Valentine's Day: MacKenzie Childs Inspired Folk Art Heart

 

I've spoken before of my love of MacKenzie Childs but my "not love" of MacKenzie Childs prices. So buy some, make some! 

Supplies

• 8x8 Canvas Boards ( Blick Art)
• 8x8 Shadowbox Frame (Michaels)
• Acrylic Paints (Craftsmart, Apple Barrel)
• Paint Marker (Craftsmart)

I had these 8x8 Canvas Panels in my supplies along with a shadow box frame from a 2 pack from another project. Like most of my projects, the idea just popped into my head. 

I painted the canvas with a coat of white paint, then taped off stripes to start my  signature MacKenzie Childs checkerboard background. Using a brayer helps make sure your tape is laid down well. 

I wanted to keep the space for the heart clear so I hand cut a heart ( here's the folk art part...it's not perfect which is the whole ethos of folk art) from contact paper ( Dollar Tree is your friend) and put this down before I taped off my stripes but you can't see it clearly here. You can below.

You can see the edges of the contact paper heart here. 

Had to recharge my camera battery so missed pics of a couple of steps. I taped off the panel horizontally and here's where I goofed, but we'll fix it later. I outlined the heart with the black paint marker, painted it pink then went over with some white paint. I wanted it to be "splotchy" and again, not perfect.  See? Even laying down the tape with the brayer, my paint bled (UGH!) but no matter, again...we're not going for perfect. I edged each of the stipes with gold paint, added gold dots aroudn the heart,  and here's where I fixed my checkerboard.

Using a straight edged brush, I filled in the "missing" white squares with a couple of coats of white paint. Since MacKenzie childs goodies are all hand painted, I hand painted! 

Popped my finished canvas into the shadowbox frame and done and done!

Other MC inspired projects: 

DIY MacKenzie Childs Pumpkins 

Sharing at: 

Our Hopeful Home

Pretty In Pink Valentine's Cards

I've never been a big pink person. Maybe it was because I was supposed to like it as a girl and being the contrarian that I am, I didn't.  But for this year's Valentine's cards I was kind of drawn to the idea of it, especially when I found pink glitter paper at Michaels. 

For these cards I combined the pink glitter paper with gold foiled paper I picked up during the holidays and used Paris themed stamps by Tim Holtz. What's more romantic than Paris?

Supplies: 

• Cardstock for base card ( I used Stardreams black metallic)
• Craftsmith Gold Foil Paper
• Pink and Black Metallic Glitter Papers
• French Themed Stamps ( I used Tim Holtz)
• White cardstock for stamping
• Black pigment ink ( I used Recollections)
• Pink and Gray Inks ( I used Fresh Ink)
• Punches, embellishments,stickers

I stamped the images in black pigment ink, set with a heat gun and then dusted pink and grey inks on top. Trimmed and mounted as shown on the black and pink glitter papers, then embellished with punched hearts and the black, white, and gold "LOVE" stickers ( Recollections, Michaels). 

I used foam dots to mount the focal images to the front of the card and embellished with self adhesive pink pearls. Also Michaels in their 2 for $3 section. My name is Carol and I spend too much time at Michaels.