'Make an item of your choice using stencils'

I thought I would have a go at this swap - it's taken me quite a long time to do this - but its been fun.

I had bought a yard of this from a charity shop - it's quite thick material

I had to do this in stages.  Firstly I painted the metallic copper layer over a stencil and left it to dry overnight.

Then I painted the pearlescent on top through another stencil - left that to dry overnight and repeated the two processes the next couple of days.  (Having been doing Tam's free course, I have learned a lot about layering - it really makes a huge difference.)

I cut out a heart from the same material, then painted the pearlescent over stencils - yes you guessed it, left it overnight to dry.  I painted around the edge of the frayed heart, transferred an image directly onto the heart, stamped 'Best Friend' with Stazon, and then sewed all the layers together.

Hemmed the top, sewed on the vintage lace borders.  I haven't decided whether to just sew on the cord or to thread through a stick and tie the cord on. I'll experiment before I send it off.

This photo is just to show you the difference it makes taking a picture at night with just the room light!

The other photos were taken under a 'daylight' bulb lamp.