From the Heart - Rustic Faux Patina Tutorial

Hello Everyone!

It's time for another challenge over at the wonderful challenge blog Frilly and Funkie!! This time the theme is FROM THE HEART. They have asked us to create a vintage project that has hearts as the focal point. I wanted to do something a little different, so instead of making heart embellishments the focal point, I decided to make a heart background as the focal point.

If you stick around, I will show you how I created my Rustic Faux Patina heart background, but for now, here are some images and info on the finished card. I apologize, but the pictures are kind of dark, I had to turn off one of the spotlights in order to catch all the shimmer.

If you have time, zoom in and have a closer look, the colours and textures look so fabulous up close. To see a super sized version, just right click the image, open link in new tab.

- I made the flower heart embellishment by cutting out a heart frame from cardboard and painting it white. Then I just starting glueing on many many little wired flower buds and pearl stamens in rows until it was nice and full.

- The white roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I lightly coloured all of the flowers with Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs, Victorian Velvet and Spiced Marmalade.

- I attached bronze metal corner protectors, a couple of bronze brads and a bronze filigree flourish for some added interest. I dabbed a little white paint on the metal bits to dull them down. I didn't want them pulling focus from the background too much.

- For the base layer I used the Prima Mini Triangles stamp with Gathered Twigs, the I did some blending with Victorian Velvet, Frayed Burlap and a couple swooshes of Spiced Marmalade.

- It's hard to tell, but the two pearls nesting amongst the flowers are actually hearts. Too cute, right!
- The flourish is Marianne Designs Garden Branch

How did I do that?

Step 1 - Emboss a piece of white card stock using the Cuttlebug Heart Blocks embossing folder.

Step 2 - Sprinkle some Stampendous embossing enamel Shabby White and Aged Bronze onto the paper and heat it from underneath so it doesn't all blow away.

Step 3 - Do the same with the Ranger Enamel Ware embossing powder. Make sure to cover some of your white areas, it will act as a resist for the ink so the panel has some light areas with just metallic glitter visible.

Step 4 - Use a pair of scissors to cut the panel into small sections. I just followed the lines of the embossed pattern.

Step 5 - Using Tim Holtz Distress inks Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs and Victorian Velvet, cover each piece with some of all three inks. I made sure to overlap the colours to make a wonderful orange in some spots. It is a great match to the bronze embossing enamel (which has an reddish-orange colour to it).

Step 6 - Using a distress tool, give all of the edges a bit of a rough look. It gives it more of a vintage feel when you put it back together.

Step 7 - The fun part! Arrange your hearts in a pattern that will equal out evenly up and down. This took a little work, since the hearts are not all the same size, but I ended up with a square just under 4.75".

Step 8 - Cut a piece of card stock the same size as your arranged hearts (I used 4.75" square), colour it with Gathered Twigs and glue all of your pieces on. I let them hang a couple millimetres off the edges, so the paper underneath wasn't visible around the outside.

Step 9 - Take whatever dark brown matte ink mist you have available ( I used Tattered Angels - Plain Jane Cardboard) and give the entire panel a couple of squirts, then buff it off with a dry cloth. This will sink into the creases and help highlight all of your wonderful shimmers.

That's all there is to it, now bake for 20 minutes...just kidding! lol

The last tutorial shot was taken before I added the spray, and below is the finished card with the dark brown spray added. You can see what a difference the spray makes!! It really gives it an aged vintage feel.

I am also entering my Rustic Faux Patina card into the following wonderful challenges:

- Moving Along With The Times - It's Texture Time

- Vintage Stamping Challenges - #24 - Anything Goes

- Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Challenge #73 - Vintage
- Eclectic Ellapu - September Challenge - Hearts
- Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog - Make Your Own Background
- Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Embossed

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.