Welcome to my crafty blog. Today’s card is all about the background – it’s made with a single stamp from the Claritystamp ‘wild flowers nature’ set. The colours were inspired by this week’s challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches

I started by inking up the A6 stamp from the set, using a make up sponge to add Distress Oxide in ‘mermaid lagoon’, ‘mowed lawn’ and ‘festive berries’. It’s a really good way to get shading onto these stamps – I used the image on the backing acetate to try to make sure I picked out the flower heads in the red ink.

I then lightly spritzed the stamp with water before stamping it onto a piece of white card. I’d left the stamp on the backing acetate sheet (rather than putting it onto a mount or stamping platform), which is a great tip from Barbara Gray. It makes it easier to get pressure onto the whole image when using a large stamp. Once I’d stamped the image, I gave the stamp another light spray with water and then put it down on a second piece of paper, to pick up the rest of the ink that was still on it (I love a ‘two for one’ offer!)

I decided to go with the first generation image, and trimmed it down to leave a white border, before mounting it onto a piece of card that I’d brushed with the ‘mermaid lagoon’ Distress Oxide.

To finish the card, I stamped the sentiment from Clarity’s ‘Art Nouveau’ set onto a scrap of white card, again using the ‘mermaid lagoon’, and trimmed it down. The topper went onto the front of a 5×7 card blank, with the sentiment layered on foam pads to sit below one of the flowers.

Thanks for dropping in. There was no sign of blue skies here today, just lots more rain – and it looks like staying that way for the coming week. I’ll just have to focus on sunny skies in my cards!