Spring Flower Necklace

Hello everybody, it's Toni here. The project I want to share with you today is something which came to me as I was dropping off to sleep the other night ! Last month, I received one of Wendy Vecchi's Stamp It Stencil It flowers from the lovely Kim at eclectic Paperie. I've been pretty busy lately, but yesterday, I managed to grab an afternoon in my craft room. It didn't take long for me to get to grips with the stamping and stencilling method. It's so quick and easy! You know that Wendy, she's a genius! I went to bed thinking about my afternoon session and the idea for this necklace gradually evolved. So today, I couldn't wait to get started. This is how it began...

 I stamped out several flowers onto a piece of lightweight white card, with black Archival ink. I gave them a quick blast with my heat tool before overlaying the stencil and colouring the flowers with Archival inks, applied with a blending tool. I used some snippets of Post Its to hold the stencil in place.

Still using the stencil, I stamped over the flowers, with various background stamps from my stash, in true Wendy style. Once again I set the inks with my heat gun. My next task was to cut out each flower and adhere them to a piece Wendy's Clearly for Art modelling film. This was for me, totally experimental. I used Helmar-450 Clear adhesive, and wasn't at all sure what would happen when I applied heat!

 I adhered the Clearly For Art transparent film, to the back of each flower and cut them out. I then adhered another piece on the top and really pressed down to spread the glue and remove any air pockets, I used a soft cloth and a burnishing tool. This didn't seem to affect the Clearly For Art, I thought it might leave scratch marks but it's very resilient. After trimming around the flowers for a second time, I heated each one separately, and moulded the petals. I could see the glue bubbling slightly with the heat but I just pressed down on the surface to smooth it out. If you look very closely,you can see a feint patterning from the glue, but it looks like a bit of spritz and flick, intentional? of course it is!

I added some vintage pearls, studs and crystals to decorate the flower centres. I used a small hand punch to make holes in the flowers so that I could link them together with jump rings. The chain was salvaged from my stash of 'junk jewellry'. I often buy bits and bobs from second hand or cheap shops.

Here's a close up showing how the flowers are linked together. Well, this was a fun project to make and I must say I'm pretty pleased with the results. Even my son said he liked it when I was trying it on ! x
If you'd like to have a go at something like this, you can find many of the supplies I've used in Kim's Fabulous eclectic Paperie shop. Click on any of the thumbnails below to be transported straight there. Oh! and don't forget there's still time to join in with the ePlay Challenge the subject is 'Wood' and full details can be found on the eclectic Paperie blog. There are some wonderful entries!

Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Stamp It Stencil It - Build a Blossom	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Dandelion	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Red Geranium	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Orange Blossom	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Fern Green
Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 Archival Ink - Potting Soil	Studio 490 - Clearly for Art	Ranger Heat It Craft Tool	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Ranger - Mini Ink Blending Tool
Ranger - Mini Ink Blending Tool Replacement Foam	HELMAR-450 Quick Dry Adhesive