Whooo Do I Like? You!

Another Valentine!

 

 

Again, the focal point of this card is the vintage school valentine from my friend Jane. The background sky and trees are stamped with Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink from Ranger (Fern Green, Cornflower Blue, & Veridian). The tree is a stamp designed by Wendy Vecchi from Stamper's Anonymous. I doodled around the heart with a black pen, added some little CTMH stamped hearts from the set "You're the Bomb," added ribbon, and a little sentiment typed on my manual typewriter.

Wendy Vecchi Inspired Vintage Card

(Second Post Today: Please scroll down to see a Key West layout post.)

 

"Her domestic skills were quite limited,

but she sure knew how to shop."

 



The background of this card is stamped, sprayed, dripped, and adhered to black cs. it's hard to tell, but the background shimmers with the bronze Perfect Pearls Mist spray I used. Then I added the ribbon and the CTMH pin. The lady and the sentiment are both from Wendy Vecchi's "A Flair for Art" stamp set. I colored the dress with Copic marked #R37 Carmine. The branches are from the tree on WV's "Mail Art" stamp set. The larger mat has red spray around the edges--I used a mask to only get the edges. Both of the mats are adhered with dimensional adhesive. All of the black embellishments are from CTMH's mini-medley black accent.



Wendy Vecchi Class

Several weeks ago I was fortunate to attend an art class by artist Wendy Vecchi in Moline, Illinois.

First, we learned a bunch of ink and embossing techniques using tags:

Art is a messy business.

Here's a pic of me with Wendy. She is super nice and soooo talented!

Her husband was there helping, and he had packed some of her supplies in this "Bud Heavy" box. Lol.

After lunch we started on our framed canvas project using our newly acquired skills. 

Here's my finished project. I ventured off the project a little, but I can't help myself. I love the finished piece.

Metal Deck Ornament

I've had this metal deck ornament/mobile for years. I liked it a lot when I bought it, but it probably should have been thrown out years ago because the paint was so worn and faded:

 

I'm so glad I didn't throw it out! A month or so ago I went to an all-day class with Ranger designer Wendy Vecchi. One of the things I learned is that her archival ink coupled with her embossing powders work on metal. You can change the color of anything metal--permanently!

 

First I cleaned the pieces up. Here's what they looked like--pretty bad:

 

 Next apply the archival ink.  I used Buttercup for the sun and star and Cornflower Blue for the crescent moon.

 

After the whole piece is inked (you might not be able to see the color--especially a light color like I used), apply the embossing powder. I didn't take a picture of this step, but it's just like embossing on paper. Apply a generous amount of embossing powder on the wet ink. Use a piece of clean paper underneath your project so you can keep and reuse the powder that doesn't stick.

 

Then melt the embossing powder with a heat gun (not a hair dryer!). You might have to do these steps more than once. You can see a few areas I had to do a second time.  Also, be careful when heating the metal--it gets HOT in your hand!

 

Here's a side-by side look at the difference (courtesy of my phone's photo collage app): 

 

And a picture of all the pieces completed. It's quite a difference!

It's hard to see except on the moon, but I also added some highlights on each piece with Ranger's gold embossing paste. I just applied it with my finger and gave it another shot with the heat gun to set it.

 

And one last shot of the ornament re-hung on the deck after being spray sealed for outdoor use. Much better, right?

 

Nothing metal inside or outside my house is safe! I'm going to be re-coloring everything metal.