Do It Yourself Home Decor Wall Plaque

Welcome to another Heartfelt Creations Wednesday!

I'm so glad you've stopped by to visit and to take a peek at

 the creation I wanted to share with you today!

I was wanting to create something a little bit different with the Birds and Blooms Collection, and while browsing in Michaels last week I came up with the idea to do a home decor piece!

They were just putting out the most delicious chipboard shapes, frames, words, plaques, etc. and I thought it would be fantastic to create a wall plaque!

I wanted to age the chipboard pieces and finally decided that I would go for the patina look!

 Later on in the post, I'll show you how easy it was to achieve this look using a little paint, water, sandpaper, and some other goodies that I had hiding in my craft room!

Let's begin with a peek at the finished project!

...and a second peek from a different angle with a close of up of the flowers...

Now, you will find that I have all of the instructions on how this project has been created on the bottom of the blog post...however, I decided that I would give you a quick tutorial on getting the patina look I achieved here.  

I had so much fun doing this!  I could get a little bit messy and was really quite curious on how this would all turn out!

Let's begin...

Gather your unfinished chipboard plaque, green paint, water spray bottle, sponge brush and paint tray.  Make sure you are either working on a splat mat or have paper covering your crafting table.  

Pour a small amount of paint into your paint tray and add quite a bit of water using a spray bottle until the paint is quite thinned out.  You don't want to be applying a heavy coat, as you will want parts of the raw chipboard to shine through some areas.  

Brush the entire plaque with your first layer of green.  As it was drying, I used a paper towel to remove some of the paint so that it wasn't a true solid color and you could see some of the wood grain in the panel.  

The next layer will be blue in color.  Prepare your blue paint exactly as you did the green, watering it down to a thin consistency.

Apply blue paint randomly on top of the green base. I've used just the tip of the sponge brush to apply the paint in a streaked pattern, being sure to not cover too much of the base coat.  

The next step is to use a fine grit sandpaper to dull the colors and start the aging process.  

You can see how the sanding really toned down the colors and brings out part of the original chipboard color.  

You are now ready to add the final coat of paint to the plaque.  Prepare your white paint as you did the other acrylic paints and swipe across the plaque using random patterns.  

Once again sand with a fine grit sandpaper.  

We are now ready to begin the aging process!

I've used paper towel to swipe Walnut Distress Stain and Vintage Photo Distress Stain onto the plaque.  I found that applying it directly was just too dark for the look I was trying to create.  

The next layer I added was a brown ink around the edges of the plaque.  I used an older ink pad, as I knew the edges would probably chew it up slightly..and it did!  LOL

The next step was to add a touch of shine...but in a very subtle way...

Using my finger, I applied the Viva Inka Gold to various areas on the decorative edge of the frame.  This product gives a nice shimmer...but the gold color is not overpowering.

We're down to one last step...

Viva Ferro is a very cool medium that has a gritty texture.  I've applied the copper color first and then applied the graphite color over that to tone the coppery color down a bit.  I've once again applied it with my finger as I was not wanting a thick layer on the project.  You can see the areas in the photo above that show as grey...that is where the Ferro has been applied.  It keeps it's gritty texture and gives the piece a great aged feeling. 

You'll want to use the same technique explained here to antique your bird chipboard pieces should you choose to use them.
For the rest of the instructions on how this project was created, please see the end of this blog post.

Be sure to check out the Heartfelt Creations blog for more inspiring creative projects!
Next week brings a new collection release!
I can't wait to share it with you!

Until next time...

HCDP1-250 Birds and Blooms Paper Collection
HCPC-3649 Birds and Blooms Collage Cling Stamp Set
HCPC-3644 Birds and Blooms Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-757 Leafy Branch Die
HCPC-3608 Arianna Blooms Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-748 Arianna Blooms Die
HCD2-752 Cut Mat Create 2B Die
SMP001 Stamp Mat Pad
159223 Paper Blossoms Molding Mat
459222 Paper Blossoms Tool Kit
TSMP808 Memento Espresso Truffle Ink
TSMP706 Memento Pistachio Ink
TSMP602 Memento Zeal Teal Ink
273900 Zip Dry Glue

Other Products Used:  unfinished chipboard plaque, unfinished chipboard birds, White DecoArt Crafters Acrylic Paint, Leaf Green DecoArt Crafers Acrylic Paint, Tropical Blue DecoArt Crafters Acrylic Paint, BigShot die cutting machine, sponge paint brush, paint tray, Aged Hunter Stampendous Frantage Embossing Enamel, Viva Inka Gold, Personal Stamp Exchange Verdigris Embossing Powder, fine grit sandpaper, heat tool, Stampin Up Basic Black Ink, scor tape, cream colored card stock, Viva Ferro Copper, Viva Ferro Graphite, Versa Color Pine Cone Ink, Vintage Photo Distress Stain, Walnut Stain Distress Stain,  water mist bottle, 3 grey brads, Tim Holtz Distress markers - broken china, tumbled glass, salty ocean, forest moss, peeled paint, old paper, mustard seed, finger daubers, Ranger blending tool and pad,

Begin this project by preparing your unfinished chipboard plaque with several coats of the various colors of acrylic paints. To achieve the patina look, apply each coat separately, allow to dry and sand in between each coat.  For a step by step process tutorial on how to achieve the patina look shown here, please see my personal blog.  Apply the same process to the unfinished chipboard bird shapes as well.  Choose a piece of lighter tone background paper from the collection paper pack, measure to fit centre of plaque, and stamp the Collage Cling Stamp Set with black ink.  Immediately sprinkle with the Verdegris embossing powder, discard extra loose powder and set with heat tool.  Using your distress markers, water color the three images on the stamped image. Apply brown colored ink onto the entire stamped image page using a blending tool.  Allow some areas to be darker than others as you do not want a uniform look.  Then apply brown ink to outer edges using the stamp pad itself to give the entire panel an aged look.  Adhere stamped image to plaque.  Select a light green patterned paper from the collection and die cut two of the corner vines from the Cut Mat Create 2B die.  Ink slightly with brown ink.  Set aside.  Stamp the small flowers from the Birds and Blooms Cling Stamp Set in black ink and sprinkle with Verdigris embossing powder.  Remove access and set onto image with heat tool.  Die cut using the coordinating die.  Ink each edge using a teal colored ink. Shape flowers.  Stamp the Arianna Blooms Cling Stamp Set several times in black ink.  Immediatedly cover with Aged Hunter embossing enamel, discard extra and set with heat tool. Apply teal ink around the centre area of each flower, green on the petals, and brown on the tip of each petal.  Shape flowers, creating one large, one medium and one small sized bloom.  Use a brad for each flower centre, adding a touch of Inka Gold to each brad to give it a gold colored shimmer.  Adhere bird chipboard shapes to the bottom of the plaque as shown.  Arrange the corner vine die cuts, and flowers on the top and bottom corners as pictured.  Scatter several small flat flower die cuts from the Birds and Blooms Cling Stamp Set to the image panel.  Once happy with placement of everything, adhere to plaque.  You have now completed a unique home decor project, perfect to gift to a friend or loved one...or even keep for yourself!

This project has been shared in the following challenges...
Everybody Art Challenge..."Text as Focal Point"
Through the Craft Room Door..."Anything Goes"
Not Just Cards..."Anything Goes"
Sparkle N Sprinkle..."Anything Goes February Challenge"
Crafting from the Heart..."Anything Goes"
Craft Your Passion..."Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp Challenge..."H is for..." (home decor)