Welcome to my crafty blog. Today’s card is quite a bit bigger than the ones I usually make – it’s on an A4 card blank as it’s a farewell card for a friend from a group I belong to, so lots of space for people to write their good wishes. I’ve used the glorious ‘snowdrops’ die from Claritystamp’s art nouveau collection as the centrepiece – I love the stained glass effect of these dies.

The backing papers are from Claritystamp’s new ‘Amazonia’ set – the greens and yellows are so vibrant and I thought would set the black card off really well. I started by cutting the snowdrops from black card, and used the nested rectangle dies to cut it out with a frame, and then cut a larger outer frame. I mounted both pieces onto one of ‘Amazonia’ 5×7 cards, cut down to size, and then went round the edge with a black Sharpie to hide any white cut edges.

I then used two of the 8×8 backing papers in the same colours to cover the card blank. Obviously a sheet of 8×8 paper won’t cover an A4 card, so I got round this by initially cutting both pieces down to leave a small gap in the centre of the card.

At this point I stamped the sentiment in the lower corner of the backing paper. I wanted to heat emboss it with clear powder, so that the black stood out more, so needed to do that before I taped it to the card blank.

I then cut a strip of black card and added a narrower strip of the backing paper onto it to sit across the centre of the card and hide the join between the two pieces of backing paper. The snowdrops topper then sat on top of that, and I finished with a couple of pieces of card candy either side of it.

I know it’s the wrong time of year for snowdrops, but I love this design, and they will be here in a few months!