Hello crafty friends. Today’s card uses the ‘in the moment’ set from Stampin’ Up! – I did an online class with Joanne James using it last month, but haven’t had it out since. It’s not my usual style, but a good opportunity to practice my colouring skills. I took inspiration from Time Out‘s ‘on vacation’ theme and used the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches (which I rotated).

The first step was to stamp the image onto a piece of card. I wanted the balustrade to go right across the card, so used a micron pen to draw it in.

I then set about colouring the image with Stampin’ Up! blends – ‘pool party’ for the girl’s dress’ and then a variety of the new blends in neutrals for her skin, her hat and the balustrade. I used a waterbrush and ‘salvaged patina’ Distress Oxide to add a light wash to the sky.

I then ran the ‘pool party’ pen around the edge of a slightly larger piece of card and mounted the topper onto that, attaching the whole piece to an A6 card blank. I stamped the sentiment onto a little scrap piece of card and fussy cut it before gluing it into place.

Now, I have a little confession to make! This wasn’t the first version I made of this… the inital one didn’t exactly go to plan (and I wasn’t feeling very relaxed by the end!) I was using my stamping platform for the sentiment, and the stamp looked fine to me (lined up straight, etc) – what I failed to notice in time was that I’d got it upside down! I did try fussy cutting the sentiment, but the top is wider than the base of it, so it didn’t cover my mistake. Hey ho, you live and learn!