Crafting with Wendy Vecchi

I had the most amazing day on Sunday in London attending none other than the uber talented Wendy Vecchi's Make Art in England workshop. For my non "art" blog friends Wendy is a Ranger designer and colleague of Tim Holtz and this was her first visit to England. I booked this workshop so long ago and could hardly believe it finally arrived. It was the most amazing sunny hot day in London and we were grateful for the air conditioning in the hotel conference room which served as the workshop for the day. Wendy was very patient having photos taken with everyone .............including me.

As well as being uber talented Wendy is such a sweet kind person and a great teacher. The project she had designed for us to made was an art box to contain 4 tags which would also be made during the day. This is Wendy showing the blank box on her left and her finished version. She had used brown tones for her sample.

We spent the morning embossing, inking and stencilling our own boxes. We were able to choose our own choice of colours.

These were the finished pieces. Wendy put them all on display to show how different things turn out.

It was great to see how plain boxes turn out so differently ,so many colour variations.
This is mine......I went for green and browns for the base colours.

 and here is  the top once I had inked up and glued on the flower decoration.

These tags are the 4 originals made by Wendy as her samples to demonstrate the various techniques. Interestingly she cuts the ends off her tags to make them less rectangular, I really think it works well.

It was so lovely to catch up with new and old blogging friends. Brenda, in the middle, who kindly sent me the next 3 photos. as my camera battery died before the end of the day and Suse with me.

Julie of Juliz Designs who I met for the first time

We were all kept very busy but lots of time for chat ;0) 

Lots of concentration going on here. Below are some of the ladies from Brenda's AVJ design team.

 Wendy gave us all a little button as a keepsake.....I will treasure this...

So here are my finished pieces with my own interpretations and add ons.  Wendy says she is always delighted to see how her ideas get translated into so many different ways. 

I love the rich colours on my box, I'm really glad I went for green as the base. Lots of stenciling and blending with archival inks. The gold embossing paste gives such a gorgeous shine.

On the top I added dots from a stamp and red to the flower pieces...it reminds me of a strawberry. 

and here are my tags 

Tag 1. I used blues and brown to make a distress ink background. I added a couple of stencils to the background. Wendy gave us the faux granite cup and saucer die pieces to which we added the white "dots". The little tea spoon was awesome. I also added some remnant rubs.

Tag 2. We were given this brilliant rose stamp and cut out and layered it for dimension. My version of this tag is quite different to Wendy's original. I used blue and red archival  ink and rubbing alcohol to make the background.

 Tag 3. The tree is a stencil, I love this and it's on my wish list. The little shed, door, flower and bird were put on tape to raise and layer.

Tag 4. Using Wendy's art parts. The background is distress inks.  I added a daisy stamp to the glove and added a pop of red too.

and one Arty shot of them all together

I would like to enter my box and tags (if they are allowed) into the following challenges;

Rhedd's Creative Sprit anything altered goes I am entering my altered box

Frilly and Funkie thing with wings my tags have plenty of wings!

Artistic stamper anything goes

Mixed Media World stencils there are lots here including the great small cross one I used on the box. Wendy also showed a great technique off setting the stencil and adding colours in tag 3 at the bottom.

Fussy and Fancy things with wings

Penny Black and More summer flowers

Try it on Tuesdays use stencils I lots and one if my favourites is the tree stencil...it's on my wish list

Papertake weekly anything goes

Love to Create anything goes mixed media

Thanks for stopping by. I am truly blessed by the friendships I have made via blogging. The crafting day "Making Art" with Wendy is a day I really treasure. I loved what we made but if I had to choose a favourite it was the actual box and tag 1...how cute is that cup, saucer and tea spoon! Thanks to Wendy and her team.....she really did  inspire me to "Make Art".

Back on Thursday with my final GDT piece for Noor...

Bye for now,

Jane x