Inspired by an early morning!

At the beginning of the week I had to get up practically before I went to bed to take our lovely French exchange student to the train station for his return home. It was cold and dark and I was not at my most cheerful, but as we left the house my spirits lifted at the sight of the sky as the sun was rising. It obviously stuck in my mind because today's card happened a day or two afterwards!

The sky really did look like this - bright orange in a strip at the bottom with the light of the sun illuminating the line of the horizon, and a purplish grey above it. It was magical. You can see some gorgeous photos of similarly dramatic sunrises here taken by my lovely blogging friend Irene.

I started by stamping the trees in Early Espresso ink onto my card stock panel. Then I made two masks by stamping the trees on a post it note and cutting along the horizon with my sharp paper snips. One half was held over the land so I could sponge in the sky, then the other half was used to mask the sky while I sponged in the ground. Sponging over the stamped trees gives them a misty sort of look and I inked up the trees again (using a marker this time, so I could use just the trees, not the ground) and stamped them again in the foreground. The scene was mounted onto black card stock to make the sky appear to glow.

I thought this design would make a good notecard, so I added the hello sentiment from Easy Events and  pierced a little home for it using my piercing template. I'm so excited about piercing at the moment - it adds detail but in a really nice, subtle way.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you love the effect of piercing too you might be interested to hear that the festive piercing templates come absolutely free when you buy the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and the Candlelight designer paper! Check here for details.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Easy Events (sentiment)
Ink: Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Other: Piercing template, piercing tool, markers, stamp-a-majig, paper snips
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

Today's card reminded me of a nursery rhyme I used to read to my children when they were small:
One misty moisty morning
When cloudy was the weather
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather
Clothed all in leather with a cap under his chin
Singing how d'you do and how d'you do and how d'you do again.
Does anyone remember it? The children and I were amused by it and whenever it's a damp, foggy day, we always refer to it as a misty, moisty morning in our family!

Hope you have a lovely weekend with no mistiness or moistiness - but if you do, don't worry, there are always more Christmas cards to be made!

See you very soon,