Welcome to my crafty blog. Today’s card uses some more of my favourite blending techniques, plus the Claritystamp landscape masks that are on my regular use list. I was so pleased with the way the colours from this week’s CAS Colours & Sketches challenged worked for this card. I also took the theme from Global Design Project and made the sky the focus of this scene.

I started with a square of white card, and blended Distress Oxides in ‘mustard seed’ and ‘ripe persimmon’ onto it. I aimed to mix the colours up to get that sunset sky effect, rather than blending them into separate areas for a more ombre look. I added a large sun with one of Clarity’s moon masks, together with some lines to look like evening clouds using the base of one of the landscape masks.

I then popped one of the ‘riverside landscape reflection’ masks along the bottom of the card, and used a sponge to drag ‘potting soil’ Archival across it for the trees and ground. I’d normally have used black or grey for this, but I really like the effect of the dark brown.

To finish, I added the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment and a flock of birds, both in the ‘potting soil’, and then attached the topper to a 6×6 kraft card blank.

The weather’s been pretty ropey here for the last few days, but it looks like it will be warmer and brighter next week so we may get some lovely sunsets again. My grandmother always used to quote ‘red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’ forecasting good weather for the next day – maybe I should have added some sheep!