A pretty basket of Easter eggs...

 

I had this blue embossed piece in my card parts. It had already been inked to better show the embossed design. I am certain I did that by gently swiping an enk pad across the top of it.

I matted it with a navy blue cardstock and adhered it to the card front. 

I cut a small white rectangle with a coin-edge die and stamped it with "Happy Easter."

The basket was in my Easter box, a die-cut left over from last year. After inking it a bit for more dimension, I punched out a few pieces of greenery, die-cut some eggs and filled the basket.

I glued the basket to the white rectangle, putting one of the extra pieces of greenery under the lower right corner, as if it had fallen out of the basket.

After popping the rectangle up on the card front, I knotted a short piece of navy blue, sheer ribbon and adhered it to the basket handle.

I stamped a sentiment on the inside and added a couple of eggs with some of the punched greenery. With those ready-made card parts, this card was done in a flash!

We had a beautiful Palm Sunday here. The weather was perfect for spending some time outside--no jacket required! Some of the trees are beginning to form buds, which means that a steady stream of warmer weather is truly on the way.

 A prolific writer by the name of Anonymous wrote: "Spring: a reminder of how beautiful change can truly be."

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

A bunny border for Easter...

 

It's always fun to use this bunny border die for Easter cards. It cuts the bunnies along the edge of a piece of cardstock, but doesn't cut a bottom edge. I added a green sticker border to the bottom edge of this one for some color contrast.

The sentiment at the top was stamped, die-cut and popped up with foam tape.

The die cuts holes for the eyes and noses, so I backed the eyes with black cardstock and the noses with pink. This was a little fussy to do, especially on the smallest bunny.

I used a pink Prismacolor pencil to add some pink to the ears.

The eggs are actually the negative piece leftover when cutting an "O" from one of my alpha die sets.

I stamped another sentiment on the inside and topped it with three leftover "eggs."

I did things a little differently for this card. The bunnies, eggs, and ears were all done the same way, but the holes for the eyes and noses were filled in with Nuvo Drops.

The sentiment at the top was all in one piece, so I cut it apart and popped up the word "Happy" with thin foam strips. "Easter" was glued directly to the card front.

In this photo you can better see how the word "Happy" is popped up.

I stamped two sentiments on the inside and glued a tiny dimensional heart between them.

Both of these cards were donated, and I envisioned someone purchasing them to send to a grandchild or other loved one.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

I love mushrooms...

 ...not only to eat, but also to die-cut. 

I had my mushroom dies out on my work desk, laying next to a couple of scraps. You know how it is, you see them laying side-by-side and you just have to make use of them.

I found a striped cardbase that included the colors of my mushrooms, and this was a good chance to use it. After die-cutting a rectangle in a coordinating color, I created a little scene with the mushrooms and scatterred some gems among them. 

The sentiment was stamped, die-cut and popped up with foam tape.

I added a panel with a stamped sentiment to the inside to finish the card.

For this card I created a cardbase from some patterned, one-sided cardstock in my stash. It nicely coordinated with my mushrooms. This time I added a few sprigs of die-cut greenery to the mushrooms and used a metallic marker to add some dots for interest.

This sentiment was a computer printed one on a larger panel that was in my stash. I die-cut the rectangle, making sure that the sentiment was more-or-less centered before adding my mushroom scene. The whole panel was popped up with some thin foam tape.

This sentiment was also in my stash, paperclipped to the one on the front. I think I've had them for a couple of years--it's about time I used them!

I had one tiny mushroom left and added it to the inside of this card, along with a strip of the cardstock used to make the cardbase.

So, have you ever picked edible mushrooms and then actually eaten them? More than 30 years ago, I found some Morel mushrooms growing under my deck. I knew they were Morels because of their distinctive shape and look. I cleaned them well, sliced them up and sauteed them in some butter. They were SO delicious! For many years afterward, I would check under the deck to see if any more were growing there. I never saw another one. I don't know how the spores ended up there, but it was magical to find those mushrooms.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Still using those stickers...

I was determined to use up an entire sheet of stickers, and since they were mostly images of spring flowers, I used them to make more Easter cards.

I used two identical stickers of yellow crocuses at the base of a die-cut cross. The cross was cut from kraft cardstock. All the interior pieces were cut from a dark brown cardstock with a sheen. I pieced them back into the design of the cross. 

The sentiment was stamped directly onto the DSP.

There were quite a number of small round shapes cut into the design of the cross. In the four largest circles, I glued a gold gem. The tinier round circles were filled with a metallic gold Viva Decor pen.

On the inside, I stamped a sentiment and added a small strip of the DSP.

As you can see, I added some of the same DSP to this card, only this time I matted it with some blue cardstock.

I cut another small panel from white cardstock and again, added a blue mat. This small panel was adhered with foam tape to give it some dimension.

I stamped the sentiment and used a "grass" border punch to create the border. After adhering the grass, I tucked in some blue crocus stickers at random, creating a little Spring scene.

I stamped the sentiment on a panel for the inside and added a thin strip of DSP, matted in blue. As a final touch, I adhered the last of the crocus stickers.

It was very satisfying to use up a sheet of stickers. Oftentimes, when the thrift store gives me sheets of stickers, they are only partially usable or, sometimes, not at all usable. Stickers do not always age well!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Easter cards featuring pretty stickers...

One of my preferred ways to use one-dimensional stickers on cards is to adhere them to cardstock and then emboss the cardstock. Here are three cards where I used that idea:

Each of the four flowers on this card is a separate sticker. I simply adhered them all where I wanted them on the white rectangle, stamped the sentiment, and then added some texture with an embossing folder.

The front of the card is an inch narrower than the back. I used a border punch to create a scalloped edge, then added some pale pink polka dot paper so that just the scalloped edge showed. I added a strip of deep pink cardstock to the inside right edge and rounded the corners.

After matting the white rectangle with the same deep pink, I adhered it to the card front.

I think the texture nicely camouflages the stickers, making them look as though they are printed on the cardstock.

The sentiment on the inside was printed with my computer.

This tulip image is a single sticker that was adhered before embossing. 

I added a die-cut sentiment and a few purple Nuvo Drops.

A stamped sentiment on the inside finished this card.

This card was made similar to the first card. I added some printed cardstock to the front, along with a thin green strip of cardstock to finish the edge. A wider strip of green was added to the bottom inside edge and the corners were rounded.

I curved the sentiment stamp in my stamp positioner to match the curve of the die-cut oval. After stamping the sentiment and adhering the sticker, I embossed it. The embossing caused the coin-edge detail from the oval die to nearly disappear, so I put the oval back into the die and ran it through my Big Shot again. That did the trick and it didn't flatten out the embossing too much.

A simple stamped sentiment on the inside finished the card.

These were all donated. I've made quite a few Easter cards for the thrift store, so now I have to buckle down and get some more cards made for my own use. Easter is coming up so fast. It will be here before we know it!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Sweet birthday wishes...

This is the card I made for our oldest granddaughter whose birthday is tomorrow. She is a lovely girl who lives and works in New York City.

I started with a piece of green cardstock that measured 4 1/4" X 5 1/2". I cut two of the red checked pieces of DSP that measured 1 3/4" X 4" and adhered one on each side of the (landscape) green panel.

The center gatefold began with a piece of green cardstock that measured 4 1/4" X 11", scored on the long side at 2", 3 3/4", 7 1/4" and 9".  After burnishing the folds, I added glue to the back of the center section and adhered it to the center of the green panel with the red checked pieces on it. Note that it will overlap those checked pieces a bit on each side.

Two pieces of the cherry DSP were cut to 1 3/4" X 4" and glued to the two front panels of the gatefold. 

The center panel with the die-cut cherries and stamped sentiment was created with dies. I simply chose some that would fit nicely on the card front. The left half of this rectangle was glued to the left hand front of the gatefold.

I cut two more pieces of the cherry DSP that measured 1 1/2" X 4" for the inside spaces of the gatefold flaps. I would have liked to use the checked print here, too, but I didn't have enough of it.

A piece of white cardstock was cut to 3 1/4" X 4", stamped with a sentiment, and adhered to the inside center area. And that finished my card.

This was fun to make and just a bit different from the usual gatefold. I hope you'll give it a try.

We are looking forwarad to warmer weather for the final days of this week. It only got up to 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) yesterday, but we should reach at least 40 today and be in the 50s tomorrow. Come on, Spring!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Two purrrrrfect birthday cards...

I have a set of stamps that includes a few stylized cats and three or four sentiments. I haven't used it much, so I decided it was time to ink up some of those cats!

This is the first card I made. I used a black card base and added a panel of woodgrain-patterned DSP in shades of pink. Before adding the panel, I wrapped a sheer black ribbon around it and tied it in a bow.

I cut an oval from some pale pink cardstock and stamped it with one of the cats and one of the sentiments in the set. The oval was popped up with some foam squares.

I added three black enamel dots in graduated sizes to the upper right corner for a little embellishment. 

The cat stamp did not originally include eyeballs--just two blank round circles. I decided he needed a couple of eyeballs, so I used a finepoint black pen to add them.

This sentiment is from another cat-themed stamp set that I have, and the pawprints are from a pet sympathy stamp set.

This card features my favorite cat stamp from the set. The floral paper was a final scrap that needed to be used. The border at the bottom was also a leftover piece on my desk, so I applied it to my card front. I did bend that little piece in the center back up and glue it down after I looked at this photo. I just didn't bother to retake the photo!

I dug through my flower dies to find one that looked most like the flowers in the DSP. I added some bright pink gems to their centers.

The stamped oval was popped up with foam squares.

The inside of this card was the same as the previous one.

We have survived our raging weekend blizzard that closed businesses, school activities and churches, shut down the bus system and caused a lot of aching muscles from shoveling--including mine. We are fortunate that the city has an entire army of snowplows that jumps into action at the first flake. They kept the city streets open for emergency vehicles. We got about a foot of snow at our house. Areas south of us got 20+ inches!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl