Friday Focus - Wendy Vecchi Stamps

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Jenny here with a brand new Friday Focus. This our opportunity to share with you ideas, tips and techniques for using a specific product or range currently available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And even better news, that product then has an extra 15% discount added through the coming two weeks!

In the spotlight this time are Wendy Vecchi stamps, a real favourite with the whole Design Team. When trying to figure out a way to show them being used for a new canvas I was inspired by Wendy's own gorgeous home decor, iconic American red barns and the Folk Art/Primitive Art movements. So, from all of that here's my finished canvas (click on each image for a closer look - and trust me, you need to get in all close and personal to see the detail of these beautiful stamps!)...

The background represents those red barns, though this is one that has weathered and aged over time. I used a bunch of little wooden canvas stretcher pieces and gave them a wash with layers of Walnut Stain, Weathered Wood and Barn Door (of course!) Distress Paint, rubbing each dried layer with a wax candle to provide some resist reaction. Many of the traditional barns appear to have white door and window frames but for this I went with another American icon, the traditional picket fence. By first adding a layer of Texture Paste coloured with Potting Soil Archival Reinker through the Picket Fence stencil the perfect base was created on the uneven surface to add a layer of Crackled Texture Paste and Picket Fence Distress Paint. I couldn't resist stamping the Botanical Register background stamp using Ground Espresso Distress Paint over the top for a little detail. I love that stamp because it adds just a small amount of vintage text where it's needed (as seen HERE).

Wendy loves her flowers so I added a floral display over the background. The hearts were covered in one of Tim Holtz Textile Surfaces and the Mat Minis Flower Pot with the remains of the coloured Texture Paste. Wendy often shows how you can use parts of larger stamped images so I used the Spring Bouquet SiSi set on Newsprint paper and coloured with more Distress Paints. Once glued/sealed to some Blackout Clearly for Art they were cut out and shaped with a heat tool before being stacked and arranged. Finally I added a single phrase from the Just Say It background stamp - as well as working beautifully for a background in its own right (as shown HERE) this stamp gives you so many useful phrases all in one!

This was such a fun project to do and I hope you're inspired to check out more of Wendy's fabulous designs, especially while they are carry that extra 15% discount at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!

For now take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx