Rainbow Butterfly

Well, our Easter started out very nicely, with very mild temps and even a bit of sunshine. You'd never know it now! At the moment I cannot see across the street it is snowing so hard and blowing to beat the band. But at least it waited until dinner was over and the family could head back home. Was nice to have them all here, and now I can enjoy the quiet again!

I have another card this evening I made a couple days ago for the Seems a Little Sketchy challenge #35. I will also enter this in the Dutch Dare Challenge #210 "Clean and Simple'.

                   

           
The DP is from My Minds Eye 'The Sweetest Thing' 6x6 pad, and the orange circle is cut from Echo Park's 'So Happy Together'. The green and yellow cardstock are Stampin' Up. The image (Close to my Heart-Butterfly Collage) I used my brayer and Kaliadecolor Pumpkin Patch ink to ink the stamp and stamped it on CTMH white card. I cut it out with Spellbinders Classic Squares and sponged TH Scattered Straw Distress ink while it was still in the die. I even did a little bit of sewing! But my corners didn't come out to great, so I added the little gold corner stickers to hide the 'oops-es' :) I also added little gold butterfly stickers to the corners and colored them in with an orange marker.

A Little Mojo

Happy Easter everyone.
Had an awesome start to the day with double dose of God's wonderful worship services (I attended both because I am in the choir and we sang at both.) And so far, no sign of the snow and cold north winds predicted for today, but there is a band of dark clouds to the north! So hope you have a beautiful day, too.

A quick little card for the Mojo Monday #286 sketch challenge, round or square. I chose square, and for me, it really did come together quickly. I used the K&Co Botanicals papers and some Bazzil cardstock, K & co Susan Winget Stickers and an EK success border punch. Then finished it off with some purple Recollections rhinestones. Enjoy!

Lovely Lavender

Another card for the CAS-ual Friday #35 challenge-No stamps.

 

Another Graphic 45 Secret Garden card. These 'Lovely Lavender' papers are the ones that made me purchase these 2 Grapic 45 paper pads. I am always drawn to lavender/purple hues; and I'm always looking for lavender papers. They really seem hard to find! I would love a whole 8 x 8 paper stack in nothing but lavender papers. Seems easy to find every other color-but not purples.

I found these gorgeous floral stickers last summer at the Dollar Tree. I think there were 5 different packages, all so lovely. I made a whole bunch of cards for my Granddaughter's baby shower for door prizes. I liked them so much I went back and got more stickers, put them up on the shelf and forgot aabout them. I was cleaning and organizing again the other day and found them again. Ooooooh! HAD to sit down and play again (so much for the organizing!). The challenge-no stamps-had me stumped at first. I am working on another batch of cards for Operation Write Home, and am trying to focus on 'love' or 'miss you' cards. I could have left it without a sentiment. But flipping through pics of  other cards I had made I found one where I cut out the simple letters and heart. Worked very well here. 

Ingredients: 

Papers: Graphic 45 'Secret Garden'; Cardstock-Co-ordinations, Wausau Brite White, 

Accessories: 'Special Moments' Scrapbooking stickers; Offray Ribbon; Spellbinders Hexagon dies; scissors, sanding block

Hope

Spring, or what passes for spring here in the U.P., is making itself know again today. Temp was in the mid 40s yesterday, and it was sunny all day. And it is starting out that way again today, but I'm hearing talk of snow again by Easter Sunday. Oh, well, we know there is Hope for the Future and spring will get here eventually.
Today's card is made using the March sketch over at The Pals Paper Arts blog; and the CAS-ual Friday #95 challenge-No stamps; as well as the Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #35-Bring on Spring.

I've had these K&Co Susan Winget stickers for a while now, and just hadn't found a good match for papers, but they match this new Graphic 45 Secret Garden paper like they were made for it. Now, the sketch speaks for itself-I really like this layout. While the sketch had the image set square, mine is offset a bit-because I dropped the panel and of course it stuck fast and I couldn't get it off without damaging the whole thing, but I think it works fine this way. I think it makes the whole thing a little more casual. And as far as the CCC35 challenge-what says spring more than birds, nests and eggs!

