Magpie Memory Heart

I have been following the work of Amanda Evanston on Instagram and actually signed up for her Insiders Studio late last fall after seeing some of the projects that she was facilitating on her website/facebook group.  There is a monthly fee and the classes are live on a regular schedule.  You can work along with her or work at your own pace and you can post what you have finished to the group if you choose to.  Once and a while she will have a pop-up course that she does on short notice.  That was the case of this one that she did on New Year's Eve at around 7 p.m. - just when our company was arriving.  But I did not despair as I was looking forward to spending that time with our Bubble from Table 7.  So I was pleasantly surprised to see that she left the video up for about 24 hours and I was able to watch it on New Year's Day.  

I am sharing what I did here but want to make sure it is understood that this is not my original idea and I take no credit for it.  And if anyone does do this, please make sure to give credit to the originator - Amanda Evanston.  BTW - she will be opening up enrollment to the Insider's Studio in February if you want to become part of it.  Check her out on Facebook or Instagram.

What is a magpie?  A magpie is a bird but the word magpie is also used to refer to a person who collects things of relatively little use or value.  I do believe that I fit into that category as would be evidenced by the plethora of "stuff" that I have been collecting over the years and recently going through.  So this project was, in effect, calling my name.  

You begin with a heart shape or shape of your choice cut or torn from some pretty stiff cardboard.  And then add some "slots" around the edges.  

Here's where your scraps of bits and bobs come into play.  You take some paper strips and use them to write your intentions - could be your resolutions for the new year, events that happened over the past year, people or things that you want to remember, etc.  And you fold them up.  Then you take some ribbon, string, or yarn scraps and tie them around the heart.  Oh, and you can, of course decorate the base of the heart first if you choose - I just wrote the date 2020.  I was fairly certain that I could cover the whole shape with what I had gathered.

You start tucking in those folded papers, and scraps of whatever you have in your stash. Then you can wrap more string or ribbon around that and continue in that fashion.  Then you embellish it. I used some plastic netting, some snippets of tulle and lace, some blingy yellow ribbon, some sequins, and the little blue bits are the punch outs that I saved from the hard plastic visitor's badges we used to have at school.  Those little things were glued down and I just took a toothpick and stuffed some glue behind some of the paper bits that weren't staying snuggly behind the wrappings.  You can add glitter or glitter paint, sequins - whatever bling you want to. You can even add some elements that dangle off of the heart, but I haven't done that here.  

The goal would be to put this heart in a shadow box frame if you want to display it.  I have not done that yet either.  I think that this would be a nice project to do with friends or family and had I seen it before our company came, I would have liked to share it with them.  Maybe another time.

So, if I can get my act together and finally get my workspace organized enough to begin some of the painting projects from this group you might see some of that in the future.  Let me be off to get some creativity flowing on this Sunday afternoon.