Here's my heart, Lord

There's a song on KSBJ, our local Christian radio station, that always gets me singing.  It's a remake of an older hymn and there's a part that says, "Here's my heart, Lord.  Take and seal it.  Seal it for Thy course above."  For several weeks I've wanted to create something using those words.  I had an idea in my head, so last night, I took out my newest supplies (Gelli plate and bees wax) and started playing.

Warning: The Gelli Plate is highly addictive!  :)

  I first created the background with the Gelli plate.  I brayered black and teal acrylic paint all of the surface.  Then I laid a stencil down on top of the paint.  I placed the paper down and brayered it.  This was the print that came up.  I then placed my art journal on the gelli plate and pulled up the "ghost" image for later.  I'm really loving my gelli plate! 

I then took a sharpie x-fine paint pen and randomly wrote the lyrics of the song onto the background. 

 I glued down a corrugated ATC card, that I distressed with archival black ink, and on top of that I glued a page from an old dictionary with different words that include the word heart.  I had some painted paper leftover from a project that I did from my Soul Food class over at Community Thrive.  The classes are a lot of fun and you learn so many different techniques!  I cut a heart out of the painted paper and glued it down.  Then I busted out my beeswax and quilting iron. 

Sidebar: I bought the melting pot from Ranger, but I actually like melting the wax right onto the page using a quilting iron.  With the melting pot, by the time I put the wax on the brush and put it onto the paper, the wax is starting to dry and I don't have as much control.  With the quilting iron I can heat the wax while it's on the project and move it around until I get the coverage I want.

Anyways, I put several of the Ranger bees wax (pellets?) onto the heart and then melted them with the iron.  While the wax was still melted, I pressed a metal cross into it.  Then I melted wax over the dictionary paper.  

I finished the project off with Tim Holtz label letters to spell sealed.  I really like how it turned out.  I think it would be pretty mounted on a piece of red cardstock.  Oops, I forgot one step.  For the background, I watered down some red golden fluid acrylic paint and then splattered it randomly using a toothbrush.  That way the background ties into the rest of the picture.

I hope you like it!