Hello there. Clarity Crafts have launched a great new initiative to help folk who’ve lost a bit of their crafting mojo, focusing on mini makes – keeping it small and beautiful. They’ve set up a new Facebook page for everyone to share their creations too – Clarity Crafts Mini Makes & ATCs. I bought the ‘bijou woodland art blocks’ set in the sale in late 2024 – these images are just perfect for making little toppers, so I decided to put one of them to use picking up the colours from Creative Colour Challenges and, obviously, the ‘something new’ theme from Seize the Birthday.

I started by stamping the tree block onto a piece of scrap white card using black Archival ink (you need a juicy pad for this). I cut it down with a nested square die and then shaded in the image with Pergaliner pencils – I hadn’t noticed until I stamped & coloured it that there are two little birds sitting in the tree!

I used a small square embedder to emboss a frame onto the front of a 5×5 card blank, and addded a small one below it using one of the bijou embedders (that also hadn’t been out of their packet until now!) that’s the perfect size for a sentiment.

I mounted the little topper onto a layer of Waimea Falls cimpanion paper, then added a narrow one of black card and attached it to the card blank. I stamped one of the word sticker stamps into the little embedded frame, again with the black Archival ink, and coloured the letters with the green Pergaliner pencil I’d used on the leaves.

These stamps are so simple to use, yet so effective with just a little colour.