Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Bling and String on My Hearts

A couple of weeks ago I pinned this idea for making paper mache hearts. http://www.craftycupid.com/index.php/cc/entry/mache-mixed-media-heart-tutorial/

It looked pretty easy and fun so I decided to give it a try. I found a heart cookie cutter buried in a kitchen drawer. Those who know me know I would never be accused of being a baker, so I was surprised I had one. It was larger than the one in the tutorial but it worked for me. I traced and cut out my hearts. Instead of the glue used in the tutorial I used hot glue, I'm not a patient person. I was able to quickly make my heart paper sandwich. I used the same brown craft paper torn into strips for my paper mache part as well. I had a lot of it because I save everything from packages I get from online orders. That brown paper comes in handy! Instead of making the flour mixture I just mixed some white glue with warm water. Wrapping the paper was probably the hardest part of the project because of the odd shape. Getting around the point and around the curve were a little tricky but I got the hang of it by the third heart.

Remember what I said about not being a patient person, it took two days for them to dry! Argh! I just wanted to get painty and creative and the little suckers wouldn't dry. I used a space heater to speed up the process. I guess they would have taken even more days to dry if I hadn't done that.

So finally I got to paint and embellish. Mine are a bit more simple than the ones in the tutorial but I really love the way they came out.

The blue/green one has a coat of Martha Stewart glitter paint and several buttons attached with jewelry adhesive. You can't see it at all in this picture but it really sparkles.

On the red/purple one I used a red Prismacolor marker to deepen the red in some areas. Then I highlighted the wrinkles made by the paper with a gold metallic crayon. I love the way that came out. The gold with the red and purple is really rich looking. I glued on three heart shaped jewels with jewelry glue.

The orange one I stamped with red Stazon using a Stampendous stamp. Then I wrapped it with cotton thread and three orange beads. This one is going in as part of a contest on the Creative Jumpstart I'm doing this month.

This was a fun project. I would definitely do this again with different shapes. I'm thinking birds and sea stars maybe. I just need to remember to leave enough time for several days of drying!

1 comment:

lehtipollo said...

Such lovely hearts! Great colours, too.