Hello crafty friends. I’ve delved back into my folder of inky mop-up pieces for the background piece on this card and teamed it with what I think is my favourite stamp from Clarity’s 2021 Craft Club – I just love this little landscape. The starting point for this card was an easy choice, as the theme at Just Us Girls is ‘inked or sprayed backgrounds’. I thought it would work well with CASology‘s cue word of ‘renew’ – time out in the countryside is so good for feeling refreshed at any time of year.

Of course, it sounds really straightforward to just start with a mop-up piece from my folder, but as any crafter knows it takes a while to decide which one to use! I eventually settled on this pink & green one, and used one of Clarity’s moon masks to add a sun with a blending brush ‘spun sugar’ Distress Oxide.

I stamped the landscape in black Archival ink, and decided it would look good with a shadow or reflection. You can’t just turn the stamp round to add the inverted image as the trees would be in the wrong place, so I used one of Clarity’s backdrop stamps. I inked the image using ‘moon shadow’ Artistry ink, stamped it onto the backdrop stamp and then used that to stamp the reflection onto the background. That way you get the mirror image of the stamp.

I mounted it onto a layer of black card, and then added the sentiment and a couple of birds which were also part of the landscape set. The whole piece then sat in the centre of a 6×6 card blank.

I think this sentiment says it all really! I am guilty of getting involved in too many things (mainly because I can’t bear to miss out on anything!) Maybe my resolution for 2022 should be to ‘keep it simple’.