Welcome to my crafty blog. I wanted to share the birthday card I made for my son, who owns a very elegant tabby cat called Benji. I bought this lovely stamp from Crafty Individuals especially for his card – I’ve pictured it with a pot my son painted for me when he was small, and below here’s Benji himself as well

The stamp itself is very intricate, almost Egyptian in the design, so I just stamped it onto black card using a WOW clear inkpad, and then heat embossed it with their ‘metallic platinum’ powder. This is such a great colour powder, with a slightly golden sheen on it – not a bright as a silver one, so great for masculine cards

I then mounted it onto another piece of black card, which I’d edged by just pressing the inkpad and embossing with the metallic platinum powder round each side in turn.

I wanted to create something of a frame on the card, and remembered the Claritystamp ‘doodleology’ mixed media stamps. This one is from the ‘square’ set – Benji loves to play with string or pieces of ribbon, so these looked ideal. I stamped it in opposing corners, using black archival ink, and then overstamped with clear ink so that I could heat emboss them with a clear powder for a shine.

All I then needed to do was mount the image in the centre of the card, and address it to my son (who loved it!)