Always....

I have been so lucky to be accepted into the DecoArt Blogger Outreach Programme. It has been agony waiting for my box of lovely goodies to arrive from the USA and I wasn't disappointed.

I decided to choose only 6 products for my first project mainly to show beginners how easy it is to get great effects using a small palette.

My project is a Heart Box

There is loads of detail in there which I will show in a minute but first here is a list of what I used:
DecoArt Products:
DMM21  White Modelling Paste
DMM19  Black Gesso
DAO1     Snow White Paint
DAO15   Cadium Red Paint
DA148    Emperors Gold Paint
DA238    Canyon Orange Paint
Other items:
Wooden Heart Box
White decorative lace
White Flowers (2 sizes)
Decorative Chipboard
Moulded Shield
Plastic Hearts
Brick Stencil

I started out by using moulding paste through a brick stencil to add detail to both the left and right of the heart, adding texture paste to the centre of the heart using a palette knife and creating rough peaks pretty much like you would do with icing on a cake. Once dry added the molded shield and covered the whole heart with black gesso. 

Next step was to dry brush the Emperors Gold paint over the top of the lid to highlight the bricks and background detail.

At this point I decided to add the small plastic hearts and the chipboard embellishments.

Covering them in black Gesso and then, when dry, adding the Emperors Gold paint made them look like metal.

Next it was time to get the flowers and lace ready. I coated the lace in black Gesso and laid to one side to dry. It was important that the lace dried completely flat so I used additional Gesso to flatten any creases or folds as it dried.

The flowers I painted first with Canyon Orange paint making sure that the brush was not to wet. It took some time but I was pleased with the result. Next I added Cadmium Red paint to the tips of the flower petals and then dragged any excess into the centre of each flower. These took about an hour to dry out thoroughly.

Next I arranged everything on top of the box and stuck in place only adding "Always" when I was happy with how it looked.

The lace, now dry, was added around the side if the heart lid and stuck in place with a glue gun. If you try painting lace you will learn that as it dries it becomes stiff and much easier to mold around boxes and jars.

Once in place I dry brushed the lace and touched the tips of the flowers with Emperors Gold paint.

Then I dry brushed the whole thing with white Gesso. Here are a few close up photos of the finished project.

I really enjoyed making this Heart Box. I hope you enjoyed sharing it with me. If you have any questions please comment below. Off to play some more now x