Friday, April 1, 2011

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.


18 comments:

Helen said...

The boss is just about to come in and catch me, but I LOVE this! Just think, you could be in th courtroom (on jury service in case anyone reading this thinks otherwise, lol!) and not making beautiful art like this!

Candy C said...

Oh my goodness!!! Eileen...this is BEAUTIFUL! Your technique on this is perfect! <3 Candy

Tammy D said...

Very nice. I love it!

Becky T. said...

Love it! :-)

Marjie Kemper said...

Looks great! Love how many different flowers you used.

Vic said...

I love your flowers! You rocked it!

Alexandra said...

Wow, I love this Eileen. It's gorgeous. Alexandra

france papillon said...

that's a yummi piece! love the contrast between the gear-looking piece and the flower power side of it. and the combination of the textures is yummi too!

SusanK said...

I don't think it's OTT girly; it's just beautiful!

jane said...

Really, really like this wall hanging. Someday, I'd like to try these flowers.

Art By Wanda said...

Eileen, your hanging is fabulous!!!!! Great job!!!!!

Lori said...

Gorgeous! Absolutely love this! And thank you for joining these challenges!

Debby said...

Nice job on this! Love how you made the top covering look like a gear.

patzee2000 said...

Wow! You've got those flowers exploding out of the wall hanging. Super groovy!

Bearcrazyman said...

In a word....Fabulous!

Truly Lori said...

Wow! For a "non" girly girl, you ROCKED this one! You even used some girly colors AND made some awesome flowers & then grunged it up just enough to appeal to those of us (myself included) that are tomboys at heart.

Love how it turned out!

Diann said...

It is a wonderful wall hanging and I love your flowers that are not too girly! Diann

Shelly Hickox said...

I could swear I commented on this, but I don't see my comment. Anyway, I am totally in love with what you've done here! Your colors and choice of stamps, etc. are perfect. The bird is just too dang cool. Fantastic piece all around!