Dinosaur love

My nearly 4 year old grandson is absolutely dinosaur mad. He loves everything about them. He has books that he loves hearing read to him over and over again and models which are hard and pointy but he insists on taking to bed. I have missed him so much during Lockdown but really enjoy our WhatsApp bedtime stories. Thank goodness for modern technology as we have not seen our grandkids now for over 3 months.

I zoom craft with Daisy (my 7 year old granddaughter) every Wednesday and we have made lots of fun things. She has become quite the expert stamper. What I love is that I can give her an idea and off she goes to put her own spin on it. I send her lots of crafting makes.  I send Jack occasional artist trading cards but I was conscious that I wanted to make something especially for him. Boys are quite tough to make for! Recently I found some fab dinosaur stamps for sale online at Stampers Grove which I thought would be perfect to make his April birthday card with. I bought the mini set and a couple of the larger ones and when they arrived I had a little light bulb idea that I could also make a dinosaurs' pairs game with them for Jack. I made some distress inky backgrounds, which I shared on Instagram and Facebook, and I had lots of private messages asking me to share what I planned to make. So I decided to write this blog post to share my process. If you have not found me on Instagram  just click here. I share much more now over there as it is so much quicker that writing blog posts. I also wanted to write this blog post as  a reminder post for myself.

This is what I did.

I needed a swampy background so out came my distress oxide and stain sprays. I sprayed and layered the inks and made 2 A4 sheets. I cut them into 20 pieces. Eventually I cut these down to 2 1/4 X 3 1/4" cards.

I love using oxides and stains together, they give such a cool mix.

Here are the 2 sheets all cut up and ready to stamp.

I stamped each image twice and clear embossed them. 

I added a little extra colouring with my zig pens and some white pencil for finishing touches.

I used candied apple distress ink on their edges. 

I made a simple box with a lid, using my scoring board. I stamped the Stegosaurus  (one of Jack's favourite dinosaurs) on the lid and coloured him.

My Hb helped me to print some card backs. I stuck them on to make the cards nice and rigid and finished the edges with candied apple ink. 

Below is the finished box with the cards inside.

These are a couple of my favourite pairs.

and this is what they will look like when playing the game.

I would like to enter my cards into the following challenges;

Stamping sensations 1/3 Colour my world

Creative moments anything goes

I put them in the post to Jack, with all my love. He received them yesterday and my daughter told me he was so thrilled and has already played some games with Daisy. I am so glad he likes playing with them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I hope you are all keeping well? We have had some glorious sunshine in the week. I went up to visit my sweet dinos at the park.

But in true British style today it is trying to snow!

Take care and stay safe.

Bye for now,

Jane x