Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - Letter E & Artful Times: Spots and Stripes / Circles and Straight Lines

I feel as if I've been away forever! I finally got out of hospital on Wednesday27th Feb and I thought I'd been in there for 12 months, not days. A huge thank you to all those people who sent good wishes - they were much appreciated. Trace: you are a star for all the support you gave me - it meant a great deal.
Unfortunately, I missed one of the Alpha Challenge's at the Craft Barn whilst I was ill. I was halfway through the piece when I left, so this is the first crafting I have done since coming home. Apart from attending my monthly class with the talented Andy Skinner - with that in my sights, how could I not get better?!!
If you haven't joined in with the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge yet, it's not too late as you can join in at any time.

For the letter E, I chose the word 'Enlarge'. I used some Crafty Individuals stamps to portray the notion of the flowers enlarging as they grow. Various stamps with forms of measurement were used in the background, along with a few stencils.

I've also realised that my dictionary journal pages will fit the challenge at Artful Times this fortnight. Their theme is spots/stripes & circles and straight lines - plenty of those in my background! If you haven't been to Artful Times before, you should pop over and link up an entry - everyone is always really friendly there.

I found these pages quite hard to photograph so my apologies - they could have been better I'm sure!

Double page spread showing the chosen word 'enlarge' with its' definition.

The flowers were stamped, painted with distress and a waterbrush then embossed with clear powder.

The chosen word was highlighted with a die cut which was layered with stamping, embossing with white and a final layer of clear powder. Some brads finish the look. The text has been left uninked to highlight the definition.

A label maker was used to make the text for the definition on the facing page.

Die cut letters in varying sizes were inked, stamped with the flower stamps randomly and embossed with either white or clear powder. Each letter was outlined with a white gel pen.

The inky background was made using distress inks, acrylic paint, stamps and stencils to achieve depth and interest. 

The flowers were arranged in size order to show the 'enlarging/growing' process. Gel pen arrows show the cycle of growth/enlargement.

Some of the stencilled circles were highlighted using a gold gel pen. In this image the following methods are visible in the background: stamping with archival; stamping with various distress colours; sponged distress inks; stencil work with acrylics and gel pen use.