Ingredients:

Papers: Graphic 45 'Secret Garden'

Cardstock: SU Shimmery cardstock; the turquoise is Bazzil, and I believe the light blue is Recollections

Accessories: K&Co stickers, Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles Lg & Sm; Cuttlebug Noveau Borders Embossing folder

gingham and butterflies

Have you seen Graphic 45's  new Secret Garden papers? Oh, my word, they are fabulous! Such pretty prints and tags in the pack. I used just 3 of the papers for my card today, and I have oodles of ideas running through my head for more.
For today's card I used the sketch from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #180. I will also enter this in the Addicted to Stamps and More #37, which was to create anything you like but you MUST use markers; and also the Coffee, Chocolate & Cards Challenge #35- Bring on Spring-a spring inspired card.

Now, I don't know what spring is like where you live, but here is MY YARD on this beautiful spring day. (So I could make a snowman card, right? :) The sun actually peeked out while I was out taking this picture. There is a flower garden between those 2 trees, and sometime in the next couple months it will be a mass of purple and gold crocus blooms. The bottom branch on that tree on the left is 6' off the ground, and it's buried!

This is my grandson sledding on the pile a couple days ago (we actually got more snow after that)-when it was actually sunny. Sooooooooo! Bring on Spring!!!!

But I'm thinking spring mostly brings to mind flowers, and blue skies and warm balmy breezes and butterflies.

So, this is my take on a spring card. This stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up set, Summer by the Sea. I so love this set. 

I started with the Graphic 45 8x8 paper pad, I just had to dig into it. Then I found the Coffee, Chocolate and Cards challenge-spring, and the Sweet Sunday Sketch, and just from the inspiration picture there I knew what I wanted to do with this. I stamped the image on Gina K white cardstock and colored it with Copics. I cut the image out with Spellbinders Classic Squares and cut a piece of SU yellow (So Saffron?) cardstock with Spellbinders Labels 15. I rounded the corners of the image panel with EK corner punch. I added some Pebbles Pastel chalks to the background of the image panel. I had colored the girls' dress with markers, but it just wasn't working for me. I was thumbing through the 6x6  G45 paper pack, and decided to try paper piecing the dress-LOVE how this turned out. This little girl is all ready to go chasing those butterflies.  These little yellow butterflies are from an EK success border punch and I colored them with Copics. All three DPs are from the Secret Garden papers. Sentiment is from Sweet n Sassy Birds & Roses set. The sketch is a square card, but I have chosen to make an A2 card as this will be the beginning of another box of cards for Operation Write Home.

Papers: Graphic 45 Secret Garden, SU cardstock, Gina K cardstock.
Stamps: Sweet N Sassy Birds and Roses, SU Summer by the Sea (retired)
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves
Accessories: Copic Markers, Spellbinders Classic Square dies, and Labels 15 dies; Martha Stewart Deco Shells Border Punch, SU scallop circle punch, Paper Wishes Gems Dazzles, Momento Markers
Enjoy! Please leave a comment-I love to hear from you.

Secret Garden Painted Posies

And it continues to snow-about another 4 inches overnight. Pretty today though-the sun is shinning through and those big flakes are just floating down. It's called Lake Effect Snow-what happens when the cold air blows over the warmer waters (relatively speaking-Lake Superior never gets very warm) of Lake Superior and picks up moisture. It's a dry, fluffy snow that's so pretty. And yes, I do like winter-but it's time for it to go away now!!!!!
Anyway, on to my card for today. Our craft group had a weekend workshop a couple weeks ago and this is one of the cards I made with a new-to-me technique.

For the focal panel I cut out a piece of Kraft Cardstock with Spellbinders Scalloped Label One. On that with Versa Mark ink I randomly stamped 2 of the flowers from the SU Secret Garden set, sprinkled with SU White Embossing powder and heat set. I then used my Aqua pen and some SU craft white reinker to color in the flowers. I heat set the painted flowers (or you can let them air dry, but they must be dry for the next sttep).  I then used a clean aqua painter and my Versa Magic Perfect Plumeria and Spring Pansy dew drop ink pads to color in the painted flowers. When that was completely dry I added some simple stamped leaves in Momento Bamboo Shoots ink.

For the butterflies, I used a scrap of the kraft cardstock and did the white wash over the whole piece, let it dry and then stamped the butterlies (SU Papillion Potpourri & Bloomin' Marvelous)  over it with Perfect Plumeria and sprinkled with clear embossing powder, heat set and cut them out with SU Elegant Butterfly Punch and Bitty Butterfly punch. I added clear rhinestones to the centers fo the butterflies.  The sentiment is stamped in Perfect Plumeria on a scrap of white-but I didn't write down the name of the stamp set (it was one of the other ladies at the workshop). I cut it out with Verve's Mini Vintage Oval die and popped it up with some foam dimensionals. The DP is a scrap from another friend's scrap basket.

Sisters

Another gloomy, snowy day in the U.P. But spring is in the air even tho temps are supposed to be falling again today. I heard a cardinal whistling yesterday-a sure sign of spring. Haven't seen a robin yet, but they should appear any day now.  Lots of heavy, wet snow overnight, but I must say it is very pretty.-and good snowman snow!
So, on to today's card. I used the sketch from this week's 'Hand Stamped Sentiments #154' Sketch. I will also enter this in the 'Flutterby Wednesday #230', anything goes with butterfly or fairy;

The image on this card is another one I colored up some time ago. It's from S.U. Sea Side Sketches.  It was stamped on some shimmery cardstock with Black Staz-on ink and colored with Prisma Colored Pencils. I cut it out with S.U. Labels Framlits. For the mat I traced around the die and hand cut for a smaller border around the image. Initially I had tried a border with Martha Stewart Pop Up Butterfly punch, but that didn't work out, but I had all these pretty little butterflies, so I used them on the image panel-doubling a couple of them for added dimension. The sentiment (CTMH Say it in Style) is stamped with Versa-mark and heat embossed with S.U. White embossing powder.

Design Paper: S.U. Blueberry Crisp
Cardstock: S.U. and Bazzil
Stamps: S. U.,  & CTMH
Ink: Stazon Black, Versa Mark
Accessories: S.U. Label Framelits, S. U. Very Vanilla Ribbon, Martha Steward Deco Shells & Pop Up Butterfly punches, Recollections Rhinestones

Thoughts of You

Post number 2 for today is for the Clean and Simple Challenge #230, a sketch challenge.

     

 I'm still peckin' away at the mound of 'stuff' on my work table. The embossed piece of navy blue cardstock started out as a A2 card but I couldn't seem to work it into a card, until I cut down to a panel for the front of this red card base. A trio of butterflies stamped with SU Night of Navy ink on some scraps of red and blue DP and fussy cut and a simple sentiment strip rounded it out.

Stamp: Hero Arts; Stampendous 'Friendly Phrases'.        
Cuttlebug 'Stylized Flowers' embossing folder
Cardstock: Bazzill Red, SU Navy

Fab Friday Flowers

A gloomy, gloomy day today, after a few days of nice sunny weather. Warmin' up, though. Mid 30s today. Sap should start soon! Spring ahead tonight, and flowers are just waiting to  poke through the earth. Got a TON of snow to melt before that happens, but it's coming!
My first card today uses the sketch from the Fab Friday Challenge#13.

I had colored these flowers some time ago, and they kept surfacing in the pile on my table, so I finally put them to use. They are stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa on Wausau Brite White and colored with Copic markers. Now, the Wausau papers is really not the best choice for Copics, but it seemed to work okay for this image as it didn't require a whole lot of coloring. I cut it out with the matching die (Sizzix/Hero Arts 'Flowers and Butterflies' stamps/die set).
Sentiment stamped on a scrap of white with Versa Magic Perfect Plumaria, sprinkle with Ultrafine embossing powder and heat set; cut with Spellbinders/JustRite Vintage Labels & Banners
This will be another one for my OWH box.
.
DP: Fresh Prints - Cranberry Stripe
Stamps: Hero Arts 'Flowers and Butterflies'; Verve 'Joyful Blooms'
Inks: Momento Rich Cocoa, Versa Magic Night Sky & Perfect Plumaria
CS: Bazzil, Stampin' Up, and some really cool burgandy linen textured that I don't know what it is but sure wish I did because I love it and am almost out  (whew!)
Accessories: Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2, JustRite Vintage Labels and Banners, SU foam dimensionals, Flower Soft, Recollections rhinestone flourish