Easter – Stamped Smiles

It’s Easter at Cute Card Thursday!

Yes! Hello friends! Easter IS on the way, isn’t it?! I remember many Easters ago of hiding the eggs for the kids and then forgetting where I hid all of them myself, so I had to join in the Easter egg hunt too! LOL! Do you have any fun Easter memories?

So since it’s Thursday, it’s time for a fun new challenge at Cute Card Thursday! Obviously, the theme this week is “Easter“! We look forward to seeing what Easter makes you’re making this week, so come join us! Here’s my card:

Vicki-CCT577-SSSEgg-stra Sweet Easter

I had alot of fun creating this card! I couldn’t help myself, I had to snatch up that Simon Says Stamp Limited Edition Egg-Stra Sweet Easter card kit. (Sorry, it’s sold out, but you can still purchase the stamp set, Background stamp, egg dies, and stencilseparately from the kit though. I have actually used all of those items on my card today too!

For the background, I took the jelly bean background stamp and clear heat embossed it and then while I was cutting it out with a stitched rectangle die, I also took one of the egg dies and cut out the center of the yellow card panel. I cut a piece of white cardstock the same size as the yellow layer and then used the stencil and the Nuvo mousse that came in the kit and sponged it over the white panel. I layered this piece along with a black heat embossed sentiment over vellum on a strip to wrap around the yellow panel along with a piece of black cord at the top. I took some foam tape and mounted these pieces onto a white A2 sized top folding card base. Lastely, I’ve added some clear sequins filled with some Nuvo glitter drops in the centers.

Here’s a closer look at this sweet little Easter bunny that I’ve colored in with Copics. I fussy cut it out and then decided to line up the bottom of it and cut it out with the same stitched die that I used on the yellow background panel. I kept his ear out of it.

I took the glossy accents that also came in the card kit and covered the jelly beans with it. I also took a couple of metallic gel pens to make some dots on a few of the Easter eggs and center of wheel. Up close, you can see some of the shimmer from the Nuvo mousse in the white background egg that I stenciled on.

Vicki-CCT577-SSSEgg-stra Sweet Easter-flat

Lots of fun little details going on in this card, but that’s what I love about Easter…so many colorful and happy things going on!

Please hop on over to the Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the design team has come up with for inspiration and be sure to join us in the gallery with your creation too this week!

Thanks so much for dropping in today! I will see you soon!

challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – No Designer Paper
My time to Craft – Easter or Hedgehogs
Brown Sugar – Spring or Fall
Creative Craft – No Patterned Paper
Crafty Cardmakers – Easter
Crafty Gals Corner – Easter is on its way
Crafting By Designs – Easter Challenge

Cute Card Thursday Has Spring Fever! (Plus a Free Stamp for Someone)

Hello friends! Hope you are having a great week so far! It is Thursday already and we are getting closer to the weekend and even closer to the end of March already! WOW!

Since it’s Thursday, it’s time for a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday! The theme of the challenge this week is “Spring Fever“! I can feel it for sure! Hope you can join us this week with your Spring creations! Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge:

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You may have seen a couple of creations I’ve made using Brutus Monroe products and I’m happy that I was able to get my latest “Bunnies and Blossoms” Inspiration Box (Says it is sold out..sorry!) out for a play recently. Oh those little bunnies with the big teeth are too cute!

So I took some Aqua Pigment Paper and did the “smooshing” technique with a couple of distress inks and the little Aqua Pigment bottle from the kit (see photo) for an added color and shimmer. I set that aside and worked on the images.

Taking a couple of the scene images from the stamp set in the kit called “Some Bunny“, I put them together to create this scene over some X-Press It Card and colored everything in with Copics. I then cut it out and sponged along the edge where the grass is and attached it over the smooshed watercolor panel. I took both the bunnies from the set, colored them as well and fussy cut them out and popped up the one in the front with foam tape and glued the one in the back. I cut both of these panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die.

I stamped the clouds in the upper portion and colored them with a white gel pen. I then took a sentiment from the same stamp set and heat embossed it with the Brutus Monroe Alabaster EP and die cut a banner strip. I layered this piece over a piece of black cardstock and then took some of the paper from the kit and layered it behind the black. This is where I took the ribbon and wrapped around the layers and added the bow too. This was all attached to a white A2 top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the image panel. You can see the pretty shimmer from the Aquapigment from the kit mixed in. I also took some liquid applique and put it on the bunny tails so that when I heat set them, they puffed up. Always hard to photograph, but I’ve added some shimmer to the carrots with a clear glitter brush pen and colored the shovel parts with a silver gel pen. Lastly, I’ve attached some sequins from the kit and filled the centers with some Nuvo White Blizzard Crystal Drops.

