Hello crafty friends! I’ve got a very minimalist card to share with you, using one of the new ‘Enso enlightenment’ stamps from ClarityCrafts as part of their Japanese collection. I didn’t manage to use any of these on my design team cards for their release, so I thought I’d make up for it now! I’ve tied a few challenges into this one , with the CAS & card centre theme from Just Us Girls and black, clean & simple and silhouette from Festive Friday‘s inspo list (second offerings for both), together with the new sketch from Global Design Project.

I started with a round embedder on a 6×6 card blank and created a frame, then stamped the largest enso circle from the set into it.

I then stamped the single tree from the ‘stag miniatures’ set and added a light wash of ‘broken china’ Distress Oxide behind it using a waterbrush, following with the sentiment across the bottom of the circle.

Finally, I used the scorer tool on my paper trimmer to add lines above and below the circle, which anchored it to the card, while still keeping it as one layer.

Barbara was talking about the meaning of the enso circle when she launched these stamps last week. It’s derived from Zen Buddhism and is always drawn with a single brushstroke. The circle is believed to symbolise several things – strength, the circle of life, connection, letting go of expectations and the beauty in imperfection. Barbara described it as being perfect in it’s imperfection – and I think that’s a good thought for us crafters!