Welcome to my crafty blog. It’s International Nurses’ Day today, as 12th May was Florence Nightingale’s birthday, and there have been lots of celebrations and events to mark the contribution nurses make in hospitals and healthcare organisations across the UK. The annual service at Westminster Cathedral has taken place today, after being postponed last year, but the numbers who could attend were greatly reduced, so most people joined it online. I’m hoping I will be able to get there next year.

So today’s card is for all my nursing colleagues, who have done such an amazing job over the last year. I really think this verse by Maya Angelou says it all, but more of that later.

I started by stamping the frame from Claritystamp’s ‘may the road rise’ poetry set in ‘pumice stone’ Distress Oxide. I then shaded in the key elements of the frame using Pergaliner pencils

I’d used my stamping platform for the first image and left the stamp in place on it, which meant I could then easily overstamp it with WOW clear ink and heat emboss with their clear sparkle powder. I also lightly brushed some ‘broken china’ Distress Oxide into the centre of the frame to soften the white background. Apologies for the blurry photo – it’s so difficult to get sparkly finishes to photograph easily.

I then stamped the verse from the ‘never forget’ poetry stamp set into the centre, and heat embossed it with ‘rose gold’ powder. I trimmed down the topper and mounted it onto an A^ card blank to finish.

This is one of Maya Angelou’s most used quotes, I suspect because it resonates for so many circumstances. For me, it beautifully sums up nursing – people often will not notice the technical skill of experienced nurses because the difference it makes is that they feel better, both through the actions of the nurse and their approach and manner. Nursing really is an art and a science.