Heart postcard for a swap

I'm so HAPPY to be posting again with some more new art, after a too long dry art slump. I worked on this piece yesterday, and had fun making it. Well actually, I started on it two days ago, because it had to dry overnight. I love using hearts in my art, which I do fairly often, so signing up for this swap in one of my favorite yahoo groups was right up my alley, so to speak.

I remembered I had done a certain technic on a postcard swap a few years ago that worked out well, so I chose to revisit that technic for this postcard. I cut out a piece of muslin fabric and frayed the edges and saved the threads. Then I put it on top of a plastic bag, and painted it with lots of matte Mod Podge, basically saturated it. That's why it had to dry overnight. Then I peeled it off the plastic. This technic is quite simple, and gives the fabric some strength and stiffness, and yet is totally flexible. It almost ends up feeling like a thick piece of plastic. It totally changes the feel of the fabric, but doesn't affect the look of it.

Then I painted it with Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint, and then glued down the thread I'd saved from the fraying. I love using threads for texture, especially on fabric art. Once dry, I rubbed orange paint over them with my finger, to bring out the texture and the contrast. I used the same orange paint on the frayed edges, to frame the whole piece. The three strips on the right were cut from a window blind sample I got at Lowe's. I painted them with yellow paint first, then rubbed orange paint over them to bring out the great texture. Then used a paper punch to punch the three hearts out of a yellow paint chip. After I glued the hearts on, I used a triple tip brush to paint on the parallel lines. I love that brush, and bought it at Joann's a while back, but they no longer carry it at the Joann's I shop at. What a shame, it's a great way to paint on parallel lines. I take really good care of that brush!

The large heart was cut out of paint chip, and then I glued down printed fabric over it. The details of the pattern on the fabric don't show up very well on this scan, but it has a cool linear pattern, with just the right colors for this piece. After I glued that down, I pulled out some squash seeds I'd washed and saved, and glued those down around the heart. Then I painted them, and used the triple tip brush again to paint the lines on. I'm amazed at how those lines changed the whole look of the painted seeds. I sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF), which gives a glossy finish.

Regarding the colors I used, I love this color combination, it's one of my favorites. I've used it a few times in my art, but actually not that often. I was using brown so much in my art for so long, and I love it for sure, but felt I needed to get back to using more color in some of my art. Because I also love using bold color. I don't know, maybe I just go through certain phases at certain times, which never seem to be predictable.

I think it's fun to revisit certain technics that I forgot about. This is a great and simple technic, and I'm glad it came to my mind for this piece. I love the way it gives strength to lightweight fabric, and feels so different than gluing fabric to cardboard. I didn't "invent" this technic, I learned about it online, but forget the source. If I could remember, I'd include the link, but I simply don't remember.  I'd also like to say that although the Mod Podge easily penetrated to the back of this muslin piece, it doesn't penetrate the same way with all fabrics.  So if it doesn't penetrate through to the back of the piece, you may have to turn it over when it's dry and Mod Podge the backside, or Mod Podge both sides more than once, to get the strength and stiffness you want.  Basically you can play with this technic to get your own desired results.  

So that's how this piece was made, with no pain or angst or problems. Woohoo for that. Any questions??? Or suggestions??? It was so great to have fun making this piece, and I'm excited it's for a swap. I just hope the person I send it to likes it. That's always a consideration in a swap, isn't it?