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From a different angle you may be able to see more of the shimmer on the card. I love how it turned out and it certainly has me getting that “Spring Fever” where I can’t wait to go outside!! How about you? What do you look foward to in the Spring?

Please HOP on over to the Cute Card Thursday blog and take a look at the rest of the inspiration from the design team and play along with us this week! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

**BEFORE I GO**

If ANYONE is interested in this stamp set (brand new in package) from Brutus Monroe, I would be more than happy to just send it for FREE to anyone, anywhere, just please let me know by leaving a comment or shooting me an e-mail! The stamp that I got was sent in a surprise box and I’m sure that I won’t have a need to use it.

*Update* – Sydney Austrailia Stamp has been claimed! Phoenix stamp (below) is still available until someone wants it and sends me an address where to send it to.

“City Sidewalks – Phoenix” is a set of 3 clear stamps. (no longer available for purchase.)

Brutus Monroe City Sidewalks-Phoenix

Thanks so much for dropping in today my friends!! Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter my card for:

Alphabet Challenge – ‘Z’ is for Zesty Colors (I’ve used Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade distress inks for background)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies (PIP1911) – Anything Goes
Allsorts – Favorite image, stamp or die (I love using stamps and coloring them!)

Eggs in One Basket

Hello friends! Back today to share a fun Easter card with you!

Before I get to my card, I wanted to let everyone know that this will be my last post with Sparkle N Sprinkle as a design team member. I have truly enjoyed my time creating with the products and I’m sure I’ll be pulling them out to play with on my blog from time to time! Sometimes we just have to lighten up our “baskets” to make things a little easier to carry.

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This little chick dressed in bunny ears just makes me giggle!! I had so much fun with this cute March release stamp set from Sparkle N Sprinkle called Easter Parade by Jan Mahew. The other chick has this fancy hat on and is adorable too! 🙂

To start out with, I thought it would be fun to take this basket weave embossing folder to create the background of the card (resembling a basket of course!) and I rounded the top corners of it along with taking some of the new colors of Super Thick embossing powders in the Spring Lilac and Pink Cheeks and sprinkling some over top of this background. I heat embossed it from underneath so it wouldn’t fly all over. (Remember that you don’t need anything to attach it with, just heat set it from underneath!)

I’ve also used these embossing powders to create the look over the eggs as well! I stamped out the open image egg from the stamp set and then layered the Spring Lilac, Pink Cheeks and Neon Super Thick Embossing Powders in strips and very carefully heat set it from underneath. (I did this BEFORE they were fussy cut out.)

I thought that my images needed grounding, so I took a grass border die and cut a strip to place at the bottom of the card front. I wrapped some yellow ribbon around the basket background and also stamped out the CUTE sentiment from the stamp set and made a banner with it that I’ve also added a bow, button and twine in the center of. I’ve attached all of this to an A2 sized top folding card base. I flipped up the edges of the banner to give it a bit of dimension.

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Here I wanted to point out to you this adorable little chick! If you look at his belly area, you will see that he looks quite fuzzy! After I colored him in with my Copics and fussy cut him out with scissors, I took the Nuvo Medium Tip Glue Pen to go over his belly area with and then sprinkled over it with the Canary Flocking. I always press it into the area for good adhesion and let it dry. Now you have a fuzzy feeling peep! I added him to the background and nestled him in the grass border. I used the SNS Dimensional Glue to adhere the flat images down.

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For the eggs, as mentioned above, I melted the powders (carfully trying to keep it contained within the lined stamped egg image) and then fussy cut them out with scissors. Then I took some foam tape and nestled them among the grass too. As you can see, I have cracked eggs which accidentally happened when I pushed down on the eggs to stick them. I actually thought it was sort of cute with the basket theme and funny chick dressed like a bunny, so I cracked them even more and kept it that way! (It was hard to capture in the photo, but the eggs with the embossing have a pretty shinny sheen over them. It was sure fun to play with those embossing powders!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and that you hop on over to check out this fun stamp set along with those super thick EPs!!

