Mixed media projects don’t have to be built on paper or canvas.

I often build my mixed media projects on a sheet of chipboard paper or on a canvas. But there is something fun about getting outside of that box and creating a project on something totally different. I talk about that more below, as well as in my video tutorial for this project.

I’m so happy to be doing another guest design for Reneabouquets and since this is the month of love, I thought I would do a heart-based project. When I was prepping for this month’s projects I went in search of some items to build my projects on and I happened to come across one of those carved wood style wall decor pieces—but this one just so happened to be a heart. I thought it was absolutely perfect for this project. 

When building your project on something that isn’t flat, like a carved wood piece or bottle, you have to plan the placement of your embellishments a little more than usual. So when I started work on this piece, the first thing I did was lay out all of my embellishments in a dry fit on the heart to see where I needed to place everything so that my layers wouldn’t topple over. 

This dry fit is what allows you to play around with placement before committing with adhesive (even if it is heavy body gel). It also allowed me to figure out which flowers I needed to pop up with foam adhesive in order to keep my layers even for the next layer on top.

Despite this being an out of the box project, I really feel like the layers are quite gravity defying. The flowers were often the perfect size to fit into the swirls and whirls of this carved wood piece and I used only a few pieces of foam adhesive. But I was able to build the flowers in such a way that there was a lot of open space between the clusters, which is what creates that gravity defying look. 

Now let’s get into the tutorial. This heart piece already came painted white so I didn’t need to add gesso to prime it in any way. Instead, I went right into adding some color by spraying it with Distress Spray Stain in Victorian Velvet and the matching Distress Oxide Spray. I wet the sprays to get them to react and to help the color pool in all the texture. I also layered my sprays by drying in between each layer of color.  When it comes to Distress Sprays, remember that wet on wet mixes while wet on dry layers.

I selected two sizes of the Lacy Heart Frames from the set and added the Distress Spray Stain to these pieces. The process here is the same—add on color, mist and splatter it with water, and dry in between layers. On additional layers, I turned the pieces over and picked up excess spray on my glass media mat. I also created some backgrounds of the same Distress Spray Stain and Distress Oxide Spray onto some sheets of watercolor paper.

While those watercolor papers were drying, I foiled a sentiment onto some white cardstock using the Spellbinders Glimmer System, hot foil plate and iridescent foil. I then cut the sentiment out with the matching die. I then cut out that layer a few more times, gluing the layers together, with the foiled one on top, to create a thicker, sturdier piece. 

Once the watercolor paper backgrounds were dry, I cut out a bunch of leaves and sprigs to mix in with the paper flowers on my project. I shaped all of the sprigs and leaves with a foam mat and shaping tool. I then assembled all of the elements onto my carved wood heart using heavy body gel and foam adhesive.

You can watch that layering of embellishments in my process video. 

Once all of the flowers and chipboard hearts were layered on, I added Pink Glitter Glass to the edges of the pink flower petals and Diamond Glitter Glass to the edges of the white flowers. I also added on the Lissie Butterfly and the Sweet Pea Pink Tiny Treasures butterflies. 

Finally, I added a few light pink and dark pink gems to the project for a few more sparkly bits. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

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Below are products that I used for this project.