Valentine Or Anytime Art

 

I have been waiting for the perfect piece of furniture to try out the Waterslide Transfers from Dixie Belle Paint Company. However, since my husband retired a year ago, & I closed my booth where I sold painted furniture, I've been a little lazy when it comes to painting furniture. So, I haven't actually been on an active hunt for that perfect piece. 

I've still been wanting to try the waterslide transfer so I thought it would be perfect for a Valentine project.

I first painted a 5" x 5" canvas with the chalk mineral paint color, Fluff. 

The colorful side of the design, that you will see when transferred, has a clear plastic sheet over it. The back is more like paper & is in shades of gray. Having the design on the back helps you line it up properly for your project. I turned the transfer over & used a pencil to trace the canvas on the paper side, then cut it out.

I then removed the plastic sheet from the colorful side of the transfer & placed it on the canvas with the colorful side down. Once I had it placed correctly on the canvas (this is where the gray side comes in handy), I laid a wet paper towel over it. I rubbed over the paper towel with my fingers to make sure the transfer was laying flat against the canvas. 

After letting it sit for 3 minutes, I removed the paper towel & pulled up the transfer backing, leaving the beautiful baroque design on the canvas.

Now for the Valentine part...

I used Sculpey oven bake clay. I conditioned the clay to make it soft & workable, then flattened it to approximately 1/4 inch thickness.

Once the clay was flattened out, I added texture with a stamp from Redesign With Prima.

I used a cookie cutter to cut out a heart. 

I preheated my oven to 275 degrees, then baked the heart for 15 minutes.

I wanted to stick with the neutral colors of the transfer, so once the heart was cooled I painted it with a brown acrylic paint that matched one of the colors in the design.

I didn't worry about perfect coverage because of the next step.

To highlight the texture in the heart, I rubbed on Silver Gilding Wax. I typically go for gold or copper gilding wax, but in this case I wanted to pull out the silver from the transfer. Copper would have been pretty too & given it a completely different look.

I glued the heart to the center of the canvas using E6000.

This is a pretty, neutral piece of art perfect for Valentine's decor if you don't decorate with the traditional red & pink. And, the neutral colors make it perfect for enjoying all year long.

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Tobacco Basket Makeover

 I have never seen rectangular tobacco baskets before, & when I came across this unique shape & size I bought a few. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them but knew something would come to me. And, like so many ideas, this one came to me in the middle of the night. Luckily, I remembered it when I got up the next day!

The basket was unfinished so I stained it with Dixie Belle Paint Company's Voodoo Gel Stain in the color, Up In Smoke. The stain is water based so it makes for easy clean up.

I then painted a 4" x 12" canvas panel with the chalk mineral paint color, Vintage Duck Egg.

Once the canvas panel was dry, I used a brayer to add the color, Fluff, from Dixie Belle, to a decor stamp from re*Design With Prima.

While the paint was wet on the stamp, I stamped it onto the canvas panel. 

Next, I used the Cotton & Eucalyptus transfer from Dixie Belle to embellish the canvas panel further.

The transfer comes with 4 sheets & multiple designs. I started with a sprig of eucalyptus. I cut out the section that I wanted to use, removed the white backing, then used the tool included in the package to rub the transfer onto the canvas.

Then I added some cotton, overlapping it with the eucalyptus.

I glued the canvas panel to the center of the basket using E6000.

I formed some Spanish moss from the Dollar Tree into a nest, added some eggs, then glued it into the corner of the basket.

I'm excited to incorporate this piece into my Spring decor.

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers

Slikscreen Stencil Valentine

 I love it when an experiment turns out how I envisioned. This is one of those projects. Unfortunately, there are plenty that didn't. But, that's how you learn, right?

This project not only worked out how I wanted, but was super easy & quick!

I love working with the air dry Modeling Material from Re*design With Prima. Typically, I use it with their molds. But, in this case I wanted to create hearts & didn't have a heart shaped mold. I did, however, have heart shaped cookie cutters.

After rolling the modeling material out with a rolling pin, I cut 2 different sizes of hearts with my cookie cutters.

Another of my favorite things to work with are the Silkscreen Stencils from the Dixie Belle Paint Company. For this project I chose the Mandala design. Each pack has 3 different sheets of designs.

 The screen helps prevent the paint from bleeding under the stencil so you get a crisp image. But, I had no idea how it would work doing it on the modeling material while it was still soft.

I placed the sticky side of the stencil on the heart, then scraped on the chalk mineral paint color, Peony, from Dixie Belle.

When I peeled up the stencil, I was excited to see that it worked perfectly.

Now my mind is spinning with all the ways to use these. I have them on the table riser on my kitchen table. But while soft, they could be glued onto candles, vases, artwork...

The possibilities are endless!

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers

Mixed Media For Valentines Or Anytime

 What do you think of when you think of Valentine's Day? For me, it's flowers & candy. This mixed media project includes flowers, but not candy... I'm on a diet! And, the colors make it perfect to keep displayed year round.

I started by painting a 10" x 7" wooden heart with the color Fluff from the Dixie Belle Paint Company.

I cut a piece of decoupage tissue paper from Re*design With Prima, called Zoey, to fit across the top of the heart. I applied the tissue paper to the heart using Dixie Belle's Clear Coat, but you could use ModPodge.

I used a 120 grit sandpaper to remove the excess paper. I placed the sandpaper at a 45 degree angle to the edge of the heart & used a downward motion to sand off the paper.

I stenciled a design on the rest of the heart using the color, Gravel Road. I like to use a makeup wedge to stencil. I off loaded most of the paint to prevent the paint from bleeding under the stencil. I could've added a second coat to get good coverage, but I wanted more of an irregular, worn finish.

I added two greenery stems, from Prima, by putting a little glue at the base of the stems. 

I placed a floral cardboard sticker at the top of the greenery. I didn't trust that the sticky back would hold, so I added some glue.

I glued two flowers onto the heart, letting them come off the edge of the heart.

I added a pretty butterfly cardboard sticker to the flowers.

I could've stopped there and it would've been fine, but let's keep going!

I added a second butterfly & another cardboard sticker that says, "Bee-you-tiful" to complete the Valentine.

You can use any colors for this project, so if you're not a fan of red & pink in your decor, you can pick colors that work for you.

Just about anything goes at my house. Can you tell I like color?

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers