In The Deep Midwinter...

Today, I've been told is officially the first day of Autumn but just when I thought it was safe to pull on my boots and put away the Birkenstocks, the sun has made a return and here in London, it's been so hot, that it's actually hard to believe that it is Autumn and that, Halloween and Guy Fawkes night is just around the corner.

So far, it's definitely been one of those weeks for me...I literally haven't stopped and tomorrow is going to be another busy day. In the meantime, I literally have 10 cards and lots of Halloween projects all ready and lined up on the table...just needing an afternoon where I can shut myself away and craft!!

But in between the chaos, I did manage to make this card that I'm sharing today and it's another of those, where I just couldn't resist buying these stamps. They come from Clarity Stamps and if you ever have the chance to catch the wonderful Barbara Gray at work, you must. She is amazing and creates some of the most stunning cards. I just hope that I've managed to do her stamps justice.

So, inspired by Barbara and with these fabulous stamps, I decided to make a Christmas card, that wasn't obviously traditional but still had a gorgeous Christmas feel to it and except for the backing papers and ribbon, everything that you see on this card, is handmade...from using the stamps and building up colour onto the card with distress inks to die cutting the snowflakes.

So, I hear you ask...how did I make it? Firstly, I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, and gradually built up the colour to give a soft diffused look to the card and if you look hard enough, you might be able to see a little moon peeking out of the main image. I created this by punching a circle from a Post-It note, adhering it to the card and then when you have inked the paper, remove the punched circle and you're left with the image of the moon. I then stamped the tree and bird images, in black Archival Ink, before using Distress Stickles to give a glistening effect of snow. The snowflakes are die cut using a Spellbinders Shapeablities Die.

So, I hope you all like the card and enjoy the rest of your week....

Thanks for stopping by to take a look,

love Emma

xx