Easter Blessings

Hello friends.  I have another Easter card to share with you today, and this one uses a new set from last months PTI release called Into the Blooms: Spring Nest Dies.  Here's what I came up with...

Isn't that just the sweetest little nest?!  Can't wait to use it with some birdies too!  For this one I added some ink blending to my kraft cs that I used for the nest (it's 3 die layers), and then die cut all the eggs, greenery, flowers, and bunny from white cs and then ink blended color and splattering.

You can see the splattering and water spots a bit better in this close up.  I used Spring Rain cs with The Greetery's Postage Stamp Die and Spring Rain plaid DSP on top of that, before adding my nest and bunny.  The sentiment is from PTI's Just Sentiments: Spring Blessings. I did add a few Disco Ball sequins (Gina K) to finish off this card.

I will be adding this card to The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge where they are looking for bunnies and/or chicks.

Also have a couple pics of the chocolate nugget bunnies I make each year to spread out on the table...the grands love these!  They are just a Hershey's Nugget wrapped in a 1" x 3" piece of DSP and then I add a stamped bunny face from an old wooden stamp that I've had for years and years, and finish with a small white pom pom for a tail.

                                 Easter blessings to all of you my friends!  My redeemer lives!! 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Here Come the Bunnies...

Hello friends.  How about a little FUN today with some Easter stenciled backgrounds that I did last year and FINALLY made into cards this year?!!  I had bought a couple PPP and a Taylored Expressions stencil(s) and used soft rainbow colors to ink them up right away last year, but then I never did anything more with them!  Guess I just needed time to "mull" on them as my mother-in-law used to say!  Haha!!  

And here's what I came up with using the stencils and other products in my stash...

Don't those rainbow colored bunnies make the cutest background??!  I used the Taylored Expressions Oh Hoppy Day stencil for this one.  I used the egg die from PTI's Spring Silhouette set for the opening in this card and also for the greenery and bunny.  The carrot is from The Greetery's BotaniCuts: Carrot dies.  My cloudy background behind the egg was stenciled using A Colorful Life's Cloud Edger and my sentiment from PTI's Simply Spring Borders...I thought the sentiment went perfectly with this colorful card!

 This background was done with PPP's Layered Eggs stencil and again with rainbow ink blending.  The carrots are again from The Greetery and the little bunnies are from Poppystamps Thoughtful Bunnies die set.  That sweet sentiment is from The Greetery's Bunny Hop set.

My last card uses PPP's Layered Easter Floral stencil set, and because it's such a busy background, I only added Poppystamps Nordic Bunnies die set with a vellum circle behind them from The Greetery's Nordic Circle Dies.  I also used The Greetery's Nordic Rectangle Dies on my stenciled background piece.  Because it was already so busy I just put my Happy Easter sentiment on the inside.

And here they all 3 are together...pretty colorful, huh?!  I sure had fun making these though and I hope the recipients all love receiving them!

I'm going to add these cards to Stencils Fun Challenge where their theme this month is Easter/Spring...I think I covered that! :0)

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Double D Challenge - GREEN

Hello friends.  The Double D Challenge is having a GREEN (Shamrock/Clover) challenge right now, and because it's snowing out, I'm in a Christmas mood rather than shamrocks and clover!

Fun inspiration photos, but as I said, it's snowing today (Grrrrrrr!!) so I'm just following the GREEN prompt and going Christmas!  I pulled out one of my favorite MFT stamps (Santa's Elves) and had fun with some GREEN Copics and GREEN foiling.  Here's what I came up with...

I mean, how can you resist a face like that??!  He sure looks ready to Deck The Halls all dressed in GREEN to me!  After coloring him, I foiled my background using Spellbinders Geometric Optical Background Hot Foil Plate with GREEN foil and placed it behind a panel I used MFT's Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window die on.

I was hoping to capture the shine of the GREEN foil for you, but just not enough good light today!  In real life though, it makes a fun contrast to the little elf!  My pre-printed sentiment strip is from SSS.  

You can check out all the GREEN inspiration right HERE and then play along.  This challenge is open till Sunday, March 31st @ 8:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge #60

Hello friends.  Playing along with the Peace On Earth challenge today where it's all about SANTA!

Yep, it's jolly old St. Nick himself, and I have an old wooden stamp from Hobby Lobby (Rubber Stampede - Santa Collage) that I pull out every year because he's just too CUTE!!  Here's what I came up with...

I started with a stenciled background using the Ho Ho Ho stencil from TSM (a gift from my sweet friend Michele) and light gray ink (Gina K).

The Santa image was stamped in black and I added just a touch of pink chalk to his cheeks and nose, a bit of Copic B32 to his eyes, and colored the frames of his glasses with a gold fine point pen.  I layered both the Ho, Ho, Ho and Santa image in Real Red cs (SU!) and attached to a top folding white card base.

I finished with a bit of glitter on Santa's beard and added a pre-printed sentiment strip from Gina K.  An easy peasy card, and I liked it so much I made two to help my Christmas stash along a bit!

