Hello there. It’s the final few hours of ClarityCrafts‘ bumper sale, featuring huge discounts on the back issues of their monthly Craft Club. It ends at midnight UK time, so I thought I’d get a stamp from earlier this year into action as a final temptation – I have to confess the ‘rose teddy’ hadn’t seen ink until now (in my defence it did arrive just before I headed off on my overseas trip with friends). I need some more new baby cards, so what better reason to get it out?

I started with a piece of card that I’d die cut using the ‘hearts’ nested square doodle frame-it panel dies, then stamped the sentiment and bear using black Archival ink. I took three Pergaliner pencils in shades of brown and used them to colour the teddy’s fur – I didn’t worry too much about smoothing out the tones in the hope that it gave a bit of texture to his fur. It’s then a simple matter of deciding what colour you want the flowers to be – I went with pinks, but used a purple tone to add depth to the shading.

I added an outline to the bear by shading around it with a pink watercolour pencil (one of the Pergaliner aqua ones), then spread the pigment outwards with a waterbrush. I added a mount of Indian Summer companion paper and attached it to a 6×6 card blank. And just for balance, I also did a version in blue!

However you celebrate New Year’s Eve, I hope it’s a good one. We’re looking forward to new beginnings in 2025, with a new arrival due in the next few weeks – happy days!