Love Birds Floral Tag

- by Anita Houston

Hello everybody who loves flowers! Anita Houston here, of The Artful Maven Haven, to bring you a tutorial for making this Love Birds Floral Tag using tons of Wendy Vecchi goodness. I was inspired to create this tag, because over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group, the 4oth challenge was to use her technique for achieving a cracked glass look. I have done this several times, and love the end product of having a mini vase for flowers to use on my projects.

Cracked Glass

Step 1 I have used Wendy Vecchi's Cracked Glass Technique on plastic and glass. First, I primed my piece with Glue N Seal. I've used gesso before and that worked for me, but every surface is different. Here I used the plastic packaging from a Vintaj Glaze packaging because it was shaped like a bottle cut in half, and that is what I was looking for. I made sure to coat my piece well, not dripping but not sparse either. I set it aside to dry completely, which was about 30 to 45 minutes.







Step 2  After he piece was dry, I applied a heavy coat (this was dripping) of Distress Crackle in Rock Candy. I set it aside to dry for several hours.











Step 3 After the Rock Candy was completely dry and my half of a vase was covered in gorgeous cracks, I sprayed Perfect Pearls Mist in Forever Violet about three times. I turned the vase slightly making sure all cracks were filled in. I gave it a quick blast from the heat tool to make sure it was completely dry. Perfect Pearls Mists dry very quickly though and work on so many surfaces. My vase was now ready to go.

The Background

Step 4 Using a jumbo sized tag (8 x 4), I swiped Crushed Olive Distress Ink across it several times by just using the pad right onto the tag. This created a very interesting design and color that I can't get using an inking tool. It looks like I've used some sort of texture tool when I didn't. Then using an ink blending tool I lightly filled in the spots that were still manila looking with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. This created a lovely vintage coloration.







Step 5 I used Wendy Vecchi's Art Rules Stamp Set image of 'the row of mini flowers' with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. I stamped the image going vertically about 1 1/2 inches apart going from top to bottom. I dried this with a heat tool to set it after I finished stamping. Then I flicked water from a spritzer, using my hand in a cupped position and then I opened my fingers and just flicked. This created larger and smaller beads of water. I applied heat from the heat tool, and watched as the water spots bleached the ink. This gave my background a very vintage feel.






Step 6 I used Liquid Pearls in Orchid to dot the middle of each flower on the background. I set this aside to dry about 10 minutes. It now looks like vintage wallpaper like Grandma used to have!

Step 7 Using Wendy Vecchi's "In Love With Art" stamp set image of 'knitted lace tablecloth' with Dusty Concord Distress Ink, I stamped the image onto Specialty Stamping Paper. This paper allows every detail of the stamp to be seen. It is so crisp and professional looking. I use this paper for all my very detailed images now. I gave this a drying with the heat gun to prevent any smearing of ink. I cut the image out and inked the edges with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink. The two purples gave nice contrast and shadowing to the image. I adhered this to the bottom of my tag using Glue N Seal, and cut the over hanging edges off. All of the edges of the tag were inked in Seedless Preserves as well.

The Floral Arrangement

Step 8 I used 2 pieces of jute to make a nest for my two little love birds, which I purchased in the floral section at Hobby Lobby. I separated several twisted strands of jute and formed them into a nest shape. They stuck together by themselves, so there was no need for adhesive. I placed the birds into the nest and adhered them with Glossy Accents.











Step 9  I used a Prima Decorative Border piece in Flowered Tendrils Grape, as my main vine for the arrangement. I used the tiny attacher to adhere it to the tag, making sure to hide the staples under flowers so they would not be seen. I arranged all my vines the way I wanted, then adhered extra purple roses from Prima's Sugar Blooms Reflection set using Glossy Accents.









Step 10  I needed some leaves as fillers, but I didn't have any, so I cut the petals off of a large spare green Prima flower that I had for years. I arranged these around the purple roses and adhered them with Glossy Accents as well. The bright color green added great contrast to the already attached olive green leaves.






Step 11  I used round shaped pliers to curl the ends of each of my vines. This added a bit of whimsy to the arrangement as well as really finished off the look.

The Finishing Touches

Step 12 To add my sentiment I used Wendy Vecchi's Sentimental Art Stamp Set image of 'happy ending'. I stamped it with Dusty Concord on to Specialty Stamping Paper, cut it out, and then inked the edges in Seedless Preserves. I adhered it to the vines of the arrangement so it would be raised as if I used foam tape.











Step 13 I cut a strip of seam binding about 14 inches long, and inked it with Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves, on both the front and the back.












I spritzed the ribbon with water and scrunched it up while drying with a heat tool. This creates a very shabby chic looking ribbon with a vintage feel...almost like it's been used so many times before. I tied this to my tag. And, to completely finish the tag, I adhered the Cracked Glass vase to the tag using Glossy Accents.

The Completed Tag

Anita Houston is a design team member for Frilly and Funky and Our Creative Corner.  She is also a 2012 guest designer for Artistic Outpost.  A self-proclaimed dabbler in "scrap-booking, mixed media art, painting, crafting, photography, cooking and baking, and the general hand dirtying fun", Anita and her lovely artwork can be found on her blog - The Artful Maven Haven.