Haunted Design House, Great Granddads Merman Heart

 This week over at Haunted Design House  the challenge is 'Chain Me Up'
  Im a little late this week as I have been rummaging through great granddads things in the atic.(for those of you who don't know, my GG was an old school monster hunter) I found this, an old box padlocked and chained shut.Its scuffed tin and metal plate so Im guessing it must hold something substantial. Luckily the lock was old and I was able to break it open and  look inside.

 As you can see what I found was a little surprising, a blue heart, after taking it out and having a closer look the heart seems to have petrified, its a solid glistening semi translucent object, even though
it is solid it has a liquid like look.
Fortunately the box was numbered and I have been able to find some journal scraps that seem to correspond with this item.
According to the page this once belonged to a great warrior of Atlantis.Now unfortunately there are no details I have found as to why GG was anywhere near Atlantis or how he came about this warriors heart, but I can only assume that it is either very powerful or very dangerous, I think I shall lock it back up and wait till I can find out more about it.

Ok boring bit ;)

This started out as a wooden cigar box I was able to get hold of in Vegas earlier this year. The challenge being chained up my mind went to some sort of artefact that needed to be kept under lock and key. To see some other brilliant interpretations of the theme head over to Haunted Design House and have a play with us.
 I was really pleased with how my tag turned out last week and wanted to use the same techniques but in a different way.The box was painted with an Andy Skinner time worn technique and I made four rusty plates to attach to the sides, the chain,lock and fasteners were picked up in Homebase.the lock was coated in a mix of alcohol inks and thinned down washes of paint, the fasteners were also given a rust treatment.
The inside of the box was lined with some patterned paper and some old black cloth was folded for the lining.
As for the Heart, It has pretty much everything I own thrown at it. I started with Fresco paints and then some clear crocco crackle glaze, this was dry brushed with different shades of blue, It got misted with dylusions and cosmic shimmer mists, a layer of wax was added along with some blue alcohol inks that got melted in with the wax, more cosmic shimmer and finally some clear stickeles.  yes i have some of them.
the end result is quite weird, it has a sort of very thick soft varnish look about it, you can see through the layers to the wooden heart underneath.It just proves if your not happy with something add another layer ;)

If you have made it this far then you deserve a medal. I am so greatful to all of you who take the time to stop by and see what I am up to. It's still unbelievable but very much appreciated.
thank you xx

I would like to enter this into the Anything But A Card challenge, the theme is 'Texture'
I would also like to enter this in to the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp And Show   their challenge is 'for the love of sparkle' the heart is my sparkle'y object.  I would also like to say a great big thank you to the guys over at ssss as I was lucky enough to win $100 in their weekly entry draw, I have already spent it and received my stamps.  Thank you xx