Home Is Where The Heart Is

Hello crafty friends!  It's Susan on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today.  I have a project today with a sentiment that is especially important to me these days.  My family is in the process of moving two states away.  The old house is on the market, still filled 90% of our "stuff".  We spend a lot of time in temporary lodgings, waiting to move on with our lives.  I do a lot of traveling between locations, but I always know that my home is, in fact, where my family is.

I used the Tiny House Shrine w/Doors, but as you can see in the photo above, I opted not to use the doors.

The smallest of the Tudor Rose Singles worked well to fit on my heart.  I planned to only use it as a reverse stencil and press into the paperclay heart, so coated all (why not?) with Mod Podge to help release from the wet paperclay.

It didn't end up making the best impression, but it worked.

In order to suspend the heart, I measured for the center of the roof and floor pieces and poked a small hole.   I also poked holes in the doors for tiny door knobs.  Everything was coated with white gesso.

While that dried I painted the heart and the medallion.  (By this time I'd already decided to use the medallion since the impression was so light.)  Once both were dry I used a toothpick and white glue to attach the two together.

In an experiment I decided to use embossing powder on top.  This is an after-but-still-wet photo.  Eventually the embossing powder peeled off.  Ugh.  I didn't prep the acrylic-painted heart and I think that's the reason.  Lesson learned.  In the finished photos you can see the medallion inside is semi-opaque in parts.  That's the embossing power that I didn't remove.  Instead, I covered the whole heart front with Glossy Accents to seal it.

Magically, the box is assembled!  I put sides and floor together first.  See the curled metal on the roof?  It's the same on the outside floor.  A little fiddly to do, but patience helped.

Not satisfied with a light outside, I painted everything with black gesso.  Not satisfied with a flat surface, I applied light molding paste, then re-gesso'd.  I used a matte varnish to finish.

I used a wee vintage metal button for the drawer handle.  I'm just going to view things like the bent wire above the heart as quirks of life, especially these days!

In this back view, you can see the roof wire shown earlier is now disguised.

Thank for your visit today! -- Susan

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Used
Tiny House Shrine w/Doors #D13RBS
Mini Tudor Rose Singles #C13K (coming soon!)