Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve been doing a bit more shopping and couldn’t wait to play with my new ‘pansy patch’ set that arrived from Stampin’ Up! this week. I’ve got lots of plans for this set – it will definitely be a keeper!

I’ve taken inspiration for this card from a couple of current challenges. Global Design Project have challenged us with a simple layout this week, and I’ve found another new-to-me site at The Card Concept – I don’t have any nautical themed stamps so used the colours from their photo for my pansies.

I started with a piece of white card, cut to fit on an A6 card blank, and ran it through the SU ‘subtle’ 3D embossing folder. I found some gingham check paper in my stash and cut a piece to form the trough for the pansies, using a corner rounder for the bottom. I thought that picked up the lower of the strips in GDP’s sketch, and the checks reflect the square cushions from The Card Concept. I didn’t want it to sit too high on my card, so just mounted it on a piece of scrap card instead of foam pads and then attached it to the card front (a great tip I got from Julie Hickey).

I then stamped the pansies and leaves, using ‘festive berries’ and ‘chipped sapphire’ Distress Oxides, and die cut them out. The flowers went onto the trough with foam pads, and I used a dab of glue to attach the leaves behind them. They sit nicely in a row to reflect the top strip in GDP’s sketch.

I finished by stamping the sentiment onto the background in ‘chipped sapphire’ and it was done.

Now before my horticultural minded friends tell me off about the colours I’ve used, I did a bit of research and found that there are red varieties of pansies! Here’s a lovely one called ‘red blotch’. I will admit, though, that I didn’t find any with blue leaves, so let’s just call that artistic licence!