It’s time for a new theme at Alphabet Challenge and the letter X (always a tricky one!) This time it’s XOXOXO or hugs & kisses – I’ve gone with a few of the smaller stamps from ClarityCrafts’ new KISS ‘just for you flowers’ set. I’m also sharing this with Festive Friday, having picked up three elements from their inspo list: supportive sentiment, clean & simple design and ink blending.

I started with one of my inky mop-up backgrounds – I can’t bear to waste ink so any left on my craft mat after blending gets spritzed with water and blotted onto Clarity’s stencil card. This one had green and peachy tones on it, so perfect for a landscape. I stamped the sentiment first, then added the leafy stem twice and the butterflies.

I used the outer part of a circle mask and lightly blended ‘tattered rose’ Distress Oxide through it to give me the sun, then added the grass with one of the ‘build-a-scene’ masks and ‘mowed lawn’ ink. I coloured the leaves and butterflies with Pergaliner pencils.

The KISS range stands for Keep It Simple Stamping, so I just ran a black Sharpie around the card edges and attached it to a 5×5 card blank – nothing else needed.

So how are you inspired by our hugs and kisses theme? There are more creative ideas from the Alphabet design team to get you started. Come and join us – we’d love to see how you interpret this week’s challenge.