A Valentine Artist Trading Block

Thanks so much to my latest followers, it is lovely to have you along on my crafty journey.

This month, for my Design Team piece for The Artists on the Block I have used an Andy Skinner technique - Faux Letter Press.  You can find Andy's tutorial HERE.

I am very lucky as I received a box of paint and other mediums from DecoArt, as part of Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team.  The new Media Range of paints from DecoArt are my latest love, you can create soft colours with them or vibrant or grungy colours, as you will see in my piece today.

I have not done step by step photos because Andy explains them really well in his tutorial - and to be honest, I got a bit carried away and forgot!

Andy did use a variety of colours and sizes for his blocks but I used similar sized pieces so that I could add whole words, (Love You, Be Mine) rather than random letters.

The base is one of Eileen Hull for Sizzix Artist Trading Blocks, this is the largest one and measures 3" on all sides.  I painted the whole of the base block with black Gesso so that it would not soak up too much paint and then painted over with Raw Umber DecoArt paint. It only needed one coat.

The letters are from Tim Holtz - Ideaology Kraft Resist Chipboard Alphabet.  It is quite an old set, I simply sanded the shiny top, applied Gesso and then painted them the same way Andy did.  I used  Pyrrole Red paint for the letters, then flicked Carbon black paint over and then covered each letter with Quinacridone Red paint (it is transparent) which gives the letter a slight sheen.  The punched hearts were done in exactly the same way and then stamped with some latin type script.  The base for each letter is painted with Raw Umber and edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The flower was created using Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die.  I used two of each design on the die, except for the spiky one.  It is years since I made one of these flowers but you can see how I did it in my blog post HERE - yes it is VERY old, but the technique works beautifully with any of Tim's Tattered Floral dies.

To finish off I added some wooden beads, as feet, also painted with Raw Umber.  I also tied some lovely red jute twine around the middle of the block.

I would like to enter my block into Pamellia's first challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, which you can find HERE.   The challenge is called Valen-twine and you must use twine, jute, cord or string. There is a $25 prize for one lucky winner to spend at the Funkie Junkie online shop.

I would also like enter Julia's challenge at the Artist Trading Post Exchange which is Flower Power! I hope my single big flower qualifies. There is a £10 voucher for the winner to spend at the Artist Trading Post on-line or bricks and mortar shop.

Thanks so much for looking, I will be back on Friday when we have a new challenge beginning over at A Vintage Journey, I hope you will join us then.  Hugs, Anne xx