Hi friends! Welcome to what I hope will be a weekly or every other week post showcasing Wendy Vecchi products. WooHoo! I've had this idea in my mind since attending one of Wendy's classes at the Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbook, CT last summer, but it's been challenging to find the time to regularly craft. Maybe if I make this concept public it will help me to stay on track and get in the studio more often!
It's no secret that I'm a huge Wendy Vecchi fan and feel that she is one of a kind when it comes to designers (and all around fabulous people!) in that her work is truly unique. Not only are her projects distinct, but she consistently works to develop new and innovative techniques using existing products (or developing new ones!) Wendy is someone who primarily develops her own techniques vs. re-inventing existing ones. Her techniques are born out of her own ideas and time spend playing with products and how they interact. As someone whose brain doesn't work that way, I find her way of creating imaginative and inspiring. That's one of the reasons I'd like to highlight her products and techniques...to help showcase her talents.
By the way, if you've never taken one of Wendy's class...find one and sign up! You'll be so surprised by the depth of detail that goes into her art. And if you haven't been to Tracie's store, Papercraft Clubhouse, then get going! She has a beautiful, large location filled to the brim with lots of mixed media, card making, and scrapbooking supplies. I was giddy to be back in an actual store again, since there aren't any brick and mortar stores near me (insert wailing) and during Wendy's class, I shopped during every single break! OK...enough chatting, let's get down to business!
This project was created using a ton of Wendy's products, see links at the end of the post, and while I had hoped to have a video to go along with this spread my files were corrupted during the upload process. UGH! I thought about not even sharing this without the video, but I didn't want to skip this fun project, and I'll do my best to jot down my step by step process.
I'm working in a small (5" x 8") Dylusions journal and I started by painting the edges of two pages with Distress Paint. Once the paint was dry I used one of Wendy's background stamps (Ticking) and Cornflower Blue Archival Ink to add the stripes. I love the stripes over the painted background!
Next, I got to work on my two main panels, which were created using Specialty Stamping Paper. I used a re-inker technique developed by Wendy (you can see her technique video here) to create the beautiful swirls of color you see in the photo below. Then I added a few layers of design, using Wendy's Archival Inks and stencils from The Crafters Workshop. For even more texture, I added some stamping using Wendy's Mesh background stamp. I also added some leaf stamping behind the flowers. This gave my vase the appearance of a fuller bouquet.
Once my layers were completed I got to work on adding a few extra elements as well as working on the vase and flowers. The license plate image was stamped on Wendy's newsprint paper, using her License Plate Art stamp set. The tiny hearts are from her Mat Mini collection, I colored the hearts with a Copic marker, and the strings are hand drawn. The bird, perched on the license plates, is another mat mini, and it has been stamped with its coordinating stamp, which is how it gets all of that great design. I just colored the mat mini with a few Distress Inks after stamping the bird.
To create the flowers and vase, I first adhered a piece of newsprint to a piece of Clearly for Art and then stamped the images onto the newsprint. I used Copic markers to color the images and then cut each image out. I also stamped a few extra flowers so I could layer them for extra dimension.
When you heat Clearly for Art it softens and you can mold the flowers and vase into a shape. This really helps to bring the flowers to life, and I was even able to bend the vase in a way that it appears slightly rounded. So much fun!
Once the pieces were attached to my pages, I added some glossy accents and Wink of Stellar glitter pen to a few areas on both pages, and added tiny gold pearls to the middle of each flower. Adding the sentiment was the final step.
Whew...if you're still with me, congratulations! I know this was a lengthy post. Sorry about that! Creating videos has been so much fun, as it cuts down on so much copy and let's you just watch the process. Hoping to get a new video, featuring Wendy's products, up in a week or two. Until then...I hope you enjoyed today's art journal spread...happy crafting!
Supplies: (The Funkie Junkie carries a large selection of Wendy's products, and all of their products are 20% off retail...every day!)
