Flower Power

No!  Don't go away....this is not a post about the 60's, though I'm certainly old enough to write about those days.  It's about the latest Making Art! challenge going on at the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group.

Every week our fearless leader Lori posts a challenge based on a project from one of Wendy's books.  This week, the original piece was a wall hanging, it contained MANY grungepaper flowers, and one non-floral piece that had been "perfectly pearled."  That is all the information required to join in.  You don't even have to own the book.  Though you really should.

Now, I'm not really all that much into flowery stuff, though I do enjoy assembling grungepaper flowers, but I do like this one, and think that in spite of all the vegetation it isn't overly girly.  And no disrespect meant towards those who like girly.  I love diversity.  Diversity is my middle name (well, actually it is Ruth, but you get my point); diversity is a good thing.  In art and in life.  But, as usual, I digress.  Here is my wall hanging, inspired by the beautiful work of Miz Vecchi:

A few details:   The base is chipboard from Stampin' Up.  The bottom section was gessoed, then colored with fired brick distress stain, then stamped with a Wendy floral border in coffee archival ink.

The top section (what makes it look like a gear) was also gessoed, colored with vintage photo distress stain, then covered with rock candy crackle paint.

As for the flowers, the top one was cut with Tim's tattered florals die, inked with wild honey and fired brick distress inks, and then stamped in black archival ink with one of Wendy's backgrounds.  Below it are two grungepaper roses.  The larger one was done using Wendy's technique of first covering the GP with white pigment ink and then inking with distress ink, which creates a new, more pastel shade.  It was then inked with another background stamp.   The smaller GP rose was inked with fired brick, stamped with another background stamp, then covered with some rock candy distress stickles.  The last flower, the small one with the leaves, was stamped on GP (Wendy's stamps, of course), colored with distress ink and cut out.  Some small idea-ology foliage pieces are in the center.

The butterflies are from Tim's new mini dies (movers and shapers) and they were both inked and then sprayed with a perfect pearls concoction (vintage photo reinker + heirloom gold perfect pearls + water).  I attached little keys for the bodies.

The sentiment is also a Wendy stamp; I just cut the words apart so they would fill the space better.