Guest Post - Up in the Air by Julie Smith

Welcome to the second post from our guest Design Team member Julie Smith.  This week Julie has used both the Punky Hearts and Fluttering Hearts to turn a plain frame into a thing of beauty. So sit back and enjoy.

Hello everyone, firstly I would just like to say thank you to everyone that left a comment on my first guest design team post, I really appreciated all the kind comments.

Today I have another up-cycled picture frame but instead of UTEE I have used Sculpey clay. I pressed the heart stamp into silver and black Sculpey Clay tiles which I have then glued to the frame.  I found spritzing the stamp with water and glycerine before pressing into the clay made it much easier to release the stamp and after baking the clay I rubbed over the tiles with a red gilding wax.  The 4cm square cutter I used for the tiles didn't quite fill the picture frame so to fill the gaps I applied some Mixiton Relief which, when dry, allowed for copper gilding flakes to be added. 

I added black glitter glue to the edges of the tiles and stuck a black 1cm jute ribbon around the inside and outside of the picture frame,  just to tidy up any raw edges.

The heart embellishment was made in the same way but I used gold Sculpey clay and when it was baked I glued a black cord around the edge so that I could stitch the crystal seed beeds around the edge. I added crystal Stickles glue and red Gilding Wax to finish.

The main picture was created by stamping the balloon onto the base card and creating the sky with distress ink. I then stamped the balloon a further 5 times, coloured each balloon with coloured pencils and then cut and folded each of the balloons in half before glueing the outside edges together to create a 3d effect. I decoupaged the flowers in the balloon basket and finished off by adding Crystal Stickles glue to the flowers and the trailing flag.

I really enjoyed creating this frame and hope you like it too.

I just love the texture and three dimensional nature of this beautiful project which would grace anyone's home. Please add your thanks to Julie by leaving a comment and don't forget you can catch up with her on her blog  Julie's Crafty Bits