Heart to Heart Background Card

Fell in love with a new background stamp from Simon Says Stamp! (SSS), called Heart to Heart. Figured this was a good opportunity to test out my new Altenew’s 36 Pan Watercolor Set.

I started by stamping the image on Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor paper using Worn Lipstick oxide ink. After being inspired by a Pinterest post, I decided to try spattering Masking Fluid all over the paper to create a paint spattered look. Masking fluid is watercolor resistant; once your painting is dry you can lightly rub it off leaving unpainted areas. The only downside is you need to complete the painting project within about 24 hours to avoid issues with the paper. Also, you either need to use a brush you don’t care about or drag your brush over a wetted bar of soap to cover the bristles with soap making it easy to remove the rubbery like substance (once done applying the masking fluid). The brush should be cleaned immediately when done and the fluid left on the paper needs to be dry before starting to paint.

Once done, I started painting using 3 reds to paint the hearts, adding a wash and using a paper towel to lighten areas, lifting off paint. Again, I painted non adjacent hearts with one color and then let that dry before applying the next color over more non adjacent hearts. At this point, you “glaze”, i.e. paint, over unpainted and dry painted areas. Finally, I decided to add a 4th color, a light gray. Once the painting was done, I used colored pens to delineate the layering of hearts on top of each other. I used a metallic Brea Reese silver brush to fill in the empty space. I added a watered down layer of silver metallic ink to the gray hearts... just darkened them a little, not sure if worth it.

To add a little more depth to the painting, I pulled out a Winsor and Newton White Gouache tube (opaque paint) and added subtle white highlights with paint and water. I then removed the masking fluid and finished painting by darkening the edges of the hearts, adding some shadows and finally adding a Perfect Pearls Pewter spatter.

I decided to use an A6 card base and backed the die cut image with silver paper. The SSS die set, called Small Heart Doily, seemed a perfect complement to emboss a simple sentiment on. I found card stock scraps in pink and light silver glitter that I used to create the heart doily and embellishments. Finally, I finished the card with matching Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

The creation of this card didn’t flow easily, but hopefully, the end product doesn’t reflect that too much! As usual, I did enjoy painting... always a calming process. Let me know if you have questions. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!