Vintage Inspired Valentine Altered Art Tutorial

I’ve been in a Valentine kind of mood lately, working on a couple of ideas that I’ve had in mind. Today I’d like to show you a project that can be hung on your wall or sold via your antique biz: vintage inspired Valentine altered Art.

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Materials:

1. 8″ x 10″ Canvas board
2. Vintage music paper
3. Mod Podge
4. Foam brushes
5. Craft paint
6. Scrapbook paper
7. Scissors
8. Cardstock to make words

How to Make the Valentine Altered Art

1. Cover the Canvas with Vintage Music Paper

Step 1 To start this project, cover your canvas with vintage sheet music paper using Mod Podge to adhere it.

You can apply a whole sheet, as you see in this picture, or you can tear it into pieces and glue each piece separately (see below). Glue edges to the back of the canvas by a 1/2″ or so to give the canvas a more finished look.

2. Paint the Music Paper

Step 2 Using torn pieces of vintage music paper gives the project some added texture and interest. No matter how you apply your music paper, the next step is to paint it.

I like to squirt some acrylic craft paint right on the canvas, then spray some water over the surface and brush the paint over the surface with a foam brush. The water makes the paint translucent. I used cobalt blue, but you can select any color you want.

If you don’t brush too carefully, you’ll get different values, which also adds to the character of your piece.

3. Add White Circles

Step 3 To create the white circles I dipped the edges of a small paint lid in white craft paint and then “stamped” the circles randomly on my canvas.

You can also use small stencils with various shapes to randomly paint some more embellishments on your canvas.

4. Make the Heart

Step 4 Cut out a card stock heart to fit your canvas.

Cover the heart with strips of scrapbook paper that coordinate with each other and your canvas color; lay them over your card stock heart to fit.

Glue them on one by one with Mod Podge. Next turn the heart over and trim off the excess.

Here’s what a similar heart looked like after gluing and trimming.

5. Create Word Embellishments

Step 6 If you’d like to add some text to your piece, you can use your computer to create it, or use the title of a song from a vintage songbook or cut out words from a dictionary.

I went with “je t’aime,” the perfect Valentine sentiment, and printed it out in a few different colors so I would have choices.

7. Assemble the Valentine Altered Art

Step 7 Now it’s time to assemble your masterpiece–glue on your heart and decide where you want your text to go and glue it on as well. I like to paint the sides of my canvas and the top edges with a color coordinating, but darker color, in this case deep red.

Once everything has dried, you can give the entire project a coat of Mod Podge for protection and a light sheen and you’re done-

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Happy Valentine’s Day!