Sunflower Spool (posted by Judith)

Hi folks, the weather is warming up nicely now, and there's no better time of year to be working with Glenda's fabulous new stamps 'Sunny Sunflowers'. The bold blooms are just lovely for all sorts of projects and full of detail.

I decided for my first project that I would combine the stamps with one of Lesley Wharton's super Downloads; Patterned Spools set 5, which is a lovely gold and plum colour combination. I had a wooden cotton reel that was about the perfect size for the project I had in mind, and I set about firstly priming this with gesso, and painting it a soft lilac colour. I nearly always mix my own colours by combining a cream acrylic paint with a darker colour until I get the colour I want. I make sure that I have enough paint to finish my project though, as you never get the colour the same second time around! I then printed two of the spool sets onto card, and stuck two of the correct size together so that they would fit around the cotton reel. I edged the card with a little bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I then stuck the downloads to the cotton reel.

I stamped three smaller flowers, and several leaves, colouring these with Distress Markers, toning the colours in with the download colours. I also stamped a couple of tiny Butterflies from the 'Just Butterflies' stamp plate, and coloured these in as well. I stuck the flowers around the cotton reel, adding the leaves, and one of the butterflies.

My next step was to move onto shrink plastic, and stamp a larger flower, and two of the smaller flowers. I also stamped two leaves and two more butterflies, choosing a larger size this time. I sanded the shrink plastic before I stamped the images, to give a bit of tooth to the surface. I coloured the images with pencils, and punched a hole in all of them except the large single flower.

I placed the large flower with two leaves that I had coloured on card earlier and the last remaining small butterfly onto the top of the cotton reel over a circle download. I punched a hole into the middle of the download where the hole in the cotton reel was situated.

My Husband very kindly provided me with a metal rod with three wires which he had attached through holes along the top part of the rod. I bent these to look like branches, and stuck beads on the end, and inserted the rod into the hole in the cotton reel, turning it into an earring holder.

I added leftover beads and jewellery findings to the shrink plastic images that I had made and hung these on my little 'tree'.

Here's a close up picture of the earrings:

I hope that I have shown you just how versatile these lovely stamps can be. Keep popping back to see what my Design team mates have made with the stamps over the coming days, Judith xx