Scrapbooking Convention 2011 (continued)

This is Wendy Vecchi. She is one of Ranger's Senior Educator. She also designs art stamps and art parts. Her rubber stamps line is called Studio 490.  http://studio490art.blogspot.com/

I hounded this lady at the convention and she was nice enough to deal with me for 2 hours while I hung out at her table. She demonstrated her new product, Clearly for Art. It's pretty cool. The only way I can think of describing it is that it looks and feels like malleable Shrinky Dinks but it doesn't shrink. You can stamp on it, cover it, cut it, bend it, glue it, reheat and re-bend it. It doesn't tear apart like grungeboard which is the main feature. For her demonstration she created a flower and curled the petals. Then re-heated it with a heat gun and uncurled the petals.

While I sat at the table Wendy told us the difference between archival ink and distress ink. She told us that archival ink is permanent and distress ink can be changed with water. An example is if you create a card and want to stamp words on it make sure you use archival ink. If you use distress ink and spray water on it then the words will run with the water.  She also said that she uses a glaze pen for little touches because it adds dimension and is not too glossy. Wendy doesn't like straight ruler lines either. She likes free-hand lines and squiggles. When she teaches class she encourages people to get messy and make mistakes (Wendy didn't say those exact words Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus did).

I asked her how hard is it to part with her work because I have a hard time giving my stuff away. She told us a story of years ago how she spent months decorating the outside wrap of the gifts for her co-workers. When they opened the gifts ALL but 2 people ripped the paper while opening the gifts. She was like aaghhhh! Months of work gone in seconds. Only 2 people carefully opened the gifts and saved Wendy's hard work. I was in shock. What kind of dummy does that? Clearly it was hand-made wrapping. She said that was a lesson learned.

After hours Wendy finally caved in and gave me one of her tags.

Wendy used the glaze pen for the dots on the flowers, the buds on the stems and the border. See how the border is not straight - she likes it that way.

Here's some of Wendy's work that was on display. I spent so much time at her booth that I barely saw the last 2 rows at the convention but it was well worth it.  I  have a lot of pictures with the bald head because I bought the stamp.   

Some of the pics are blurry because I was trying to hold my purse and multiple bags of goodies. So heavy!