2020 #1 Love is in the Air: Love Heart with ETS {by Helen Chilton}

2020 Topic 1: Love is in the Air

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today with an oversized love heart and some Tracy Scott stamps.

I found this bisque heart in my stash and thought it fitted the theme perfectly. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it when I started out so just slapped some paint on - two new colours included - to get started. These stamps have wonderful repeating patterns and borders but I wasn't sure what I was going to do for a focal image - the idea for that came later.

I always prep bisque with a coat of paint to make it less porous.

Here are the colours I chose to start with. I just brayered them on in patches with white paint layers in between.

I got to this stage and didn't like it so started painting with a fork to add texture to see if that would improve it!

Having added all that texture and covered most of it in white I suddenly remembered I was going to stamp over it - help! Would it work?

I was amazed at how well it stamped despite all the knobbles and bobbles! This border stamp is so easy to make a background with.

To add the doodling and colour, I used my Posca Paint pens for speed but you could easily use the Frescos and a brush.

To finish I made a scalloped border stuck to the back.

The three central hearts were stamped with various parts of the images.

And there you have it. You might wonder why I bothered building up all those layers to start with only to cover most of it in white, but it did create texture and depth, and I know they're there! It was almost like I'd covered the heart with stamped tissue paper. 

I always love stamps that build up easily to cover large areas without having to be too precise and these fit the bill. You could make great coasters with these designs. 

If you wanted to hang this up I would cover the back in felt and attach the hanging bit to that.

So, give stamping on bisque a go!

Helen
A Splash of Colour