Pinch and a punch for the first of the month .....

Happy Friday .......

And welcome to April.
I hope you all had a nice Easter ..... not too many of those chocolate eggs I hope.

I've had a lovely relaxing week, hubby's been off work, Lauren and the little man have been away on holiday so we've had the place to ourselves.  We've made full use of the nice weather we've been having, lots of eating out, and I even squeezed in a crafty get together with the girls.  It has been a little quiet around here though ...... but that will change later this evening ..... they're all back on the island at 8 o'clock.

It's the first Friday of a new month and you all know what that means .......oh yes, a brand new challenge over on the Craft Stamper Blog.
It's the turn of Take a Technique this month ....... or I suppose you could call it more of a theme rather than a technique ....... it's all about SPRING FLOWERS

So ..... use stamped flowers on your projects, or real ones if you fancy!  Cover your art with flower embellishments, or create beautiful blooms from paper or fabric.  Go flower crazy or, keep things clean and simple ..... it's entirely up to you.  Just remember to include some stamping on there too.

Our sponsor this month is Traplet .... the home of Craft Stamper magazine,  and boy have they got a fabulous prize for the challenge winner ........ it's HUGE!!!!!
Take a look at this .....

ALL SIX Kate Crane Art Journaling DVD's ...... wish I could enter!!!

Here's a little bit of inspiration for you to get you started ......

I love this brand new set of stamps from Happy Little Stampers ..... Doodled Flowers.  The blooms are so pretty and you also get a nice selection of sentiments on the set too.

I've simply stamped the blooms across the top of a piece of white card using a black Versafine ink, and then coloured them using Distress Inks and a little water

You can see I've masked some of the flowers before stamping, to give a bit of depth and then I also cut around the top edge of the flowers to add a bit more interest

The large flower has been stamped again onto a separate piece of card, coloured, fussy cut and layered to add a bit of dimension

I used a black marker to draw in the stems and then stamped the leaves from the Doodles Flowers set and coloured them using my  Distress Inks again

A sentiment stamped, and added to the front of the card finishes off the front

And then there's more of those pretty blooms inside the card ......

I can see this set of stamps being well loved in the old craft room,..... pretty designs, easy to cut out and layer and great for adding colour to

Now it's over to you.  Create something fabulous and floral and get your entries in before April 27th to be in with a chance of winning that amazing prize.

Don't forget there's also the Design Winner too .... chosen by the DT.  Their prize will be .....
- their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine
- they will be invited to be a Guest Designer on a future Craft Stamper Blog Challenge
- and they'll get a Winners Profile published on the Craft Stamper Blog!

Remember ......... you can enter up to 3 times but ,only ONE project per blog post please.  There must be a link to the Craft Stamper Challenge Blog and a link back to your actual blog post, not just your blog, on each entry.  
Happy stamping ...... and good luck!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day and have a fabulous weekend.

I think I'm going to be spending a little bit of time in the old craft room over the weekend.  Hubby bought me a great unit with 60 drawers in it, perfect for holding all my rubber stamps (well .... maybe not all of them!!)  
Now I just have to decide what goes where and what categories I'm going to split them all into ..... wooden stamps, cling and clear.  Do I keep them by individual company ...... individual style like cute, grungy, vintage etc.  Do I split sets up or keep them together ...... do all my JOFY go in one drawer (hmmm ...... make that two!), all my Tim Holtz in another (better keep three for that collection!) .... you get my drift!  I'm going to be busy I think.

Cheerio until next time.

Linda

xx