With Valentine's Day in just a couple weeks, I'm busy crafting and decorating for the upcoming holiday. I love creating in a shabby and vintage style and Valentine's is always a great time to design in that manner. Today I'm excited to be back creating and sharing here in the CLASSroom and have a fun decor piece to share with you.
I'm loving all the pretty ruffles and details and it's now hanging on my kitchen dresser-turned-sideboard. Another creative project that I took on a few years back. This project is easier than it looks. You truly DO NOT need a sewing machine! Keep reading and I'll share how I created it.
To start off with I've used a premade stitched linen heart (you can find everything in the supply list at the end of the post). It's already two layers stitched together so it's easy...no stitching. The grey trim comes pre-ruffled so all I did was take a piece of it and adhere to the back of the heart project.
Next step is to stamp the front. I've used some pretty Hero Arts stamps and Ranger's Jet Black Archival Ink. Archival inks are my FAVORITE for stamping on fabrics and other porous surfaces. You always get a nice clean impression.
Onto the chipboard steps: I wanted to cover this you chipboard with glass glitter. I love the look of glass glitter, especially on vintage style projects. It's sooo pretty and nothing else seems to compare. When covering chipboard with glitter I like to color it first with a coordinating color so that if you have spaces in the coverage, it's not as obvious.
Glossy Accents works great for adhering so many things but I especially love it for the glass glitter. Just squeeze it on and then I smear it to totally cover the chipboard surface.
It's always good to be generous with glitter when covering anything with it. I like to dump large amounts over the item and allow the glue to dry. Shake off the excess glitter and it's fine to put it back into your jar to use again.
To cover the chipboard hearts I used some new and beautiful papers from the Crate paper Kiss Kiss line. Adhere the papers and trim the excess as close as possible. Then sand or file the edges for a nice finish.
To start layering the embellishments I used hot glue to fix them to the linen.
When adding in embellishments I start with the largest and then slowly build up the layers until I'm happy with the result.
To this point, I've left the heart flat but wanted it to be more three-dimensional. To open up the back I carefully cut a slit in the back layer so that it could be stuffed with pillow batting. I admit I didn't have any on hand so I found some soft ribbon that I no longer needed and stuffed the heart with that. If you want, you can sew the seam shut but I simply hot-glued it closed for a quick and no-sewing project.
To finish off the project I used a gorgeous Melissa Frances hanger and clipped it to the top sections of the altered linen heart. It's embellished with a vintage button and a Tim Holtz Mirrored Star.
Here's a close-up of the embellishment details. The wood bingo piece has been inked with Avery Elle Orchid Pigment Ink to add color to it.
Thanks for joining me today in the CLASSroom! I hope this design inspires you to get creative and make something yourself!
-Julia
Supplies:
