Hello crafty friends. I’ve got another card to share that I hadn’t posted for some time – this one’s got the fab little guardsman from Clarity’s royal gnomes stamp set. Barbara originally drew these for the Coronation two years ago, but I think they are perfect for cards for kids (and older ones too!), especially with the sentiments that I suggested and then arrived as a stamp set!

I started by stamping one of the gnome guardsmen into the centre of a 3.5″ square piece of stencil card, using Versafine Clair black ink. I then covered him over with the pre-cut mask that comes with the stamps, then added a companion for him on either side.

I shaded the guardsmen with my Pergaliner pencils, using a blending nib and Dorso oil to smooth out the colouring. Now every guardsman I’ve ever seen has very shiny boots, so I went over them with my WOW clear ink pen and heat embossed them with clear powder.

I added one of the royal sentiments above the gnomes and ran a black Sharpie around the edges of the topper. I cut a square of red companion paper as a mount, but decided to offset it to break up the squares a little. The whole piece then went onto a 5×5 card blank.

These gnome guardsmen are just so smart in their red tunics! I’m off to share them with a couple of challenges – CAS on Friday have got ’embossing’ as their theme (check out those boots!) and Addicted to Stamps & More are celebrating ‘any occasion’.