Welcome to my crafty blog. I’ve been playing with Julie Hickey’s ‘birthday messages’ and ‘fresh florals’ stamps for this card, which is inspired by the challenges at CAS Colours & Sketches and Color Throwdown

I’m back to one of my favourite techniques for this card – blending inks. I used Distress Oxides in ‘mowed lawn’ and ‘broken china’ and blended them across the lower two thirds of the card with a brush.

I then stamped the ‘birthday messages’ sentiments and the banner outlines in dark grey ‘watering can’ Archival ink. As the stamp & banners contain five elements, I started by stamping the lower set, and then masked the bottom sentiment to stamp the top four above the first set. I then added the outlines, but this time started from the top, so that the lowest one for the second set stamped off the card.

Next was to stamp the two smaller flowers and the single leaves from the ‘fresh florals’ set, again in the ‘watering can’. I coloured them using a waterbrush and ‘festive berries’ & ‘mowed lawn’ Distress Oxides – once dry I die cut them out. I attached the background to a 5×7 card blank, adding the flowers on foam pads to cover the two stamped hearts from the banner outlines and gluing the three leaves around them.

The final touch was to add a few red Glossies around the flowers (and over the stamped heart at the top).

I am trying to make a few more masculine cards as well, and made a second version of this design, replacing the flowers with stars.