Welcome to my crafty blog. Here’s a card I made using an offcut piece of the Claritystamp ‘Antarctica’ designer paper, and one of the ‘Tina’s summer layering squares’ stamps. I had a quick look at blue flowers online, as I’m hopeless at identifying most species (obviously I can spot a rose or a daffodil!). These look a bit like forget-me-nots to me, and I was interested to learn that blue represents serenity and can help to create a calming space in the garden. Blue flowers can also symbolise hope, and are apparently often bought as gifts for people who are sick or stressed. It struck me that this is very appropriate for our times – if I’d read this before finishing the card, I’d have probably made used a ‘get well’ sentiment.

The design is inspired by this week’s challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches (https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/). I want to thank the FMS team, especially Kim, for choosing my ‘Robin in the snow’ card from last week as one of the top picks! I was delighted to be one of the featured cards.

Back to my card. As I said, I used an offcut piece from Clarity’s ‘Antarctica’ designer paper, and stamped the flowers square onto it using ‘cobalt’ Archival ink. I then embossed the outline with WOW ‘clear sparkle’ powder (you can just about see the sparkle in the photo)

I edged it using a blue Sharpie pen, to give it a bit of definition, and then shaded the flowers and leaves using my Spectrum Noir pencils. I made the backing mat using the other side of the same piece of paper. It’s really great that Clarity’s papers are double sided, as there’s no problem in getting the colours to tone in.

I finished the card by stamping the sentiment from the ‘Barbara’s handwriting’ set, again in ‘cobalt’ Archival ink. A simple card, but hopefully it conveys the serenity of the blue flowers.