Letters or Numbers ........ or it could be both!

Hello there, it's me again .........

I'm doing a little happy dance around the craft room today.
No, I haven't been on the bubbly celebrating my birthday again ....... I'm one of the Guest Designers  on this month's Country View Crafts Challenge Blog.
Thanks for having me guys!

The theme for March is .......  Letters and/or Numbers
A fun one right.  If you think about it, nearly everything we create has either letters or numbers on there somewhere, sometimes there's even both.
Take cards for instance ....... all those sentiments, they're letters.
Personalising something ..... you use letters then, or numbers maybe to mark a special birthday.
Do you use script stamps or alphabet stencils to create backgrounds ...... there you go!  The list is endless.

I decided to use some die cut Letters on my project, to create some cute little painted wooden blocks to use as a home decor piece ......

These are just off cuts of wood, roughly about the size of an ATC (2.5 by 3.5 inches and about an inch deep)

I gave them all a quick coat of white gesso and then painted them using some blue acrylic paint.

A little dry brushing with a touch of Snowflake Fresco Finish paint around the edges gives them a little shabby look.

I decided to add some detail here and there, using texture paste and a brickwall stencil, which I then painted over using the same blue paint, and highlighted with some Treasure Gold gilding wax once it was dry

The letters were die cut three times from plain white cardstock, layered together to make them more dimensional and then painted with the blue paint, before attaching them to the fronts of my blocks.

To make them stand out a little more I rubbed each one with a little of the gilding wax.
And to finish off I added a cute painted wooden heart

I also decorated the backs of the blocks just in case they end up on a window ledge and can be seen from the outside!

I used JOFY's pretty flower stamp (JOFY Mini 59).  I stamped it randomly across the backs of the blocks and heat embossed with a clear powder

I then used the Fresco Finish paints and a waterbrush to colour the blooms, and added a few drops of crystal lacquer to the centres

I did stamp the side too ......

And a few splatters of black and white paint finishes off the blocks

Now I just have to find somewhere to put them!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
Dont forget to check out the Country View Crafts Challenge Blog for more fabulous inspiration using Letters and/or Numbers.
The challenge is open until the end of March so there's still time to play along.

Cheerio until next time .....

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

Happy Friday!

Welcome to March.  I know ........ what happened to February?!!
This last week or so has flown by although I did have a funny few days.  I really wasn't well .... I must have been bad, because I actually went to the doctors!!  It was nothing serious ........ a course of antibiotics, all the tests came back normal and I'm right as rain again.

March is always a good month though .... it's my birthday for starters!  Then we have Mother's Day in the UK at the end of the month, and Spring is on it's way too!  Although I must say, it felt like it was already here earlier in the week .... the weather was gorgeous.  We had our first Barbeque of the year ..... in February, can you believe it!!  Notice I said 'was' ...... it's all cold and misty again now.  Oh well .... it was nice while it lasted.   At least the clocks go forward again at the end of this month, for us anyway.  British Summer Time begins ...... something to look forward too!

The start of a new month also means new Blog challenges.
As well as all my regular posts/challenges this month, I'm thrilled to say that I have a Guest Designer Spot for the Country View Crafts Blog Challenge .

The March challenge gets underway today and the theme is a real fun one ......

Letters and/or Numbers

To join in with the challenge all you have to do is ..... create a card, a journal page,  ATC's or coins, even a home decor project maybe.  It can be anything you like, in any style, as long as it follows the challenge theme.
You can find all the details on the Country View Challenge Blog along with lots of fabulous inspiration from their amazing Design Team.

Here's a little look of what I've created ....... you can see I've gone for Letters.

EDITED :  You can find out more about how this came about by clicking here for all the details

Watch this space for a closer look at how it came about.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day and have a lovely weekend!
Let the birthday celebrations begin!

Cheerio until next time .....

Guest Designer at Country View Crafts Challenge Blog

Good morning! ...... and a very Happy Friday to you.

It's soon come around this week ...... because of the Bank Holiday I suppose! It should be a nice quiet weekend though .... it's hubby's turn to fly across to the UK.  He's going over for a guys get together ..... so it's bound to get messy!! Glad I'm not going.

Anyway, to get the weekend underway, I'm absolutely thrilled to be today's Guest Designer over on the Country View Crafts Challenge Blog.

This month's challenge theme is .....

 Simply Scenic

There's already been lots of fabulous inspiration for you through the month and today it's my turn.

Summer is on its way, so I'm told ..... and with that in mind my take on this month's challenge is .... a piece of home decor, with a pretty little summer meadow scene .....

This is so simple to do and the picture inside can be changed to suit the seasons throughout the year. Would make a lovely little gift too!
There's some fabulous shabby chic picture frames around, and not that expensive, it's what you put inside them that matters.

I cut a piece of white cardstock to fit the aperture then added some colour using Distress Inks ..... pretty shades of blue to create my summer sky ........

I spritzed the ink with a little water, let it sit for a while then removed the excess with paper towel removing some of the ink as well.

I then stamped the flowers across the bottom using a black Archival ink.  This particular image is from IndigoBlu ..... Wild Flowers and is one of my favourites.  Depending on how you colour the flowers they could be anything ..... buttercups, poppies you name it!

I decided NOT to add colour this time ........ instead I took more of the background colour away ...... using a paintbrush and some clean water I painted over each of the flowers, dabbed with a piece of kitchen roll and removed the ink ......

I stamped some butterflies above the flowers, once directly onto the scene and then again onto pieces of previously inked card from my scrap box ...... leftovers really from previous projects (I never throw anything away!)

I then fussy cut these and attached them over the top of the ones on my summer scene (cuts out the need to cut around the really fiddly bits like the antennae)  

I took one of the sentiments from a set of JOFY stamps (JOFY 09) and stamped it across the top ...... perfect fit (phew!)

and to finish off I used some watered down Picket Fence Distress Paint splattered over the scene using a paint brush.

I also added a touch of White Fire Treasure Gold to the ornate bit at the top of the frame ...... gives it more of an aged look I think.

I hope you like it ......... you've still got time to enter the challenge  so why not give it go.

Thanks for popping by ...... it's been a pleasure to be GD on the Country View Crafts Challenge Blog. It just so happens that Country View Crafts is my favourite online craft store ..... fab products, great prices and it's FREE  P&P (UK that is)

Have a great weekend ...... it's my turn to host our crafty get together tomorrow ..... 6 stamping mad ladies around the table (hubby's glad he's away!)  You never know we might just get something finished this week ..... there's always a first time!

Cheerio until next time

Linda

xx