Made with Love!

Thank you for dropping by Magpieheaven today. I've been posting quite a few projects lately and I appreciate you taking the time to look at what I've been up to! Last year I made a tag for a young friend of the family who has her birthday a week after our daughter, Matilda's. This year I decided to create her a themed gift using the lovely images from Lynne Perrella's PaperArtsy 028. You might have seen the little handbag charm I created from Shrink Plastic using these images? I keep returning to this material and learning more about how we can get the best results from it. I'm focusing in this post on the heart plaque and the gift box I created to go with them and linking to 'That's Crafty' where the challenge this fortnight is 'All You Need is Love'.

I had a wooden heart - well not literally, of course! I should say, I took a wooden heart from my stash! I gave it a coating of Gesso.

This was to be in place of a birthday card with birthday wishes attached on a little painted tag. I planned to paint one side and to cover the other with House of Zandra paper and a Shrink Plastic charm.

I kept the painted side simple to let the intricate Lynne Perrella lady take centre stage. She is such a dramatic image and I feel she looks quite different every time. This time I used blocks of Fresco Finish paints: Chocolate Pudding, Autumn Fire, Blush and Stone and then accented with Florentine Treasure Gold. I rubbed the Treasure Gold along the edges of the heart too. In this incarnation I think the Lynne Perrella lady looks like the 'divine' Sarah Bernhardt. dressed for one of the roles that would earn her her reputation as 'The most famous actress the world has ever known'. The story goes - and sorry this is a bit grim - that Sarah slept in a coffin to help her prepare for tragic roles! Now that's really putting your heart into your role!

Here is the heart, die-cut from Shrink Plastic that I used to decorate the little box. It's not too difficult to get great shapes and detailed stamping. Apply a wash of diluted Fresco paint to the Shrink Plastic. Before you do this, though, you should take a sanding block and lightly cross-hatch the plastic, first with vertical and then horizontal lines of sanding.

For a good impression and no slipping, it's best to lay the plastic, paint-side down on the inked stamp and then gently press with circular strokes until the image starts to show through. You can punch a hole in your charm if you want one at this stage, as the plastic is still thin and easy to snip. I use tweezers to keep the plastic from flying everywhere and I turn it and gently press with the tweezers as it starts to uncurl. There is this worrying stage where it looks as if it's going to curl into a horrible mess, but patience wins the day and it usually flattens out perfectly if you keep heating and turning the plastic.

Here is the heart on the little box. I wonder what treasure Sarah Bernhardt might have hidden away in it: a pair of diamond earrings given her by an admirer perhaps?

This is just a little papier-mache box, painted with Fresco Guacamole, stencilled with Prima flourishes and then edged with some Florentine Treasure Gold. I used Golden heavy gel medium to fix the heart.

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It's difficult to capture the effect of the Florentine Treasure Gold in photographs, but it does give the impression that these little creations from wood and paper survive from the romantic Belle Epoque. Thank you so much for dropping by Magpieheaven today. I really loved making this gift for our young friend, Hannah. May you spend at least part of your day doing something that you love.