Hearts of many papers

I was inspired or driven so to speak by this free heart garland  pattern that was posted. I say driven as I am still in the rehab hospital with my son as he gets the use of his arm back. So I have my net book, plug in Internet(boy I miss wi-fi) and no printer and scanner. The playroom (where there are a few art supplies)was closed as I started on this project.

With a post-it note a mate my heart template. Folding it in half to get symmetry. I have the 'sticky ' part on the top of the heart. Taking my 140# wausaue exact index paper I lightly traced the heart to give me a guide. Now for color...the mixed media wanna-be artist came out of me and with limed supplies I took to the magazine I had finished reading. The front cover had a lot of purple on it, the girls in the photo wore light purple and pink. I took to tearing it up in little pieces, grouping the shades of color together. With the matte medium and brush in hand I laid a small section down of the medium in the heart guideline and added the paper. The wet brush works well to pick up my paper pieces and put the in the heart. Adding more medium as I worked from the center area out. Also apply medium over top as I went. I placed the pieces slightly past the guide lines.
This process is not fussy. Do what works for you.When finished with all the pieces of the heart I covered the entire piece with a layer of  liquitex matte medium to seal it all. Let dry and cut with scissors to shape.

Zachary has been getting goodies too. With the artist brain on and journal making a goal while here I have saved many things in case we needed them. Tissue paper from gifts have been one of them. Taking an article from the magazine with a white background, I tore it up and applied the pieces in the same way. Tearing up some red tissue I saved layering this over top. I like the way the type comes through. another heart I left more white space between the letters and grabbed some scraps of tissue they had in the playroom and made another. I can see using purposeful words in these to have an underlying message.After the all were cut out, marking the template with were I wanted to punch wholes out, I used an 1/8" whole punch, then stung it with some thread. I didn't tape them as they stayed in place for me but us could easily put tape on the back side to not be seen. We strung them and hung them on the door.

This one I used strips of tissue to layer over torn magazine pieces.

 

With the strips of tissue there is more layers of red as each piece over laps others.

Template of cardboard to trace over after complete and dry.

 

Looking for more color,this lead me to try a few more kinds of papers and wrappers. We were eating chocolate
 in a pretty pink foil- Saving the wrapper and then tearing it up...it worked too.it was a sacrifice to eat
 a few more candies to get more paper I tell ya.

If you use foil wrapper, smooth it slightly with your finger, card board or an old gift/ credit card. It helped to tear it and place the pieces. I found having a wetter puddle under the foil aided in laying it down as well.

Leave space between the type for an another effect

As I worked on this off and on I saw more and more potential with it. using magazine articles with the colored
 background, making all kinds of shapes and LETTERS would be fun. Print out and copy pages of school
logos and cheer words. it is endless.Since starting this article...nothing is short of a materia: colored envelopes,memo papers,napkins. The first type I used was from the hospital welcome program.

Use gel pens and markers to accent if you like. Test on the unused scraps

This would be great for any age. Wee ones could help tear paper, use bigger pieces and shapes for bigger hands...
Cloths pins, colored paperclips to hang on any sort of thread,yarn material....

I got this up way later than I had hoped to for you to work on Valentines hearts... so how about a jump on
St. Patrick's, the next birthday...

This entire little project has opened my eyes to so many more possibilites. it's been so much fun.

If you do this I would love to see some of your photos. mail to:  susanwalkerart@yahoo.com