Heart - magic land

Hi there!

Today I present to you two beautiful hearts made as a set, although each of them fell into different owners and is made for a different occasion. I prepared the smaller ones to order, where the occasion was baptism. The larger one, however, is very special to me. It is a gift for my beloved niece, whom I love with a great love and have not seen her for over a year. So it is my artistic way of showing sentimental feelings and longing. It's much easier for me to do a job for someone I don't know personally because emotions aren't involved in the process. Here, every single element is deeply thought-out and has a meaning of "something".

I would like to share with you happy news, namely that we have finally completed the Margaret Paper Design Team and our beautiful works can already be seen on our Fb and IG profiles. There are 12 of us and all of us are optimistic about creative work. I would like to describe to you what this inner joy is. I'd really like to, but I can't find proper words to describe such deep emotions. And last week we formed a creative Fb group called "Margaret MyCRAFTime & YOU"! We finally have a common place to contact you, we can inspire and support each other in artistic dilemmas. You are more then welcome to join us!

However, before I start writing about the details of the creative process, I would like to mention that, as every month, and this time this is my creative inspiration in the moodboard challenge that is currently taking place on the Dusty Attic blog. Each of you can take part in it. All you have to do is add your work to the comments section of the Dusty FANattics Facebook group for your chance to win one of two amazing prizes of $50 (AUD) on purchases from their store. I can't wait to see your work on the Dusty FANAttics group.

I decorated Artistiko's HDF bases with a 7A sheet of paper from the "Breeze Of Dreams" collection by Margaret Paper Design. This is one of my favorite design - there are phenomenal orange flower buds there and I clearly remember the feeling I had when I first saw them. Pure, uninhibited euphoria... For a moment their presence in this collection was questionable, as we were considering color changes, but I fought like a lion and I won! After gluing the paper to the base, I secured it with a colorless gesso and put on a stylish Moroccan mask. I used Sizzix paste with a cracking effect. The paste dried at its own pace, without my help - the cracks are clearer, deeper and more marked. At this I sprinkled a haze a shade of rotten green.

An important element in this project was colouring of chipboards. All of them I used here are Dusty Attic brands and I wholeheartedly recommend you to check them out in the store. The splendor and variety of patterns is stunning and the selection will surely satisfy the most demanding. I decided to put here a lot of different shapes: a bunch of flowers, leaves, a dandelion, a beautiful swirl, butterflies, inscriptions and quotes. I started by securing them with a white gesso and then started coloring them. The poppies are red (embossing powder) and white (Gelly Roll). The Dandelion has white balls - these are Nuvo 3D droplets. Inscriptions, butterflies and a curl are smeared on the edges of the Distress.

I made the 3D flowers with the stamens, which you can see on the project, using a Creative Expressions die and scraps of paper from the same sheet. Thanks to this, they perfectly match the background. I spent quite a lot of time on them, because in one fell swoop I made more of them for subsequent projects. The flowers are accompanied by paper leaves with drops of dew, jagged gauze sticking out here and there, pieces of moss stuck into small spaces and orange pebbles. On the larger heart, I added dried leaves, crushed into tiny pieces - they stuck to the glue very easily and wonderfully complement the connection of the chippy curl and mushrooms with the substrate. The effect pleased me very much.

I made the mushrooms inspired by Magda's recording from the Magdekor studio. She showed how easy and quick it is to make such wonderful embellishments, so my daughters and I made an evening together by playing clay making. I highly recommend playing with children - it's a fantastic time together and beautiful things are created at the same time. The mushrooms are secured with a black gesso, and then several layers of media went in search of the right color until it finally worked. Unfortunately, I will not tell you what I put on, because I don't remember it myself. It shows me that there is nothing to be afraid of new tricks in the studio. Mushrooms are lightly leaning against a small wooden door.. A door to an enchanted land where time does not count, everything is possible, but only if a few rules are met.. Which rules? This is a secret for the chosen ones...

On the smaller heart I have composed a tiny book - the Bible - I made it myself, I covered the edges with Distress, and the pages are silver with wax. I made 4 of them at once, who will forbid me that ... :) There is also an ancient scroll with wishes for the girl, it is held on the mounted magnet, so you can easily take it off, read it and put it back. These little sticks are just toothpicks. Along the left edge I glued small brass flowers. Finally, I splashed the whole thing with white acrylic paint and installed a string to hang.