Bloom and Grow with Wendy Vecchi

Hi everyone and welcome. Thank you for stopping by to see what I've been up to this time - your visits are always appreciated. Wendy Vecchi is a constant source of inspiration and education for so many of us and she has been sharing lots of new techniques again recently, inspiring a few 'what if' moments in my own craft room.

Whilst creating my 'Plaster and Pots' card I had a go at creating a faux terracotta pots for one of the new mat minis. It was a little too shiny for my liking so I decided to have another go (bearing in mind what Wendy explained about making her embossing powders matte).

Here's the process I came up with...

Dab Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint on a Mat Mini flower pot.

Mix together equal parts of Frosted Crystal and Tea Rose embossing powder and sprinkle unevenly over the wet paint.

Tap off any excess and save for future use.

Heat until the powder is melted. It will turn lighter.

Finally blend Potting Soil Archival Ink over the whole surface to deepen the colours.

Now I had a pot I needed a place to put it! Those of you who have followed me for a while will know I have something of a passion for Venice and it's incredibly beautiful buildings. Having seen Wendy's faux plaster technique in action I figured it would perfectly replicate the slightly crumbling and faded plasterwork so often seen on them. What do you think?...

The ink colours I chose to use for this technique included Tea Rose, Tree Branch and Watering Can. You'll see some Watering Can stencilling (using Add a Stencil) brickwork (using a mix of Tea Rose, Tree Branch, Watering Can and Frosted Crystal embossing powders through the Basically Bricks stencil) Distress Ink blended edges (Brushed Corduroy) brick patterned washi tape (from my stash) stamping (using the border from The Beauty of Art with Jet Black Ink) and some Industrious sticker borders.

With the background complete I moved on to the window. The main window was cut from kraft card and the shutters from corrugated card, all dry brushed with white gesso and blended with Brushed Corduroy. The 'voile' curtains are white embossed vellum using the Vintage Lace background stamp and the faux graniteware pitcher is another Mat Mini using Sky Blue embossing powder and another of Wendy's fabulous techniques. The pot and pitcher were filled with flowers  made using die cut Clearly for Art and more embossing powder (Fern Green, Sky Blue, Red Carnation and Tea Rose); using the heat gun on them gives you the chance to manipulate the shapes. To finish I added Remnant Rub Ons and Alpha Parts to remind me about the things I love about this panel.

I had a ball creating this just for me! Isn't it great to be able to do that once in a while? If you've created any of your own handmade flowers remember, there's a new 'Winter Blooms' challenge started over at Frilly and Funkie. And if you fancy diving into your own Wendy Vecchi stash you'll be pleased to hear there's a new Make ART challenge too! This time the theme is 'Hearts'. Both challenges are sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique so you've got two chances to win a shopping coupon!

That's it from me today. I'll be back (well, in spirit) with a post for IndigoBlu on Saturday (when I'll be teaching a workshop at Byrkley Park, Rangemore) and for those going to Stitches make sure you come see me on the IndigoBlu stand! For now, take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx