Time to see what Lynne has to share with us

Good morning crafters, I hope you are all OK and keeping warm this this cold weather.

It's time for our mid month inspirational post and this time it's my pleasure to introduce our team member Lynne, she has done a very good job of explaining what it's all about so I won't keep chattering away and pass you straight over to her.......................

"Our current mid-month challenge for the DT is to choose our five favourite stamps, and make something using some or all of them. Five stamps??! I have hundreds, if not thousands, of stamps in my collection! How could I possibly choose five favourites?! If I were to think in terms of favourite stamps, it would probably be my newest,  or whatever I happened to be working with at the time. However, let's try and narrow it down a bit. My favourite topics are nature themed - trees, butterflies, flowers, grasses, country scenes, etc. - so my preferred stamps are likely to come from those categories. I could pick any of Chocolate Baroque's flowers or butterflies, for instance, or just about anything at all by Inkylicious. I tried to make a short list, but by the time I was on to the third A4 sheet (of narrow-lined paper!) I gave up!

In the end I decided to think about which stamps I find myself reaching for most often and have selected five of those. That was today. Tomorrow it could very well be a different five!

Anyway, here's what I've made. As well as the stamps, three of my cards also use diecuts, to reflect this month's challenge theme of Dies & Punches. Don't get me started on favourite dies....!

My first card uses one of my oldest stamps, a butterfly by Hero Arts. The original is wood mounted, since then I have also acquired clear and cling versions! To me it's just the perfect butterfly, both in shape, and scope for colouring.

Next another oldie, by Funstamps, bought over 20 years ago in 1994! I often use this as it's perfect for one of my favourite techniques; using a waterbrush to draw the ink out of the stamped image to colour it in, as I have done here.

My third stamp is probably in danger of becoming worn out, I have used it so often! It makes a regular appearance not just on Christmas cards, but all year round, although sometimes you wouldn't recognise it as it can make excellent little bushes or shrubs when turned on its side. This card, though, shows it in full glory. The background tree group is from the same Stampin' Up set, and I almost chose that stamp as my favourite instead of the single tree. But I think I've used the single one more. 

My final two choices are both by Inkylicious. It was really hard just to pick two of theirs, as I love ALL their nature stamps. Stamp No. 4 is a fairly new one, which combines trees and grasses into a scene but which can have  different looks according to how the background is done, so it was high on my list. (The pheasant is by Clarity Stamp, and was cut out and added afterwards.)

Finally, Stamp No.5. I've saved the best till last! You probably won't be surprised to find that this one was top of my list right from the start, and if I had to choose my single most favourite stamp ever, this would be it! It is, of course, the Old Beech Tree - "my" tree, the one I see every day across the fields from my house, and which Deby at Inkylicious so cleverly turned into a stamp for me.

Full details of all the cards will be on my blog. I've really enjoyed choosing my five "favourite" stamps, and thanks for looking at them"

Thank you for taking the time to inspire us with your creations Lynne.