When last I posted I think I mentioned that I wasn't quite ready to take down Christmas yet...and it was a good thing I made that decision. I knew the grand dogs would be back with me again while daughter #3 and her family were off on another trip before everyone had to head back to school-I just didn't know it would happen so early on January 2! I actually was going to run a bunch of errands that day to be prepared for the week...but those plans changed pretty quickly.
Luckily I didn't start the take-down process as these two dogs follow me like we are attached at the hip! Hazel has always been like that and now we add big Bruno to the mix and that would have been totally impossible. But, I love these dogs so I was good with that. It just gave me another excuse to procrastinate!
I used yesterday to catch up on laundry, watering plants, etc. but today I was ready to tackle something a bit more interesting. I looked over last year's Valentine decor and I think I have decided to change it up a bit...we shall see. One of the ideas that has been hanging over me was the $Tree faux tile Christmas tree that was all over the craft blogs, Pinterest, etc. My plan had been to scout out a wooden tree form from the $Tree as well but I just never had the time to search one out before the holiday. And then it hit me-why not do the same thing with a wooden heart...which I actually had left from a project last year that I never liked or used. And, I have a few of the tiles as well so, happily I was ready to set up shop.
Until I remembered that because of the holiday, not only would my pool guy be here but so would the lawn care service-maybe...they are kind of at the mercy of the weather so service days are never a guarantee. In any case, I would normally be doing this out in the sunroom but, the sunroom not only looks out on the whole backyard but also the pool and Bruno has one bad habit-he goes ballistic if he sees or hears just about anything. And so, to avoid that issue, I decided to attempt to craft in my office near my computer.
And that's where the handicaps come into play. I will apologize right now because the first pictures are in the office where overhead lighting is good for computer work but a nightmare when it comes to trying to take pictures.
In any case, my first job was to take off the lace roses I had glued on the heart last year-way easier said than done this time. Usually, I can peel things like this off of wood but these were not moving so I pulled out the glue gun and used the heat of the tip to melt last year's glue-again, easier said than done. I really had to struggle with these but, in the end, I made it!
Next came tracing the wood heart onto the tile. Normally I would do this on the back which is flat but because I wanted to make sure that the heart was centered just right for the opening I was going to cut, I traced on the front. The bumps were a bit of a hindrance but it came out just fine.
You would think that the entire back of the faux tile would be "sticky" so you could adhere them securely to a wall but in fact there is only adhesive right around the outside so once you have cut past that, the back just slips off.
Next came the cutting out of the center but here is where I had to "call it" and wait until I could move out to the sunroom. Every time I tried to make a cut, the shadows from the overhead light totally blocked my view.
Once I was in the sunroom with better light, I cut the middle out of the heart. Then I started painting it. I used a cream colored chalk paint base and then added patches of pink and finished with red. I put the chalk paint on very thick so then it was just a waiting game for each layer to dry. My plan is to distress it a bit a hopefully we will see a bit of those bottom colors.
Finding the picture for the middle proved a bit more difficult than I had expected also. I really thought I wanted a Victorian heart but because of the shape and size of the opening that wasn't going to work without needing background paper and I was trying to avoid that. I wanted something vintage looking and I knew I was going to go with the red heart so I found this sweet print and I think I can make it work with all of the colors I'm using.
I am going to stand the heart in a candle holder and I think I will need something to cover the connection so, while I was waiting for my very thick paint to dry, I made a quick "messy" bow. I'm thinking I might work in some greenery as well as some small faux roses but that will require a trip to HL and that won't happen until my grand dogs return home so we'll have to wait and see how far I get on this before then.
Once all layers of the paint were dry-I actually gave it overnight-I did a bit of a sanding to knock off a bit of the paint. You can't see it in these pictures, but where the paint was so think, it actually chipped off just like a real old tin ceiling tile would do.
Then I hit the edges and the raised parts of the heart with my Waverly antique wax and did some areas of Mod Podge covered in cinnamon and then worked back in with more Mod Podge...and, again we wait for drying time.
Until I make my way to a store to look for the proper holder, I am going to use a candle holder I have. I don't think I am going to adhere the heart to the holder permanently because I do use this candle holder a lot during the year but, its rusty look will pair perfectly with the heart so we shall see.
As happens many times, I am at a spot where I'm not sure where I'm going next. This seems to happen more often when I don't really have a clear cut idea of what I am doing before I start. If I had found the wood tree, I would have known exactly how I wanted this to come out but now that I'm doing the heart, I'm having trouble. As much as I wanted this in the candle holder, when I put the heart into the holder, I was left with a VERY large decor item. I think if I was totally in love with this, I would be OK with that and it could be the centerpiece of a vignette. But, I have to admit, this is not a favorite...at least not yet. And so, even though I have no idea where it will go, I think it may have to be a hanger. And then, that leaves me with a bow with no place to go and needing a hanger.
I am leaning towards using the pip berries for the hanger because I added a few sprigs to the bow as well. But then, where do I want the bow? On the top?
...or the bottom?
I am still thinking that this NEEDS the roses to tie in the picture. But then that presents another question of where they will go in comparison to the bow. In my mind, I see the small red and pink roses that HL had in their Valentine section last year-no idea if they have them this year but I definitely need to add some pink because those roses in the picture are reading way more pink than they were before I added the image behind the very red heart. And, the ribbon that has a cream background is reading white to me and stands out like a sore thumb!
And so, try as I might, there will be no answers today and, if I am being completely honest, you may have just witnessed another epic fail. I'm really not sure how this will end...but you'll be the first to know. I'm actually starting to get antsy about taking down Christmas so as soon as the puppers go home, that is what I will be doing. Maybe in putting out the Valentine's decor, I will come upon the perfect place for this project and my questions will all be answered...we can only hope. Lol Stay safe and stay tuned.
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