All About the Girls - March Clarity Challenge

This month's Clarity Challenge is All About the Girls. So I decided to make my entry my mum's Mother's Day card. She loved it, which is the main thing, but let's hope the Clarity guys do too.

The card is in two main parts, the foreground and background, and I flitted between the two, working on one as the other dried.

The foreground is parchment, using the Groovi system, but I also stamped on it.

I started with the lettering, from the Groovi plate mate, then stamped the house martin (the February Clarity New Design Club stamp) in permanent black on the front of the parchment.

While that dried, I started the background. I used Clarity stencil card, and added distress inks with a blending tool. The colours I used are dusty concord, mustard seed, spiced marmalade and seedless preserves.

It looks a bit like a bad bruise, but I have faith it'll work out!

Coming back to the card the next day, I add a border to the parchment using the nested squares - I've not had these long, but they're very useful.

I start to add white work, gently embossing from the back, to the house martin.

I also colour in the letters with a sharpie.

The white work is something else to leave and come back to, gradually building up from grey to white.

Meanwhile, in the background… I add some detail with stencils. I used the harlequin and Jo's bubbles stencils, with the same distress inks. I can't believe I nearly didn't get Jo's bubbles when it was in the sale at the start of the year, it's proven to be so useful already.

Back with the parchment, once I'm happy with the white work I turn to the border, to add a bit of interest. I settle on the deckle border from the border plate (I don't have the deckle nested plate). 

Time for some colouring in. I used a navy, purple and turquoise sharpie for the house martin, and purple for the outside of the border.

The final step is to cut it out. I don't have my piercing plates yet, so I used a pair of curvy cut scissors to cut just outside the border.

The background needs its final layer - I use one of the shepherd's purse stamps in dusty concord around the outside. I didn't take a picture of this for some reason, you can see it on the finished card though.

As always, the question is how to mount the parchment. As I didn't colour in the border completely, I can't add tape behind it. So instead, I make another section of background, using the same colours and the blending tool.

I use a corner punch to make two slots, and mount the parchment in this. I use a small piece of tape behind the bird to help secure it.

This piece is then mounted with foam tape onto the main background. This is mounted onto an A4 card base, which I cut down to the right size.

I'm pleased with how rich and warm this looks - parchment can be soft and understated, it mutes the colours, but then again it's all about how you use it. I've not tried stamping on it before, but it adds another dimension. I'm constantly amazed at how versatile the Groovi system and parchment is proving to be.

I'm also chuffed to get an entry in well before the deadline - think that's a first!