Welcome to my crafty blog. I started working on this card earlier today and, as is so often the case for me, it kept evolving as I went along! I’d decided to try to make a card that’s a bit more ‘grungy’ (not my usual style, as you’ll know), using the colours from Just Us Girls and the theme of ‘dots & circles’ from Global Design Project

I wanted to use an inky background, but had to make this one from scratch (gasp!) as I needed to stamp the butterfly (from Claritystamp’s set) first. Having stamped it in ‘potting soil’ Archival ink, I covered it with the precut mask that’s part of the set, then popped some ‘ripe persimmon’ Distress Oxide onto my craft mat, spritzed it with water and mopped it up onto the card.

I dried the background with my heat gun, then replaced the mask before adding some of the background stamps from Clarity’s ‘happy-grunge elements’ set, again in the ‘potting soil’. I also added the circle stamp from the set behind the butterfly, this time using the ‘ripe persimmon’.

At this point I didn’t like it much but decided to press on! (I’m always telling my crafty buddy not to judge things until they’re finished…). I watercoloured the butterfly using ‘salvaged patina’ and the ‘ripe persimmon’. I decided that the orange circle needed toning down a bit, so put the mask back on the butterfly, lined the stamp up again and restamped it in ‘potting soil’ over the orange. I also felt the proportions of the card weren’t right (it had started for a 5×7 card blank), so trimmed it down to a square. I them added more of the circle medley stamp across the bottom.

I mounted the square onto a layer of brown card and attached it to a 6×6 card blank. I still wasn’t entirely happy with it though, and decided that it was now the butterfly that didn’t look quite right! So I restamped it on a separate piece of card, coloured it just with the ‘salvaged patina’, then fussy cut it and glued it over the original one. It looks much better now.

I was looking through my Clarity word stickers to find a suitable sentiment, and this one jumped out at me. Given the world events of today, it sadly feels rather appropriate.