Puffy Heart Love!

Hello!
I've been playing with sticky backed canvas..... and I sewed a puffy heart!

I'll get to the heart in a minute.....
The base for this is a box frame, so a nice bit of depth...

The background is very easy, it just takes a while because of the drying issues! Firstly, I covered the frame with old book pages using multi medium. This is the first waiting time...multi medium is not over fond of the heat tool, heat too much and it starts to bubble and lift up whatever you've stuck down! So, once dry, I gave it a wash of brown paint which takes seconds! I sponged embossing ink through a stencil, then added green embossing powder to give the detail....

A tiny bit of black splatter stamping finished the design. Then it was part two of the waiting game as I covered the whole thing in clear crackle medium!
Whilst that was drying (it takes a good 2-3 hours even in this heat!) I created the heart. I drew a very rough heart on the canvas, then cut two shapes out. Now, sticky backed canvas is ....um.... sticky backed. This isn't really ideal when you want to sew it! I've found the best way round this is to peel off the backing paper, then pounce the sticky side with an anti static bag, one of those things you use before you emboss to stop stray powder sticking where you don't want it! I would imagine rubbing a little talcum powder over the sticky side would work too, if you don't have an anti static bag. Once the sticky wasn't sticky any more, I sewed part way around the heart, stuffed it with a little wadding, then sewed it up completely. Despite the heart being all soft and squishy, you can still treat it as a canvas surface.....so I painted it! Red Claudine Hellmuth paint to be precise.....

I also covered it in crackle paint......

Once all the crackles were dry, I glued the heart to the background.
The hanger is a piece of driftwood, decorated to match the background...

I hammered two nails into the top of the wooden frame, then wrapped wire around the driftwood and around the nails to join the two parts together.
I rubbed a little gold paint into the crackles here and there to highlight them, then added the Alphapart words as a finishing touch....

I think I'll be making more puffy canvas shapes, really enjoyed making this one!
Trish xxx