When I return to the hotel tonight, I will post a great way to recycle your unwanted wood blocks; I know some of you take the rubber off of your wood block and throw the block away. The idea comes from Helene's friend in England, Jane, who represents Magenta there. The idea could change how you look at many of the wood-mount stamps at Recycled Rubber tomorrow!


From the Magenta website:

First you need two or three punches with five petals flower motifs. Punch three of the big one, two of the medium and one or two of the small one, depending of the size you want to obtain. For the small flowers, I didn't have a punch small enough, so I cutted the tip of the petals of the medium size. Then, you need glue, a small vaporising bottle filled with water, ink of your choice and a paintbrush or wood stick.

Big Flower:

Small Flower:

Once your flowers are punched, inked the edge of the petals :

Generously spray water on each flower to make the paper easy to manipulate :

With the tip of your paintbrush, roll the petals to give them a rounded shape :

Keep the petal on the brush and pinch each side to make it crumple. Careful if the paper is not wet enough it will rip.

On a foam mat press the tip of the paintbruch at the center of the flower to make it curve.

L

et the flowers dry completely after that, then you'll be able to assemble them.

To assemble, glue the flowers by alternating the petals spacing. I found it easier to do all the flowers of one size first and then glue the different sizes together :

Once your assembling is done, you can leave the tip of the petals round or pinch them to give it another look. Then you can ink them again to pop details up :

For the very small flowers, I only used the small punch size. I modified the tip of the petals with scissors.

Take each petal and crumple it :

Use the tip of a paintbrush to curve the flower and make the assembling easier :

Apply glue and use the tip of a paintbrush or stylus to press the layers together :

Rework the petals to shape the final flower :

Here are the final results!!!

... and possible use!!!

Emotions Papers

ME237

Emotions Papers

ME236, ME237

Stamp :

Finch & Juniper Bough - 43.052.P