Doodle Hearts Collage

Have you ever been enjoying a nice, quiet day of crafting, then BAM your jar of ModPodge falls off the table, splatters across the floor, and onto one of your favorite toss blankets?  Well, that happened to me right in the middle of this project.  Talk about a big, sticky mess!  Not to worry, though.  We have hardwood floors.  First, a dish towel was used to mop up most of the glops.  I had the thought to use rug cleaner on the afghan and also sprayed foam across the glue swirls on my floor.  The toss blanket made a round in my washing machine and came out unscathed.  A quick wet mop restored my hardwood floors.  Now, back to my nice quiet day of crafting.

I'm joining my talented friends for

Julie  *  Scrap Fabric Hearts

Mel  *  DIY Valentine Heart Sign Upcycled Pistachio Shells

Terri  *  DIY Heart Candy Machine

Gail  *  Soda Bottle Heart Shaped Box

Niki  *  DIY Faux Concrete Bunny

Christine  *  Small Crochet Hearts

T'Onna  *  Crochet Patchwork Heart

Mimi  *  DIY Valentine Rag Wreath Heart

Doodle Hearts Collage 

If you're familiar with Lamb Chop and Shari Lewis, you might remember how they ended each show with "The Song that Never Ends".  Well, my project is kind of like that.  One idea kept leading to another, and somehow it morphed into a collage.  

Supply List

4 Scraps of Watercolor Paper with pencil drawings on One Side

Watercolor Paint in 2 Shades of Red and 1 Shade of Purple

05 Micron Pens in Brown and Red

One Back Cover of a 12 by 12 Cardstock Pack

Acrylic Paint in White, Beige, Dark Brown and Black

Ripped Pages from an Old Phone Book

Washi Tape with X's and O's

Pencil and Eraser

Large Stamps

Various Paint Brushes

ModPodge

Recycled 12 by 12 Black Frame

My supply list may not be complete, but everything was already laying around here somewhere.  Not one single item was purchased for this project.  I love keeping crafts sustainable!

First, I played with four scraps of watercolor paper that had pencil drawings on one side, measuring about 4 inches by 6 inches.  They were flipped over to the clean side.  The smallest piece received the word VALENTINE using 05 Micron Pens in brown and Red.  For the other three, I traced a heart lightly in pencil and erased it so it could just barely be seen. The scraps were then transformed using this Watercolor Video with beautiful swishes and swirls.

I've wanted to learn ZenTangle type drawing for quite some time, but seriously struggle with fitting the different shapes together into something cohesive.  Beginning with this Doodle Video 1 for ideas, a Brown 05 Micron pen was used to fill in the hearts.

It took more ideas than one video could provide to fill in three hearts, so I tried Doodle Video 2.  This technique is new to me and took what felt like a really long time.  I love how each one is so unique!  

Now what, right?

Well, that's when I stumbled across this amazing Background Idea!  My base is a gray, chipboard, back cover off a 12 x 12 pack of cardstock.  For an aged look, I smudged some white and beige acrylic paint here and there.  Some pages were ripped from an old phone and look sort of like newsprint.  Those were glued in place.  (This is where the ModPodge incident occurred.)  Dark brown and black acrylic paints were swirled together.  The two large stamps were "inked" using a four inch sponge brush dipped in the dark paints and gently pressed on top of the other layers.  Lace was added for texture, but it's not very noticeable.

My last step was simply gluing each of the Doodle Hearts in place along with the smaller one that says VALENTINE.  My Doodle Hearts Collage was placed inside the 12" by 12" frame that I've had forever but keep adding things to it.  If you'd like to see some of my other ideas, here they are:

Framed Wall Pops

Banner was Framed

Patchwork Heart

 I was unsuccessful getting a decent picture of this project behind the glass.  Here's a fake frame.

My Doodle Hearts Collage felt challenging for me, but so many new skills were learned.  I really enjoyed it.

 

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