Welcome to my crafty blog. I’m back with my Sunday lookback through the Claritystamp new design club since I first joined, and I’m now onto the start of my second year of membership with the ‘robin’ stamp from December 2013.

This month saw another change in the club with the launch of full colour printed project sheets – I can’t being to imagine how much work Barbara and the team had each month attaching photos to the previous photocopied project sheets before posting them out! The printed sheets also mean that, from this issue, these are available on the Clarity website with the stamps, as back copies.

I started by stamping the branch from Clarity’s ‘journalling’ stamp set onto white card using ‘watering can’ Archival ink, and then added the robin to sit on the branch. I coloured him in using Spectrum Noir pencils.

The next step was to fussy cut the robin and branch – I don’t normally do this (basically too impatient!), but decided it was worth the effort so he sat nicely against the background.

I decided to make the rest of the card monochrome, so his redbreast really stood out. I cut a small square of white card and embossed it with the Stampin’ Up! ‘bricks & mortar’ folder. That then sat on a 6×6 card blank, and I added the sentiment across the bottom. I stamped the sentiment, which is from Clarity’s ‘Barbara’s Christmas’ set, ‘watering can’ and then trimmed the card piece down before attaching it across the bottom of the embossed square.

All I then needed to do was add the robin & branch using foam pads, and pop a few glossies against the top corner of the embossed square

I love the way his redbreast stands out against the rest of the card. I wouldn’t normally choose black & white for a Christmas card, but I think this one works. I’ll be sharing it over at Fab Friday challenge, as I used this week’s sketch for the layout.