Hearth and Heart By Ngaere

One of the latest products that Jo at Imagine If has come up with is a cute little 3D MDF fireplace. You may have seen the gorgeous finished fireplaces that Tracy and Sharon have already posted on the Imagine If blog. If not pop over and check them out. I racked my brain long and hard trying to come up with a concept for this piece.  When I craft I need to "see" the project in my head before I can begin crafting and for a while it just was not happening.  In my kit from Jo I also had a set of the Prima "relics" and a light bulb went off in my head while I was looking a them and I thought "the hearth is the heart of the home" and it fell into place.  Rather than having the fireplace freestanding I wanted to be able to display it somehow so I found a shadow box from an unfinished project and decided to recycle it for this project.

Here is the finished project and the explanation of the processes I used to create it.

First I covered the MDF with white gesso on both sides.  This seals the pieces and stops the paint and mediums from soaking into the MDF. 

I also painted the Prima Relic pieces with white gesso.

I took the face of the fireplace and glued on some tissue paper for texture and added some Dresden Trim. metal embellishments and a couple of resin flowers.

I traced on the front of the fireplace where the faceplate would site and using texture paste I added some "brickwork" into the area not covered by the faceplate. For the back of the fireplace I covered it with tissue paper and then I used texture paste through a text stencil for added dimension.

I also used tissue paper and texture paste on the heart and on the recycled shadow box.

Once the paste and the gesso had dried I added colour to the wings and the top of the heart by painting them all with gold paint. When the gold paint had dried I brushed on and wiped off black paint.  To finish I painted the edges of the wings and the flames with soft gel medium containing red glitter. The heart I did in the same way except I painted it red instead of gold.

To finish the heart I added some embossing powder, copper micro beads around the top and clear micro beads in the niche. I then added red gems around the neck of the heart and outlining the niche.

Once the fireplace had dried I painted the faceplate with brown paint, then black and wiped off the black paint to give an antique look. I did the same with the brickwork using yellow ochre and black paint.

For the background I painted the piece with red, yellow and orange, then again covered with black paint and wiped most of it off. 

For the sides I covered them with book paper and painted them with yellow ochre brown and black paint. The grill I painted with black gesso and then I gave it a thick coat of Lumiere Pewter paint to give it a rough metal look.



For the mantelpiece I used the same yellow ochre and brown paint and brushed it on in long stokes so it looked a little like wood grain.

I painted the heart the same colours, I just added a little bit of black to the mix and then O stanped it and the sides with a brickwork stamp.  I then assembled the fireplace.

Once the fireplace was assembled I glued the heart and wings to the front of it and added the little bust into the niche.

I painted the shadow box in the same colours I used for the background, added some trim, chipboard letters and a few embellishments and the piece was finished.

I am really pleased with how this piece turned out and I hope it inspires you to try something a bit different with the gorgeous MDF fireplace from Imagine If.  If you do note feel like the fireplace is the right piece for you then check out some of the amazing products Jo has for sale on her website.  Until next time, Happy Crafting.