Welcome to my crafty blog. I’m now on to the Claritystamp New Design Club stamp from April 2013 in my Sunday series of lookbacks – the birdcage. I used this a few times when I first got it, but it’s not been out of my folder for some time now (glad to see it hadn’t rusted away!)

I started with a square of white card, cut down to fit a 6×6 card blank, and attached the Clarity circle stencil to the front using masking tape. I then brushed Distress Oxide inks across it with a blending brush – I used ‘picked raspberry’, ‘speckled egg’ and ‘chipped sapphire’ (which won’t surprise regular readers of this blog!)

Next was to stamp the birdcage on the left side of the circle, using the ‘chipped sapphire’. I then added the ‘leafy swirl’ stamp at the top and the bottom, lining up one of the swirls in the top stamp to catch the hook in the birdcage. I masked part of the stamp off for the lower one before inking it, as I just wanted the cage to sit on the scrolls. I added a little bird sitting on the top of the cage (it would have been cruel to put him inside).

I added the sentiment across the lower part of the circle, and then attached the topper to the card blank.

Thanks for dropping in. I’m going to share this card over at this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge, as I used their sketch for inspiration