Welcome to my little crafty blog. I was looking back through my archive and realised that I’ve now posted over 50 cards in the nearly six months since I started (this is number 51!). I’m trying to get into more of a routine with posting here but, like so much in my craft world, I don’t always manage to stick to the plan…

Today’s card was inspired by a recent online class I caught up with from Joanne James (aka the Crafty Owl), using the Stampin Up! ‘blossoms in bloom’ set. I used the colours and picture from this week’s Color Throwdown challenge https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/ – I really like the autumn feel in the card (although not quite so happy about saying farewell to summer!)

I started by inking the large blossoms stamp with a dark red (I used Adirondack ‘cranberry’) and then highlighted the centres with Distress Ink in ‘wild honey’ using a make up sponge, before stamping them directly onto an A6 card blank

I then added the smaller flowers, again in ‘wild honey’, and a selection of leaves using Adirondack ‘espresso’. I stamped some of the leaves with second generation ink, so they weren’t as dark

I wanted to give the large flowers some more definition, so used the co-ordinating die set to cut out the outline of the flowers. The die has leaves and small flowers attached so I snipped those off, just leaving me with the central blossoms

I then fixed the die cut over the stamped flowers. I’d already put Stick It adhesive on the back of the card before cutting it out, so just had to peel off the backing paper and stick the flowers down. The die cut is quite fine, so it would be difficult to glue it

I love the way this really adds definition to the flowers. I finished the card by stamping the sentiment (from the same stamp set) onto an offcut of white card and fixing it across the flowers with foam pads

Thanks for reading my blog, and to those who’ve been following my posts. I’m looking forward to planning the next 50 or so to take me up to my first anniversary