Simply Slim (by Lesley)

I'm getting a bit of a reputation for doing blue flowers - it's actually become quite a joke (and possibly one of my signature creations). So as you can imagine I couldn't resist using the Harebell Butterfly stamp set, at least the flowers are meant to be blue this time.

First fold a piece of A5 white card in half and mask off a strip 1.5" wide. TIP - use a wide masking tape as this allows you to colour without the fear of spreading the inks over the rest of your card.

Using Cut 'n Dry foam colour the whole of the strip with Adirondack Pool; then blend Adirondack Clover over the top for two thirds of the strip. Finally, blend Peacock Feathers Distress ink from the bottom to half way up the strip. Heat set to make sure the ink is dry.

Ink up the smaller of the script stamps from the Eccentric Edwardian set with Archival Aquamarine and stamp randomly all the way down the strip. Next ink up the harebell image with Memento Tuxedo Black and stamp at an angle as illustrated. Heat set again and then colour with pencils of your choice.

Using Tuxedo Black stamp the smallest butterfly from the Briar Rose Butterfly set onto a scrap of good quality white paper (I used 160gsm). Heat set, colour with pencils and cut out.

Finally, remove the msking tape and stamp the sentiment Just To Say from the Mackintosh Sentiments clear stamp set. Attach a tiny sliver of Ultra Bond 3mm Tape to the body of the butterfly and position on the card as shown.

As an alternative to creating this design as a card you could take a single piece of card measuring approximately 3" wide, make a bookmark and add a tassle or ribbon to finish.

There's a riot of colourful projects following behind me this month; to make sure you don't miss anything please call back each day.

Steampunk Script Flowers (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, I have another steampunk project to show you today, using the Punky Flowers stamp set. I have used a round canvas to which I added some texture through a stencil and then painted with acrylic paint. I stuck some pages from a cheap Thesaurus to some grungepaper, and coloured these with Pan Pastels. I then stamped some of the flower images from the stamp set onto the grungepaper and cut them out. I dipped the flowers into my Melt Pot to get a clear coating over them. I also stamped several leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set onto the grungepaper and cut these out as well.

To complete the canvas background, I stamped parts of a script stamp from the Eccentric Edwardian stamp plate using a brown ink pad, and brushed some metallic cream over the raised areas. As I assembled the canvas, I added some die cut silver cogs, some stamped cog trees, and some metal coils.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Steampunk mannequin (posted by Judith)

Hi Folks, here's another offering combining the new Haberdashery stamp plate, and the Lace Fragments stamp plate. I've thrown some old favourites in there as well, and I'll tell you about those as I go along.

I wanted to give a steampunk feel to one of the mannequins, and set about gathering some of the other stamps that I love to use to add to the background. I created a wrinkle free distress background, using Distress Stains in Tumbled Glass and Antique Linen. Then I stamped one of the Lace Fragment stamps all over the background. I added a cog stamp from Steampunk Christmas using Perfect Medium and bronze mica powder, and a script stamp from Eccentric Edwardian. I edged the background with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I stamped, coloured and cut out the mannequin, and part of the heart with wings from Punky Romance, it was a perfect fit behind the mannequin.  I stamped the word 'imagine' onto shrink plastic, cut it out with a Nestie shape, and shrunk it down, before sticking it onto a piece of spare coloured background card. I added a cog with some jump rings. I stuck some mini cogs onto the mannequin's skirt. I embossed and coloured a mannequin using an embossing folder, then cut this out.

To finish, I added another metal cog for balance, and matted my background onto brown card. In real life, the wings are very dimensional, and the cogs shine, as the mica really reflects the light.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx