Hippity Hoppity- Easter's on its way!

Have I got an Easter-filled card for you today!  I had a ton of challenges this week that all were related to Spring/Easter kinds of themes, and I had such a fun time getting them all to work with one card.  Also, I may have gone a little crazy with Stickles.  As in I had to go downstairs and eat lunch while I was waiting for every.single.thing that I made for the card to dry.  

Ok, so I started with a kraft card, with some pink cardstock and a strip of paper from an Echo Park 6x6 pad (I think it was from Country Drive).  Then, I cut the little Easter bunny from Create a Critter 2 at 3.5 inches and also cut his basket at 3.5 inches.  I cut the eggs from the same page at .75 inches.  The bunny got some cotton candy Stickles, the basket got lime green Stickles, and the eggs got both, as well as a few dots of lavender Stickles on the polka dot egg.  

Next, I cut the kite from the Create a Critter (it is on the giraffe page).  I can't remember the final cut size, I just kept upping it by one notch until the stamp I wanted to use fit.  :)  The stamp is from Pink by Design's "Artisan Tags 2," which is such a great and versatile set.  The kite also got a little lime green Stickles- it couldn't be the only non-glittered thing on the page, right?  To finish off the kite, I used three pieces of twine and tied itty-bitty bows for its string. 

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Pink by Design Stamps- Easter
Fantabulous Cricut- Spring is in the air (kites/balloons)
Bitten by the Bug 2- Eggceptional Easter Eggs
Die Cuttin Divas- Use a bunny
All That Stickles- Lime Green
Craftin Desert Divas- Easter Eggstravaganza
My Paper Crafting- Spring
Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog- Easter/Spring

Thanks a latte!

Hello!  It's challenge day again at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges and this week's theme is one everyone loves:

Anything Goes!

That's right, this is the week to really let your creative juices flow, because there are no rules!  As you may know, I've been working on building up certain parts of my card stash that get used the most.  So for me, this was a great week to make a card that had been "brewing" (get it?  haha) in my head ever since I got Love you a Latte for Christmas.  My very favorite image off of that cartridge is this coffee cup, hands down.  So I started there.  I originally cut it too small, and then upped the size a little and pieced it together.  It turned out to be good that I had the smaller cut on the top of my garbage, because the bigger steam from my actual cut didn't fit on the card, but the bigger steam from the smaller size subbed in just perfectly, 

Next, I found this awesome paper from Echo Park's "This and That" 6x6 stack and paired it with a cream card base.  I distressed the edges of the cream card with some Vintage Photo distress ink.   The ribbon is some that I had in my stash.  Then I hand cut this banner from the same cardstock as I used for the heart, inked the edges with the same ink, and stamped my sentiment using Jessie's ABCs by Lawn Fawn.

All my love

Hi friends! It's been a crazy week, but I had some time today to create and it felt great!  I made this card for the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, based on Sketch 2.  It's a 4x4 square card.  All four of the patterned papers are from the My Mind's Eye "Love Me" 6x6 paper pad.  I arranged them based on the sketch, with the knowledge that they would all go together- that's why I love 6x6 paper pads!  They're basically pre-determined to match. 

I stamped the jar from Pink by Design's "Fresh Goodies" stamp set and colored the lid in with a colored pencil.  Then I filled it up with hearts from the same set.  The label and sentiment are stamped on vellum, which was...interesting...because I don't have any Staz-On ink.  I just used Memento Tuxedo Black, gave it time to dry as much as it could, then turned it over onto a piece of scratch paper and rubbed it like crazy with the back of my scissors to get any excess ink off.  The jar is on foam dots for a bit of dimension.

Good Luck

 One last (?) St. Patrick's Day card today.  I made it pretty quickly, because I have a pretty busy week between work stuff and life stuff this week.  Plus, I'm finding more and more that I just like the look of more simple cards better.  I had a four leaf clover cutout left from Create a Critter 2 (from the day last week when I used the shamrock cut- both images cut together) so I just stamped on a face from Pink by Design's "Orange you Awesome" stamp set, inked a little bit around the edges, and then put it on a piece of paper from my 6x6 SNAP pad.

The ribbon is some old ribbon I had in my stash, and then I used Pink by Design's "Scripted Year" to stamp the sentiment.  I finished it off with three dots of Gold stickles in the bottom corner.

Although this is totally a St. Patrick's Day card, I think it could pull off being used as a "Good Luck" card throughout the year, since four leaf clovers don't stop being good luck when March ends.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Exploring Cricut- Luck of the Irish
Fantabulous Cricut- Luck of the Irish
Red Carpet Studios- Leprechaun (Two Shades of Green)
Die Cuttin Divas- Green and Gold
More than Favors- Something Green

PS: Back in February I won the Pink by Design Valentine's day blog hop prize and the Orange you Awesome set was one of the stamps included in that prize.  Look at all the stamps they sent me!

Jelly beans

I love the Jaded Blossom monthly challenges.  Possibly because they inspire me to make a treat or something other than a card, and possibly because I just love using their stamps.  :)  At any rate, this month their challenge is to do something Easter themed. 

I don't have any special treat bags, so I improvised and used a zipper lunch bag filled with jelly beans.  I cut the topper from the 8x8 Basics stack by Paper Studio and then punched along the border with a border stamp.  Next, I cut the basket from Stretch your Imagination at 3 inches.  Did you know there are no jelly bean Cricut cuts?  At least, I couldn't find any...so time to improvise again!  I used George and cut the ovals at 1/4 inch a bazillion times, then glued them all onto the basket so it would be filled with jelly beans!

The scalloped circle is from Elegant Edges- I cut it at 3 inches using the main image and the shadow.  I lightly inked around the edges of the shadow, and then stamped the Jelly Bean Prayer from Jaded Blossom's Simply Blessings stamp set.  I don't know if you can read it from the picture, but it goes through each color of jelly bean and what they stand for...just make sure you get a bag of classic jelly beans and not one of the fancy ones! 

Smiling Bees

You probably think I've been a busy bee this week- so many days of posting in a row!  Get it, busy bee?  Hahaha!  Anyway, the Trend Watch challenge this week at Paper Smooches Sparks was "Smiles."  I thought of the smiling bee free digi that they have, and that's where the idea for this card came from.

First I used grey cardstock (actually, that was my last step, but I like to start out with the nitty gritty details) and a piece of green cardstock embossed with the Honeycomb cuttlebug folder.  Then I cut the beehive from Create a Critter, and cut the heart off of the top because I didn't want it for this card.

I printed the freebies at two different sizes- the bigger bee was printed at wallet size, and the smaller ones were printed at contact sheet size.  I colored them all in with sharpies, and cut off the antennas that they already had.  Next, I colored some white twine with black sharpies, cut it to the right size, and then taped it to the backs of their heads.  I adhered them with foam squares to the green paper using the thinnest foam squares I had for the small bees and the thickest ones I had for the big bee.  To finish them off, I used some recollections black rhinestones as the bumps at the end of their antennas.  You can't really tell from the picture, but the rhinestones are only sticking to the twine- not to the card- so the antennas kind of move around.  That's why their antennas look kind of like they're going in all sorts of crazy directions in the picture. :)

You're my pot of gold!

It's my second St. Patrick's day card!    This one has a grey card base and patterned paper from the Classics stack by KI Memories.  Then I put across some washi tape that reminded me of gold coins- from Target of course!

The worm was cut from Create a Critter 2 and his bowtie and hat are glittered up with green Stickles.  The pot of gold is from Simply Charmed-cut without the face- and the gold is glittered with goldenrod Stickles.

The shamrock was also cut from Create a Critter 2 (I used the shadow feature to cut it) and the sentiment I stamped on it is from Cardz TV's St. Patrick's Day stamp set.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Simply Create Too- St. Patrick’s Day (or mostly green)                                   

All That Stickles- Green                                                                                                

Bitten by the Bug 2- So lucky Shamrock                                                                 

Celebrate the Occasion- Luck of the Irish                                                             

Craftin Desert Divas- Anything Goes                                                                      

Paper Playtime- Anything Goes
My Paper Crafting- Irish Eyes are Smiling
Simon Says Stamp Challenge- Simon Says...Bit O' Green