Well I hope you’ve had a good first day of 2021 – as much as is possible under the circumstances. I’m now on day 8 of my 12 Dies of Clarity challenge using the Claritystamp new design club dies. August’s die was this ‘hemlock aperture’, and I’ve used it on a panel card this time. I am now wondering, however, whether it’s appropriate to have used it on a get well card, as it’s poisonous!! Interestingly, it’s also a member of the same plant family as carrots and parsnips – and we’ve eaten a lot of those this Christmas & New Year.

I started by creating a panel across a 6×6 card blank with a couple of strips of masking tape, and then brushed Distress Oxide inks across it. I used ‘speckled egg’ and ‘bundled sage’ as I wanted fairly subtle shades. While the masking tape was still in place I stamped the ‘cow parsley’ in Archival ‘watering can’ as second generation (ie, I inked the stamp, then stamped once onto copy paper before stamping it onto the card). The cow parsley is a New Design Club stamp from quite a few years ago (#77).

I then took a small square of stencil card and brushed the two Distress Oxide inks across it to create a background. I again stamped the cow parsley across the centre, but this time in the ‘bundled sage’.

Once I’d die cut the ‘hemlock’ from white card, I trimmed it down to a narrow border and then glued it to the background square. I then attached it to the left of the card front, so it sat across the panel.

I finished the card by stamping the sentiment to the right of the die cut, and partly overlaying onto the brushed panel. Again, this is a Clarity stamp that I’ve had for quite a few years, and if I’m completely honest was used because it fitted into the space I’d left! Clearly I need to get better at planning my designs when I start.