Spring Means Butterflies by Sue West

Hello once again.

Time for my second spot this month as guest designer.  With spring in the air I have used the Insects and Butterflies No.1 stamp, which has just got some lovely finely detailed images to use. In fact, I like this stamp so much I have made both a small picture and a notebook.

First of all the picture.

First I stamped a butterfly onto some paper from my stash using Coffee Archival Ink. Next I glued some Clearly for Art to the top of a small  Wendy Vecchi Artpart frame before covering with some more paper which I've sanded and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give it a shabby look.  Next I attached a mini bookplate to the base of the frame, and slipped in a Latin butterfly name cut from the Tim Holtz Crowded Attic Paperstack.  Then, before gluing the frame to the base I popped in a few sparkly bits and a couple of tiny charms, and made a double loop of twine to hang the finished project.

While I had this stamp set out I also made a small note book as a gift for a friend.

For this I've recycled some packaging from Amazon to make the covers. I cut two postcard size pieces of card for the front and back covers and then cut an aperture in the front cover. Both bits of card are covered with paper, and then I've used a contrasting paper to stamp some more of those lovely butterflies and insects on, again using coffee Archival Ink, and used this paper to line both the front and back covers. 

On the outer part of the front cover I've used the A5 Swirls Splats and Dots stamp, again stamped in coffee Archival Ink. The tiny grass hoppers are embossed in a coppery colour, and the edges of the covers are inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The inside pages are made from watercolour paper aged with Antique Linen Distress Stain and stamped with more insect images and swirls, splats and dots.

I've used a Bind-it-All to finish off my notebook, but it would work just as well with punched holes and some pretty ribbon to bind it together.  Final finishing touches are some twine tied and curled around the binding rings and some bits of Idea-ology.

Sue x