Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve decided it’s time I started using up some of the inky backgrounds that I create by mopping up spare ink from my craft mat. Today’s card is the first of several over the next few days. I’ve used one of my all-time favourite stamp sets – the ‘birdhouse garden’ from Claritystamp, with a sentiment from Visible Image. I thought it was perfect for this scene – that cat definitely sums up the meaning of hope! Life here in the UK is also looking a lot more hopeful, after the Prime Minister’s announcement last night on the roadmap out of lockdown. It will be a little while yet, but it feels like there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.

I started with an inky background out of my stash. I’m not wholly certain, but I think this was made with Distress Oxides in ‘mowed lawn’ and ‘tattered rose’.

I trimmed it down to size for a 6×6 card blank and then stamped the birdhouse, cat and bird using Archival black, aiming to make best use of where the landscape seemed to be.

I wanted to give the landscape a bit more definition, so added some ground and hills using ‘peeled paint’ Distress Ink with a a torn piece of copy paper and a blending brush. I used the outer part of one of the Clarity moon masks to add the sun with ‘scattered straw’.

I finished by adding the sentiment, again in black Archival, and edged the piece of card with a black Sharpie before mounting it on the card blank.

Thanks for dropping in. I’m going to share this card over at The Paper Players – their challenge theme this week is ‘feline fine’.