I {Heart} Surface Design: Antiqued Heart

In the roll up to Valentine's Day week, I thought I'd share some surface design techniques that I love and use often -- all on hearts, of course!  This first technique is one I've been using for years and years with some variations.  It's all about creating this super dimensional antique looking heart:

For this project, I cut my chipboard from a hand drawn design using the ScanNCut. 

You could also hand cut the chipboard or use existing chipboard die cuts.

Glue the chipboard pieces to a chipboard heart:

Once the glue is dry and the pieces are secure, paint over everything with a thin coat of gesso.

Once the gesso is dry -- it's very important that every layer in this project is dry before adding the next layer -- add even more texture by stenciling with Super Heavy Gesso or Modeling Paste.

I used my new Dash V and Shape Landscape stencils.

Once the stenciling has dried, paint the heart black:

The paint looks glossy in this photo, because it's wet, but it's a matte paint and that's important to the overall look.

After the black paint has dried, add a very very very watery layer of teal paint:

It's important that it's watery so that the teal paint settles into all the nooks and crannies, rather than over the entire surface.

Once the teal paint is dry, it's time to use a dry brush with some gold paint.  The goal is not to cover the entire surface, but just the bits and pieces that stick up the most.

And now the real layering begins!  We are going to add a watery layer of black, brown, and green.  All of these layers are creating the sense of dirt, grime, and general aging.  Remember: It's important to let each layer dry before adding the next one.

You can always wipe away any excess paint as you can see me doing here with the brown layer.  As long as the top layer is wet and the bottom layer is dry, you can virtually erase any "mistakes."



And after all of that layering, you should have a heart that looks like it has been around for ages:

I hope you'll give this technique a try!

Thanks for stopping by!