Heart of the Ocean

Hello there! It's Riikka here with my very first post. I'm so excited! I hope you like what I created for you this time. It's a little canvas or altered piece with my favorite colors blue, turquoise and green. The base is a small dish, like a ceramic plate. On top I created a heart of the ocean, an ode to ocean. 

I've lived in coastal cities my whole life. I was born and raised in Turku, the oldest city in Finland with a large archipelago and nowadays I live in Helsinki, the capital. The sea has always been near and present. But the most amazing experience with the sea has been in the Norwegian coast line with the horizon stretching as far as eye could see. I never seen anything like that! And the wind was racing and the sea was foaming and it was so lovely! I could have stared that for hours! 

The piece is really easy to do! First gather your supplies - a selection of Wow embossing powders, a heart mold and the Wow! Embossing Pad.

Start by making the "splashes". Sprinkle the embossing powder to a sheet of baking paper or equivalent. Cover the sheet with another sheet of baking paper. Then melt the powder with a heat tool, use a stamping block to smooth the layer, let it cool and then carefully peel back the papers. That way you have a thin sheet of embossing powder to add to your project. Use several powders and let them mix. My mix included Nice Ice Blue, Vanilla Sparkle, Primary Lagoon and Primary Bluetiful.

Then make the heart to be used as the center of attention. You can use the Wow Technique Library as your guide (link). I mixed several powders in my heart and tried to get a marble look on the top of the heart to show the many colors of the ocean. I used Opaque Pastel Blue, Clear Embossing Glitter and Primary Lagoon. I over heated the Primary Powder slightly to have the white streaks appearing in the heart. 

For the background I first applied a layer of white gesso. On top I then sprinkled Clear Sparkle embossing powder, heated it and then sprayed a little of mist on top. I used a lot of water, too, to get a water color like effect to the background.

To get those little touches of sea foam to the background I sprinkled Opaque Vanilla White to the plate, just a grain here and there and then heated from underneath to get the splashed kind of effect. If you heat the plate from above all the powder will blow away. 

To gather the composition I took a pencil and drew a couple of circles to the plate. The background needed some texture so I took a silicone brush, some modeling paste and created a random pattern to the background with them. I also gathered some more white materials for the layers underneath the heart. I rip a couple of sheets of tissue paper and stapled the layers together and formed a circle out of the white wire thread.

I layered the tissue papers, wire thread and the "splashes" on top of each other and adhered them to the background. I also treated the bottle cap I used as the frame to the heart with Opaque Vanilla White to make it more cohesive with the other parts of the project. I did the same as I did with the background, sprinkled some grains to the bottle cap and then heated the bottle cap from underneath to get a little weathered kind of look.  

Then I layered the bottle cap, the heart and the clock frame on top of each other and adhered them together. Lastly I finished the piece by treating the edges of the project with the Opaque British Summer. First I inked the edges of the plate with the Clear Ultra Slow Dry Embossing ink, then added the embossing powder on top. After melting the powder and some cooling time, I then added the wax on top.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope I have inspired you with this project! 

All the best, Riikka

SUPPLIES USED : For your convenience I've listed the WOW! items used in TRiikka's FABULOUS project. The blue button will take you to our UK/EU site and the red button will take you to our North American site.