Lots of fabulous inspiration from the DT that you can find right HERE, so check it out and play along if you want to keep up with your Christmas card stash this year!  This challenge is open till Thursday, March 28th @ 8:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Playdate with Michele & TK

Hello friends.  As you can see from the title of my post, I had another playdate with Michele two weeks ago and she had a special guest at her house...TK all the way from Washington state!  I had been commenting back and forth with TK for awhile, but had never met her in person till going to Michele's.  We played, laughed, hugged, and of course ate (I've mentioned before that Michele is a fabulous cook, haven't I?!!) just like we'd known each other forever!  Definitely a FUN day and one I'll hold close for years and years to come!

Before I share my cards that we started that day, I have to tell you that my sentiments and embellishments are not where I would have put them if I hadn't had an accident.  Yes my friends, with all my card pieces and several cards for up coming posts laying out on my desk, I had just taken a mouthful of hot cocoa and wouldn't you know it, a BIG sneeze came out of nowhere and splattered all my work with brown hot cocoa spots!  GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!  And it wasn't like I could just restamp or stencil the images I'd worked on with Michele & TK as the stamps and stencils were all Michele's and at her house!!  (NOTE TO SELF...NEVER drink hot cocoa at your stamping desk!!)  Anyway, I was able to save my cards with some strategically placed sentiments, trimming, and embellishments, so all wasn't lost!  Well except for my last butterfly card that I had brought for everyone to color...I did have to re-stamp mine as there were just too many chocolate spots to cover up on that one.  So now let's get started...

  This first card is using a stamp and die set from The Stamp Market called Peony Dreams and was stamped with Gina K Orchid inks for the peony and PFS inks for the leaves.  (If you look real close on the leaves, there are some light brown spots that are NOT planned splatters!)  I placed the die cut flower on a Mint Julip layer (PTI) that I believe is from a Poppystamps cover plate die that my sweet friend Lisa sent me awhile ago. I used a white card base underneath and then added a foiled sentiment using pink foil on black (Spellbinders) and finished with some Disco Ball sequins (Gina K).

 This card uses Altenew's Build A Garden: Pristine Peonies and as you can probably tell from the placement of the sentiment, that the purple flower took a pretty big hit of the hot cocoa!  Oh well, it is what it is!  The foiled gold sentiment is from Spellbinders (Everyday Sentiments II) and the background is using Lawn Fawn's Quilted Backdrop over a white card base.  This card was finished with a few purple gems from PFS.

This card was also from the Altenew Build A Garden: Pristine Peonies and was stenciled in light pinks and greens using residual ink from my blending brushes.  This card fared the best from the hot cocoa splatters and I only had to trim a tiny bit off the top center petal and then attached it to a white panel.  Because there wasn't much dimension with the only two layers of stenciling on this flower, I used Altenew's Beautiful Bergenia embossing folder on my panel before attaching to a black panel and white card base.  Another hot foiled sentiment and a bit of bakers twine on the side and this card was finished.

My last card is the winged wreath from Penny Black that was stamped in Versa Fine Black Onyx and then heat embossed in clear before being colored in rainbow order with my Copics.

  Here's a close up so you can see my coloring a bit better.  My sentiment was a gifted die from my sweet friend Birgit for my birthday last month and is called Mini Expressions - Stacked Make A Wish from Creative Expressions.  A few Disco Ball sequins also finished off this bright and fun card.

So there you have it...another FUN playdate with friends.  You can check out Michele and TK's posts HERE and HERE to see what they did with these same images...I'm sure they'll knock your socks off as usual!  Thanks again sweet friend for inviting me over to play with your never ending supply of "toys" and always feeding us with such YUMMY food, and of course all the laughter and hugs.  And TK, it was such a joy to me to meet you and get to know you better, and of course share hugs and laughter too!  What a fabulous day it was all around! :0) 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Time Out Challenge #259 & Just Us Girls #718

Hello friends.  Today I'm playing along with both the  Time Out Challenge and the Just Us Girls challenge where they are both collaborating with each other and are looking for BIRDS on our cards.

I'm always in need of birthday cards and hadn't played with my Concord & 9th Tweet Life stamp and stencil set in quite awhile, so that's how this card started out.  Take a look...

Aren't they cuties?!  I love how big they are...makes it easy to fill up a card!!  I started by simply stenciling the two birds in pinks & oranges and turquoise blues & greens and then stamped the details in black.

I ran my panel through with an older Cuttlebug dotted ef before adding it to an Audrey Blue panel (SSS) that I die cut using The Greetery's Crimped Rectangle Die and then attached both panels to a white card base.

I finished with a sentiment strip that I embossed in white on black and added a bit of bakers twine to the one end and then popped up on foam tape for a bit of dimension.  I used a white gel pen to add the accents to the party hats and also added tiny coordinating pom poms (SU!) to their hats.  A couple Disco Ball sequins finished off my card.

LOTS of inspiration from both challenges and you can play in these challenges till Wednesday, March 27th.

P.S.  All the origami birds were made by one of my daughters when she was in middle school (she's almost 33 now) and she must have made thousands of them...of course I had to keep a few! :0) 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Color Hues Challenge #83 - CREAM & BLUE

Hello friends.  It's time for another Color Hues Challenge and our sweet hostess Carol has chosen for us to work with the hues of Cream & Blue.

I have 2 cards to share with you today, both using the same images but in different layouts.  Here's the 1st one...

My floral image is from SU!'s Inspirational Sketches stamp set and was stamped in Boho Blue ink (SU!) onto a cream colored cs.  I framed it with PFS's Scalloped Circle Die (also in the cream colored cs) and then layered it onto a piece of Boho Blue cs stamped with the same ink using The Greetery's Big Plans Background Stamp.  It may seem a little goofy to put a floral image on a blueprint background, but I really kinda like the look...something different!

I attached both layers to a cream card base and then added a hot foiled sentiment using Prism foil and Spellbinders Essential Glimmer Sentiments.  

For my 2nd card I used all the same elements but did a Z Fold card.  I used the cream colored cs again for my card base and scored it at 4 1/4" and 6 3/8" for the Z fold.

 My sentiment is a better press one from my sweet friend Michele (I think it's Spellbinder's but could be Altenew also...) and this one was finished with a few blue glitter gems (SU!) and a piece of blue ribbon (also SU!).

And here they both are together.  I love this soft and subtle color combination and hope you all will too!  We have LOTS of inspiration from our DT and also our Special GD Steph, and you can find it all right HERE.  This challenge is open till Thursday, March 29th @ 9:00AM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

The Flower Challenge #89 Reminder

Hello friends.  Just a friendly reminder that there's still time to play along with us this month at The Flower Challenge where we are looking for SQUARE cards.

I actually have a trio of cards to share with you today using PFS's Floral Round Frame Press Plate.  These were so easy to put together and will make great Thank You cards.  Take a look...

I used black ink to letter press the floral circle and then colored it with several Copics in shades of blue and then die cut the circle out.  I added it to a square of Boho Blue cs (SU!) that I had embossed with SU!'s Layered Florals ef, and then layered that to a panel of silver mirror cs before attaching to a square white card base.  I used MB's Classic Upper Alphabet Dies to die cut my "M" also from the silver mirror cs, and also added a few white die cut "M"'s beneath to give it a more bold look.

These next two were done basically the same way, but I used multiple colors of ink when inking up my letter press plates, and then added squares of Audrey Blue cs behind them.

For the card on the left I used HB's Dogwood Blooms 3D ef  and SSS's Lumen ef for the card on the right.  I added the same "M" in silver mirror cs to both cards and a few silver gems to the card on the right.  All 3 of these cards are 4 1/4 x 4 1/4, so they'll fit into a regular A2 envelope and not cost anything extra to mail.  Easy peasy and nice to have a few thank you's in my stash!

Lots more inspiration for you from the DT, so check it all out right HERE, and then make a SQUARE card (or two) to share with us in the gallery...we'd love to see YOU there!!  This challenge is open till the 25th @ 5:00PM. 
  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge # 59

Hello friends.  Playing along with the Peace On Earth Challenge so I can keep up with my Christmas card stash.  Take a look at their gorgeous mood board...

Aren't ALL those GREENS gorgeous?!!  I pulled out a stamp and stencil set from PFS called Winter Foliage and had so much fun I created two cards.  Here's the first one...

I started by embossing the background stamp with gold embossing powder, and then used the coordinating stencils to color in the leaves and berries.  I foiled my sentiment in gold using PFS's Holly Jolly foil plate, and because it didn't really stand out much from the background, I added a die cut vellum circle behind it (SU!'s Everyday Detail Dies).

 In this close up you can see the gold foiling better and the colors of the stenciled leaves.  I added this panel to a Gumball Green (SU! - retired) card base and finished off with a few gold metallic pearls (PFS) and a piece of gold cording at the top.

Because I had so much fun stenciling the first card, I decided to make a 2nd card with similar greens for the leaves and red this time for the berries.  My Postage Collage Die (WF) had been sitting out, so I decided to cut the stenciled panel with it, and then again using Shaded Spruce cs (SU!).  I fussy cut the stenciled and die cut panel following the stitched lines so it would fit onto the Shaded Spruce die cut piece, and then adhered to a white piece of cs and then a Shaded Spruce card base. I used a few sentiments from WF's Triangle Tree and also Postage Collage stamp sets.  A few red gems finished off this 2nd card.

Lots of wonderful inspiration from the DT that you can check out right HERE and then play along if like me you want to stay ahead with your Christmas card stash.  This challenge is open till Thursday, March 14th @ 8:00PM. 

EDITED TO ADD: I am also sending these cards over to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where they are looking for us to get our "GRINCH" on by using GREEN on our Christmas cards.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!