Hello crafty friends. Today’s card is a birthday card for my niece, who’s off to Paris with her sister this week to celebrate. I thought the colours from Just Add Ink were perfect for a French themed card, and the sketch from Fusion Card Challenge (which I rotated) worked well with Claritystamp’s Paris aperture die.

I started with a piece of black cardstock and cut the Paris die into it, towards the lower left corner. I took an offcut of Stampin’ Up!’s ‘crumb cake’ card (I don’t have any ‘sahara sand’), blended ‘chipped sapphire’ Distress Oxide across the upper half and attached it behind the die cut aperture, to look like a night sky.

I cut a strip of red card to sit along the lower edge of the topper, and then cut one edge of the largest square in Clarity’s ‘square doodle frame-it’ die in the ‘crumb cake’, which I glued on top of the red strip. The topper then went onto a black 5×7 card blank, that I’d made from the same cardstock.

I love the effect of the colours against the black card but thought it needed something else to lift it, so added a few beige Glossies hearts to finish.

Thanks for dropping in. It’s a bit of a week of family trips – not only are my nieces off to Paris soon, but I’ve just got back from a couple of days with my sister at a Champneys spa. I’m feeling very pampered and chilled – hope it doesn’t wear off too quickly when the realities of life reappear!