see the crackle paste better here....this is an old jar i found lurking in the back of the craftdrobe and it was nearly set solid ....I added a little warm water to the jar, let that sit a while and then gave it a good mixing with a stick which seemed to resurrect it and Im pleasantly surprised that it still works so that was worth doing...now i must use it more often!

Items Used:

Tim Holtz grungeboard & paper, chit chat stickers, metal keys, alpha stickers

Tim Holtz tattered flowers bigz die

Metal keys

Papermania Screw top brads

Acrylic paints - pebeo, plaid folk art

Cadence Dora paint - gold & orange

Daler rowney black gesso

Ranger glossy accents

Mod podge - matt

Papermania script tissue paper

Crackle Paste

Please do hop over to Creative Artiste Mixed Media to see what the rest of the DT have created and to join in - remember anything goes as long as you use at least 3 different medias. 

I hope you all have a good weekend. Emma

Id love to enter the following:

https://neglectedstuff.blogspot.com/2025/06/neglected-stuff-625-challenge.html - greyboard hearts and grungeboard elements 12+ yrs old, crackle paste? (don't even remember buying that so years ago) found lurking at back of cupboard and nearly dried up, plastic alpha's 6yrs old...

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

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https://www.simplyellibelle.com/2025/06/ellibelles-crafty-wednesday-june-and.html

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https://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.com/2025/06/june-2025-crafts-galore-encore.html

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https://craftrocketchallenges.blogspot.com/2025/06/challenge-126-no-designpaper.html

 

Creative Artiste...

Good Morning everyone, welcome to October.

I was honoured to be offered a guest designer spot for Creative artiste Mixed Media for this month.  As it was for october my first thought was maybe a halloween mixed media project but then i saw this bone shaped mdf and thought it would be ideal for those Crazy dog stamps from Tim Holtz

Mdf bone size 12x7"....  after doing the background (see last photo below) I stamped the tim holtz crazy dogs and a couple of zinksi art dogs, coloured them with inktense pencils and cut out.  I covered them all with mod podge to give them a bit of protection.  

From an empty pet food box i die cut my alpha's with a sizzix bigz die, covered with black paint and then glossy accents to give them an enamelled look.  I die cut some circles from card, painted with yellow paint, drew on lines to make them look more like tennis balls and again covered with glossy accents. 

 I then got arranging it all - this took longer than you might think getting the dogs in an order that i felt worked best and actually i didnt glue them down for a couple days to make sure i was happy with this finished arrangement!  I added a few Tim Holtz ideology bones, a couple of them i cut in half as you wouldn't see the whole bone anyway and made them go further. 

A metal tag added above the be happy to finish which reads 'live in the moment' which i think alot of dogs do.

After a few days i felt it needed something to balance the heavy black letters so i stencilled some black paw prints around the edge to look like one of the dogs had been off for a wonder following a scent trail as they do😁.....and it made all the difference.

Of course i had to add glossy accents to the dogs eyes and noses too

and onto my background

 I stencilled texture paste through a paw print & diamond stencils and once dry covered it all with black gesso.  I then added patches of crackle paste and once all was dry i built it up by dry brushing on white and cream acrylic paints adding a touch of diamond to the top layer that twinkles in the light.  I found an old tim holtz grungeboard heart in my stash which i again added texture paste paw prints to, covered in red paint and then again dry brushed on the white and cream acrylic.  I then added that to the bone and edged the bone with black paint.  This bone came with a stand but i wanted to hang it so just cut off the tabs and sanded back and punched some holes in the top with my crop o'dile.

Items Used:

MDF Bone  'dog bone on stand' from Craftshapes.co.uk

Stencils - paw print, diamond

Golden texture paste

Crackle paste

Tim Holtz crazy dog stamps

Paperartsy Zinkski art dog stamps

Derwent inktense pencils

Tim Holtz ideaology - bones, metal tag, grungeboard shapes

Sizzix Tim Holtz word play bigz die

Various acrylic paints

Thank you all for stopping by and to everyone at creative artiste mixed media.blogspot for welcoming me to join them this month.  I hope you all have a good weekend.  Hugs Emmaxx