"Home is Where Your Heart Is"REVERSE CANVASPLUS Layered Chipboard Flower TutorialBy Darelle Foster

Today, I'd like to share with you, a gorgeous and very special gift that was

 made for me, by a my dear friend - Darelle Foster.

  Our Aussie followers, will know Darelle from her work with  2Crafty on Scrap It TV,  and know that she just loves working with  2Crafty, making her projects come alive with the chipboard.   Darelle, has made this Reverse Canvas using loads of chipboard and  I am so glad to have the opportunity to share it with you today.   PLUS Darelle has done a little tutorial explaining how to create  these amazing 3D flowers from chipboard. Scroll down to see more.     I don't get time to craft often, and truly appreciate any creative gift I'm given, when it includes photos of my family and I, then it is even more special, as I'd love to do  these things myself, but never have time.   2Crafty Chipboard used in this canvas include:- Fencing Wire Panel Home is Where Your {heart} Is Letterbox ATC Butterflies Heart Corines Swirl Flower Petals       After some background painting, misting and some Stencil and Texture paste work, Darelle has cut a Heart shape tear in the canvas, in which she has used the Fencing Wire Panel piece.   Darelle has moistened the chipboard, making it slightly flexible, so that it can be crushed and made to look a little old and tattered. Over this she has then used glad wrap with her heat gun, which melts the plastic and makes it stick to the Chipboard, she has also added some white Puff paint.     The red heart has been painted, then had wire twisted over it and then some tiny micro beads added for dimension around the outside, the butterfly has had a coat of Glimmermist.  

Darelle chose the Home is Where Your {heart} is Title, which she had
 asked  me to create.  Darelle has used the chain to suspend this title from the top
 of the canvas, just so it sits over our family photo.

 I also love the extra little butterflies that sit around everything.
Again Darelle will dampen with a little spray of

water to make them more pliable for bending.



 When I first saw a photo of the canvas, before I had seen it IRL, I could have sworn the flowers

were made of fabric, but no, like is Darelle's style, she has used the chipboard flowers and here she shares the technique she uses - hope you will give it a try, cause as you can see the effect is just  brillant and well worth the effort.

Here are the instructions in Darelle's own words...

3D Flowers made from Chipboard.

Take your flowers and soak them in a bowl of water for about 5 mins, you want all the inner  layers to be wet as well. 

Take them out of the water and pat dry with paper towel.

Now peel the layers on the petals apart.  You only want to peel down to the end of the petal not into the centre of the flower.  You should be able to gently peel apart 3 to 4 layers.  If some tear that is okay as flower petals are not always perfect.  As we are layering different sizes of the chipboard flower to create the finished look you will need to repeat this process for every piece.

Once this is done you can set them aside to dry completely (it could take up to 24 hours) or you can blast them with your heat gun.  It’s important to dry them before applying the mist colours, they will be too wet and break apart if you don’t dry the chipboard first.  If using a heat gun make sure you keep the heat gun about 10 to 15 cm away from the pieces as it may burn the chipboard if it is too close.

Now you can mist your pieces with the colours you have chosen, I have used 2 different colours of glimmer mist on these flowers.  Once this is done set them aside to dry again.  If you have a heat gun use this,  I find that if a heat gun is used,  the finished flower has more body to it as the paper goes a bit crispy.

Layer the different sized flowers together, I have used hot glue to fix them.  Next  add a decorative button to the centre to finish the flowers.  They are now ready to be used on your project.

This technique works really well with any chipboard shapes, I especially love butterflies done this way too as  it gives the illusion of fluttering wings.

Thanks for popping by, I hope you enjoyed seeing my gorgeous and treasured gift.

Vanessa xxx