"Be True To You" Mixed Media Heart

Hey y'all!!  Michelle here, bringing you some mixed media love today!

Today I'm going to show you how I put this little mini canvas together using the supplies from the February mixed media kit along with some bits and pieces from my junk jewelry stash.  I also wanted to break away from the pinks for this project so I used some acrylics from my stash as well but you could easily do this and incorporate the pink included in the kit.  

I started out with the larger wooden heart from the kit and an assortment of junk jewelry.  Think odd earrings and such.  I removed earring backs and bulky sharp pieces from the back from all the pieces.

I decided on a layout and hot glued all the pieces onto the heart.  Be very careful with this step, the metal pieces conduct a lot of heat and get extremely hot with the hot glue.

This is how my piece looked once all the jewelry pieces were all assembled and glued in place.

Next, I wanted to give it a good base coat and even all the pieces out so I sprayed the entire piece with a coat of black spray paint.

With the base coat done I moved on to some color.  I choose a minty color that would mimic a verdigris finish.  I started off rubbing it on with my finger but ended up doing a bit of dry brushing to get more coverage.

I added a little touch of a more green color in spots by just rubbing the color on with my finger.

I added a coat of the crackle medium from the kit.  I did this for two reasons, to add a little shine and to give the next step a little crackle feeling.

Once the crackle starts to dry a bit I added a few drops of the booze alcohol ink and allowed it to move around a bit.

I rubbed it in spots but I didn't love the effect of rubbing it so I just continued to drip drops of the ink and tilting the piece to let it run until I was happy with the effect.

I did add a little rub of gold as well but you can't really tell.

Finally I added the "Be true to you" sentiment and glued the entire piece on to a prepared wood canvas.  

This kind of project can be done with any sorts of found objects, trinkets, charms or even kids legos.  It's a great project to get creative and turn the discarded into something beautiful!

Well that's all I got for ya!  I hope you are inspired to create something beautiful today!

Don’t forget that Tres Jolie can be found in the following places: