The Heart of My Art (and a NSD giveaway!)

Hello and welcome! If you've made your way here today, I'm willing to guess you're either a member of my family or a scrapbooker? Safe bet? I hope you're here seeking Nat'l Scrapbooking Day (NSD) info, as I have some brilliant celebratory business for you.

Today's Happy Happenings!

1. Big Picture Classes National Scrapbook Day 10K event is happening now. As a member of their 10K Team, I know I can't wait to add a layout or two to the Instagrams. Will you? Still on the fence? Well, there are prizes involved, and this is Insta-history in the works, friends. Need I say more?

2. Scrapbook & Cards Today: Nope, it's not Monday, but it is NSD, so I'm delighted to be paying Scrapbook & Cards Today an extra visit this week, sharing this layout and giving away some awesome delights. More on the layout in a moment!

The Heart of My Art by Megan Hoeppner. Supplies: Cardstock: American Crafts; Textured paint (Glimmerz): Shimmerz; Heart stencil: Heidi Swapp; Pigment sticks (Gelatos): Faber-Castell; Washi tape: Hazel & Ruby and Paper Source; Glassine bag: SRM Stickers; Stickers: Fancy Pants Designs; Spray ink: Studio Calico; Shipping tag: Office Max; Baker's twine: Whisker Graphics; Pens (Gold Sharpie; White Gelly Roll): Newell Rubbermaid and Sakura of America; Photo: Fuji Film (INSTAX Mini); Other: Gold thread. 

3. Giveaway! Yes, it wouldn't be a holiday without a scrapbooking prize, so I'm offering a mystery box full of scrapbooking goodies to one lucky commenter on this here post. Simply leave your comment between now and Tuesday, May 6, including your email address, for a chance to win. Excellent!

Image credi

Okay, back to my The Heart of My Art layout. This was a first for me—going super mixed media with a page. But it's about art, so I wanted to give it a go. if the idea interests you, here are a few of the steps I took, broken down:

Do It To It

1. I used the Heidi Swapp heart stencil that I recently purchased while at the Portland Creating Keepsakes Convention as a background.

I paired it with this amazing jar of Spun Sugar (white) Dazzlerz by Shimmerz to create a cool, textured, almost watermark effect across the back of my page. Dazzlerz are gorgeous, smooth, paints that have a heavier texture than a basic paint. They are M-A-Zing!

Image credit: Enchanted Dreams Shop

2. Inspired by this cute dress (from Target) I bought Maggie for my Aunt's surprise party last month...

I wanted to create a similar watercolor/heart look, so I started by drawing a heart on the now dry heart background using my beloved white Gelly Roll by Sakura.

Then I drew strips of color down the heart, with more color towards the top of the heart, using my Faber-Castell Gelatos—another awesome product!

3. Using a paintbrush and some water, I blended the Gelato color columns down the length of my heart, adding more Gelato where I felt it needed it.

4. Keeping with the paintbrush business, I then wrote the word "art" on an SRM Stickers glassine bag, using my spray ink, just as I did in this tutorial. This is something I'll definitely be doing again. Loved the look on the glassine!

5. Back to the layout, I added a strip of some of my fav washi, the Fat Roll by Hazel & Ruby, to the side of the page, layering over some misted book paper, which I tore from a book. I then added another strip of gold washi in a slightly thinner size.

Secret revealed: See that bit of black peeking out from behind the book paper? Yeah, that's an area of brush script that didn't go so well. No need to start over, however. No way! I just improvised and this book-paper/washi grouping was born.

6. Once the glassine bag was dry, I positioned it to the layout, making sure to only place my adhesive down the center, backside of the bag so it wouldn't show. I then added a strip of my new "handmade with love" washi tape from Paper Source. Gosh, I love this tape!

7. Time to sew! I added some machine stitching using my fav gold metallic thread, following my white Gelly Roll lines of the heart. I purposefully went outside of those lines a bit to keep it less linear. And I purposefully stitched over a bit of the bag and book-paper row to make the elements feel more connected on the page.

9. For the word "The" in my title, I simply wrote using a metallic gold Sharpie. It took a few coats to make it really show up well.

10. Wanting to enhance the "art" effect a bit more, I added some spray-ink splatter by removing the nozzles of my Mister Huey's and lightly tapping on them while holding them over the coordinating color column in the heart.

11. I added the words "of my" at the top of my tag using tiny stickers from Fancy Pants Designs. typed my journaling on a 2"x4" shipping tag, using my typewriter. I like the way the black letters slightly show through the glassine bag, both acting as a subtle print (to complement the book paper) and indicating there's a story in waiting without putting too much of my words out in the open. This was a personal story to tell, and I didn't want too much of it revealed on the surface.

12. The HEART of my ART, when it comes right down to it, is preserving our stories from my Maggie and her future sibling(s), so I simply added an old Instax Mini photo  taken of me while pregnant with Mags to complete the page.

For more on the significance and story behind this page, I hope you'll check out my post today on the Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine blog. And don't forget to upload the fun you create today on Instagram with the hashtag #NSD10k (or in the BPC gallery). Both the magazine and BPC are offering pretty sweet prizes today, so there's even some added incentive in there for ya! :)

Oh, and don't forget the ol' goodie box o' delights being offered here. Hope you'll enter.

Happy NSD, friends! Thanks a bunch for making my blog a small part of your celebration today!

Cheers!