February 2014 Blog Hop Challenge - Sweet Spring

Good morning friends.  It's snowing again...surprise, surprise!  And another artic blast coming through...surprise, surprise!!  Sooooo, NO surprise that I wanted to play along with Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop challenge, where Nichole has asked us to create a card that makes us think Spring.  Spring technically starts in only 3 weeks (March 20), however here in Michigan, Spring doesn't really start to show up till late April, early May.  And thinking about May makes me think of one of my favorite flowers...Lily of the Valley!  It was one of my mom's favorite flowers when I was growing up (and still is!) and now it is also one of my favorites, so PTI's "Year of Flowers: Lily of the Valley" stamp set was an easy choice to pick for my card(s). (still ramping up my birthday card stash, so made a few in different colors!)

I love the simplicity of this stamp set, and started by embossing the image in black embossing powder, and then colored with Copics and Smooch Pearlized Top Coat, and also my Aqua Painter pen and Old Olive ink for the leaves.  Take a look:

I shaded around each of the little flowers with my Copics (B000 for the blue card, C1 for the yellow card, and R30 for the pink card) to give them a little depth, and then painted each of the flowers with the Smooch Pearlized Top Coat to give them the slightly iridescent look. (If you click to enlarge the picture, you'll be able to see the pearlized look of the flowers much better)  I layered with black cardstock on the blue and pink cards and gray on the yellow card, and then mounted to the colored card bases.  Finished each with a birthday sentiment (PTI & SU!), ribbon, and a few iridescent sequins.  Quick, easy, and definitely make me think of Spring! :0)

Make sure you check out all the other great "Spring" entries over on Nichole's blog....they will definitely make you smile and feel warm...almost like Spring is really here! :0)  (hey...we can pretend, right?!!)

Have a wonderful Tuesday friends, and thanks so much for stopping by...I love it when you do!!