Hello. Welcome to my little crafty blog. I’m getting busy now making Father’s Day cards for friends to send, ahead of next weekend. I was asked to make a card with a train theme, and found this lovely vintage postcard style stamp from a little company in the UK called Crafty Individuals.

As usual, I took nearly as long to choose the colours as to make the whole card! I noticed the reference to London Bridge on the stamp, and so looked up which style of trains used to run from there. I found the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, which was founded in 1846 (I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you where it travelled to…!) Their livery in the late 19th century was called “Improved Engine Green”, which was actually a golden ochre colour, and so the choice was made.

I coloured the engine and the track using inks and a water brush, using ‘Wild Honey’ and ‘Black Soot’ Distress Ink and ‘Mushroom’ Adirondack Ink. It gives it more of a vintage feel, I thought.

The card design uses this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches 439 https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/

I used a yellow mat offset behind the main image to pick up the colour of the engine, and then mounted it on a large mat of black card, before putting it on a white 6×6 card blank. It’s finished off with a few Papermania dew drops in gold.

It’s now mandatory to wear a face covering when travelling by public transport in the UK, so whether you’re on a train, bus, or the tube take care and stay safe