Hello crafty friends. I’ve had a great afternoon today with my craft group, making sets of notecards using the Build a Wreath stamps and the Statement Sentiments. I’ve seen this layout style used a few other times across social media and have been meaning to have a go for some time – I’ve called it the ‘one background for four cards’ technique and it’s perfect for pattern building with small stamps.

I took a piece of Clarity’s 7×7 premium card and drew myself pencil guidelines to mark the card into four equal quadrants. I picked one of the leaf stamps from the Summer Build a Wreath set, mounted it on one of Clarity’s stamp pens and repeat stamped it along my pencil lines in ‘peeled paint’ Archival ink.

Next was to fill out my foliage with a couple more leafy stamps in different shades of green – ‘peat moss’ and ‘vivid chartreuse’ Archivals.

I could then add in the flowers, this time using ‘cranberry juice’ and ‘vibrant fuschia’. This is where it got a bit more challenging for me, as I really struggle to stamp randomly – I always want to drop back into a regular pattern! And you can probably also see in the top right hand corner that I’d managed to drop one of my ink pads face down onto the card! First, though, I used my paper trimmer to cut the background into four equal squares of 3.5″.

I was then onto the finishing touches. I found co-ordinating mounts in the packs of 4×4 companion paper, added the Statement Sentiments in the colour that matched the mounts and attached the toppers to 5×5 card blanks. The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noted that the topper on the card at top right is slightly smaller than the others – that’s the one where I dropped the ink pad and I managed to trim it down to a 3″ square, which meant it was still useable!

I was so pleased with how these turned out – it’s so simple and so effective. Another one for the technique list – and everyone at my craft group this afternoon really enjoyed making these too!

Thanks go to Sunday Stamps, as I took their colour palette for these cards. I’m also going to share these with Triple B for the ‘blooms’ aspect of their challenge