Sacred Heart, Hope & Believe

Hello Everyone! The weather this past weekend was just beautiful! We left the house to run some errands with a sweater! If you live in the Midwest, you can relate. Usually, February brings snow, snow and more snow.

OK, enough of the weather, time to move on to the project at hand. When I started to create this 9" x 3"canvas, the only idea I had in mind was to have some sort of medieval look to it. I started by covering it in black gesso, then painted it in various hues of blues & greens. Wanting more texture, I added tissue paper then more paints in blues, greens and gold until I was happy with the result. I wanted the sacred heart to be the focal point of the piece so I painted it in reds then added the small glass seed beads for a dramatic look. The keyhole on the heart and the decorative molding at the top and bottom are clay embellishments created from Iron Orchid Design molds.

I wanted to add words that would enhance the beauty of the heart and chose "hope" and "believe". They are stamped on white tissue paper, not adding any color to them purposely so they wouldn't get lost in the background.

I am submitting this canvas to the following challenges:

• The Artistic Stamper Creative Team February Challenge - Love Hearts  
• Vintage Journey February Challenge - Words That Are Special  
• Crafty Creations Challenges - #335 Anything Goes 
• That's Crafty Challenges - I Heart You 

I hope you like my project. Thank you for stopping by!

Nicie

A Circle, Lion and Glass Beads

Since I haven't created any type of art for a while, I have accumulated quite a bit of supplies that I haven't used. They were purchased because I "had to have them" as I'm sure a few of you might know the feeling - lol! I have to admit that I am looking forward to playing with the new watercolors, paints, modeling pastes and other new things that are just sitting on my shelves.

This mixed media wood circle measures 4" in diameter, it was painted with black gesso, then with blue metallic paint. I used a TCW stencil and Finnabair gold crackle paste and I have to say that I love the crackle effect! Once that dried, I applied a bit of blue Inka Gold and just a bit of black paint to highlight the cracks. I drilled a hole on top and bottom and added the glass beads as accents. The lion in the middle is a clay embellishment.

I am  submitting this project to the following challenges:

• A Vintage Journey - Going Round in Cirlcles - January Challenge
• Crafty Creations Challenges Anything Goes #333 

I hope you enjoy this piece and thank you for stopping by!

Nicie