I was deliberating whether to hand make Christmas this year (bit late to still be procrastinating I know) when along came Georgina Ford.

Georgina is setting up a new creative business called Designs By Georgina and she asked me if I would have a go with some of her product range and see what I thought.

Never one to turn down a creative request I said yes please!

Georgina sent me through several products that I shall be covering in the coming week but today’s project was created with the Poinsettia Heart chipboard kit.

Before I continue I should also mention that I have never used an actual chipboard kit before – weird I know and I’ve no idea how that happened as I’ve always loved the look of it, but I guess that even those of us that do ‘it’ daily are still trying new things on a regular basis.

Anyway, let me just show you the finished thing and then I can let you know how I went about it.

Sweet isn’t it?!

Well, I threw a fair bit at this so I’d best crack on and tell you about it before your tea goes cold.

The shapes are cut into chipboard sheet. They are sent to you in the sheet (which means it’s a bit of a billy bonus for you to play with once you’ve finished your Poinsettia project).

Instructions are also supplied. They’re not complicated which was probably a good thing as I started this first thing in the morning after a rubbish night’s sleep.

In fact, there were only three specific instructions given by Georgina. Number the pieces, remove the pieces from the sheet/decorate them and then layer them up.

Simple.

To start, and against the advice from Georgina, I neither numbered nor removed the pieces from the sheet – what a rebel! Lol ;0

I basically skipped ahead to the decorating bit, as I’m sure you’ve done in the past. I did however keep my fingers crossed that, by painting the shapes whilst they were still in their carrier sheet, this wouldn’t cause them all to expand and stick in the sheet. Time would tell!

The first coat that I applied was a white acrylic. I did this so that the reds and greens did not ‘sink’ into the chipboard and lose their vibrancy. Gesso may also be a good alternative however I wanted a strong opaque white.

The red and green base coats were then applied.

In the pic above you are also seeing the wreath kit that will be in a separate post in the near future, but you get the idea.

Here is a closer look. You will also see that I had started to give the leaves some faux texture by stippling some darker green acrylic paint on the top of the leaf section.

To give a little more dimension and sparkle I dry-brushed some red metallic speciality paint over the Poinsettia petals.

By this point I thought that I may have glued all of the shapes in place so I carefully began prodding at the sheet and to my relief they all came free. I guess it must have been to do with the excellent quality of the cutting on the product rather than lady luck saving me from making a fool of myself.

Anyway, I painted the heart shape in the same way as the Poinsettia petals earlier but before I began layering up the pieces, as per Georgina’s guidelines, I decided to add a few more details to the piece.

First I added some red glitter glue to the petals and gold glitter glue to the heart.

I then coloured the edge of each shape with a black alcohol marker for contrast and definition.

Some clear gloss was applied to the centres of the flowers and once dry I added some gold (via a metallic pen) to them, and also the petal edges.

Some clear nail varnish was then added over the petals to secure the glittered areas and to add some shine.

I used a hi-tack white glue to secure all of the pieces together and then added some twine through the loop in the top of the heart to finish.

Finished!

What do you think to my finished project? Really chuffed with this! Definitely a lovely look and feel to it. Can’t wait to finish the wreath now! :)

I’ve really had fun with this and am now wondering why it has taken me so long to get around to chipboard! Have you used chipboard before?

I am also wondering if you have started making your decorations yet? If not, and if you’d like to get one of these sets, then please do head over to http://www.designsbygeorgina.co.uk – I know that Georgina will be super excited to see you all :)

Right, that’s me done for this post – hope you have enjoyed it and will come back next time.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post then please feel free to use the comments section below. Also, If you know of anyone that would appreciate reading this post, there are handy sharing icons below.

Many thanks for visiting and I’ll see you again soon!

J :)