Valentines

Been having a blast making valentines for the annual Shake Rag Sweetheart Art & Valentine Sale coming up at the end of the month. No idea why valentines are so much fun to make but they are.

The heart on this one is made from craft foam impressed with a rubber stamp. The original heart was one of those stick-on precut shapes sold in craft sections...no doubt meant for kid's crafts. It was bright pink so did a wash of black acrylic, then highlighted the raised parts with a metallic rub-ons and coated it with acrylic varnish so the rub-ons wouldn't rub off (which they like to do). I love these stamped craft foam things - they actually do look like metal. The background is paper I made using a technique from the DVD Collage - Paper, Pattern & Glazing by the amazing Anne Bagby. I "aged" it a bit around the edges with black and brown watercolor pencil.

I call this one my "grunge" valentine. The background is a piece of used palette paper. I use freezer paper to protect my work table and as a paint palette. After lots of use, this work surface often turns out to be really interesting so I started saving them. Sometimes I scan them and print them to use as collage papers. I wish I had done that with this one. I really like the black. The valentine almost looks like a painting...which I guess it kind of is since that is actually globby paint in the background. The heart is cut from some fabric paper.