Welcome to my crafty blog. Now at first glance, this card has got nothing to do with one of the challenges I’ve been inspired by, but this blog is nothing if not educational! So read on and let me explain… The design is inspired by this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge (https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/), and the theme is picked up from CASology (http://casology.blogspot.com/)

Now, you are no doubt looking very puzzled – what does a robin in the snow have to do with wheat? Well, I was a bit stumped for a card for this theme, as I don’t have any stamps with the obvious images on them (wheat ears, bread, even beer), so I consulted Professor Google to see what else wheat is used for. Lo and behold – it turns out that the adhesive on postage stamps is made from wheat starch! Ta da!! (I told you it was educational).

So, out came the XL postage stamp frame from Claritystamp, which I haven’t used for several years. I stamped it in black Archival onto a piece of white card, and then positioned the robin (also an old favourite from Claritystamp) towards the bottom right. I made a mask for the robin using a post-it note, and also masked off the sides of the frame with post-it notes. I tore a piece of copy paper to make a hill, and then brushed ‘denim’ adirondack ink across the top of the image. I also used the torn copy paper to add some definition to the snowy ground, using ‘slate’ adirondack and a make up sponge.

I watercoloured the robin using inks, and then cut out the postage stamp. (that wasn’t as difficult as it sounds – I just trimmed the edges straight along the edge and then snipped out each of the little semi-circles). I finished the topper by adding the postmark stamps from Claritystamp’s ‘Alphabet Jungle’ set, together with the sentiment which has been in my stash for years.

I cut three strips of paper from the Stampin’ Up ‘snowflake splendour’ DSP, and popped those behind the topper, before attaching it to a 5×7 card blank. A few silver gems just finished it off.

I hope the team at CASology don’t think my link is too tenuous, but it did seem appropriate at a time of year when people buy lots of postage stamps to send their cards!