GD: Penny Nuttall Project #2 Flamingo Pond

"Hello again, Penny here! Welcome to our next adventure in 3-D without the silly specs! My immediate thought when I saw this smashing set of stamps designed by Darcy was that every flamingo needs a pond (well a lake really). So here it is".

This base construction can be adapted for all sorts of themes and styles. First cut out circles from card stock (coloured or painted) with the following diameters:1 mount board 15cm, 1 blue card 15cm, 1 green 12.5cm, 2 green 10cm, 2 green 7cm. Score and fold blue and all green circles in half.

Sponge the blue circle with Fresco Finish Paints Antarctic and Sky to look like choppy water.

Stamp the pond plants from the stamp set EDY05 in black Archival Ink and colour with paint Yellow Submarine, Eggplant and Tinned Peas then highlight with a white gel pen.

On the green circles, stamp grasses and leaves and colour as shown ( I used marker pens for this fine detail).

Then assemble the circles.You will need a needle and doubled thread for this.

First the largest green onto the blue. Line up the folds to match, pierce a hole through the two layers in the centre and then two more holes either side on the fold, about 1.5cm apart. With the thread knot at the back, sew up through the centre hole, out to the edge and back, then out to the other edge and back and tie off underneath.

Fold that layer to one side and repeat stitching with a next sized green circle offset by 0.5cm.

And again. Now fold everything across the opposite way and complete the other side to match.

Great! It all holds itself up nicely! Now Mr Flamingo. Stamp, colour and cut out side number 1. Problem......the bird only faces one way and we are doing 3-D so he needs to be seen all round. Answer.......reverse stamping. I tried a few ways of doing this but the most successful was to use something called EasyCut lino. It is made for lino cutting but it is smoother and softer than the traditional kind. Stamp Mr Flamingo onto the EasyCut and while the ink is still wet, use it to make a print on your card.

This print is never quite as black as the original but it is pretty good. When coloured and placed back to back you get a double sided Flamingo. I was at this point going to simply stand him in the bottom of the centre circle but he was a bit too short to see over the grass. So.. make a grassy mound using a 7cm circle folded as shown and glue that in with him on top.

Lastly, add the flowers and bullrushes (this stamp set has so much in it!), shaping the petals and moving the structure round as you go to get a good balance when seen from all directions.

I glued the whole thing to the mount board circle for stability and added a cotton reel stand.

Hope you have managed to get to the end of this long post. Enjoy and please come back tomorrow.

 ~Penny~

Leandra Says: I love the shading on all the elements, and what a fun thing to make, quirky, just like Darcy's stamps!

Gillian Says: The blues/greens mimicking the pond and foliage is simply brill, another quirky but fab papercraft project Penny.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Penny's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday May 25th 2014