Thanks so much for dropping in today! I enjoy reading each comment and what you have to say! If you’d like to see a closer look at the details about this card, you can also check out my blog post over on the Sparkle N Sprinkle blog too!

I see that several of you enjoy reading my blog on Wednesdays, so of course I will still be posting filled with lots of fun inspiration to share…so stay tuned!

Here are the Sparkle N Sprinkle products used on my card today:

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional twist: Spring
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #339 Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart – Just for Fun (Anything Goes)

Anything Goes at Cute Card Thursday!

**Please see my TURNER SYNDROME AWARENESS BLOG HOP post for details on how to enter for prizes and learn what it’s all about!** – ends Feb 7th! (Today is last day!)

Happy Thursday friends! 🙂 It’s Thursday and that means it’s time for a NEW Cute Card Thursday challenge this week! So this week it’s our beginning of the month “ANYTHING GOES” challenge! We can’t wait to see your creations!

Our sponsor for this challenge is Whimsy Stamps.

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Are YOU thinking Spring too?! I am, but I don’t think it’s working very well with the snow, cold and ice we’ve been getting! LOL! So I will stay warm inside and bring my thoughts of Spring to my craft room!

I am using this really sweet digital image from Whimsy Stamps called Think Spring Bunnies by Crissy Armstrong. It was previously released as a rubber stamp, but now it’s available in digital format! I have printed out this image and used the following Copic Markers for coloring:

(Click each number below to purchase from Whimsy Stamps. *Please note that if you click on a link and it’s not in stock, you can enter your e-mail address to be notified when it comes back in stock. If there’s not link, it’s not found in store.*)

Bunnies – W5, W3, W1, W0, E33, E31, E30, –C3, C1, C0 (tails)-, E44, E42, E40, Blender 0 (spotted bunny)
spotted bunny inside ears, nose face – R20, R00
Wooden sign – E25, E23, E21 (E23 used for center of yellow flowers)
flowers – Y17, Y15, Y11, V17, V12 – YG67, YG61 (leaves/stems)
grass – G24, G21, G20
butterfly – Y11, R00
sky around image – B01, B00, B000, B0000

Here’s a closer view of the colored image. I have also used a white gel pen in the bunny’s tails as well as the spotted bunny’s cheeks. I also took a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen to go over the butterfly and the flying bug’s wings.

It was so fun to color these furry bunny butts!! 🙂

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I’ve used some of the digital papers released last month called Oh Boy…really loving the ginghams in this set! So I’ve cut out both these papers along with some solid yellow papers (from same set) and the colored bunny strip with the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles dies. I also took a strip of gray colored cardstock and used an older border die from Whimsy Stamps to create the scalloped edge.

These were all layered onto a white A2 sized top folding card base. I wrapped some twine along the edge and tied it in a bow and then lastly I’ve added some yellow crystals from Pretty Pink Posh randomly over the card.

Really hop(e) you’ve enjoyed my card today and please check out the Cute Card Thursday challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team has come up with! Thanks so much for dropping in!!

Whimsy Stamps products used: (Copics see list above.)

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges (C4C469) – Ground Hog or Critter
Send a Smile 4 Kids – Anything Goes/Easter/Spring
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: use a critter
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes

Hello Cute Chicks!

Hello friends! Err…should I say “Cute Chicks”! 🙂

I have some more Whimsy Stamps inspiration to share with you today using this sweet image by Crissy Armstrong called Penguin’s Cute Chicks. Now it may look familiar to you and that’s because it was originally made as a rubber stamp, but starting with this month’s release it has been released in digital format! So it’s great to now have both options available to you!

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I am a huge penguin fan and Crissy’s penguins are so fun to color! I have colored this image with the following Copics (Click on the underlined numbers to purchase from Whimsy Stamps.)

Penguin Body, Beak, Feet, Cheeks: C8, C5, C3, C1, C0 – YR18, YR15, YR12 – R00, R000
Penguin hat & scarf: E89, E87, E84, E81
Chicks: Y38, Y17, Y15, Y11 – Cheeks: R00
Chick blue & purple ribbons: B39, B37, B34 – purple: V17, V15, V12
Egg shell and around image: BG000
Grass: YG67, YG63, YG61

(More up-close details below!)

I have also used some fun digital papers from the January digital release called “Oh Boy” digital papers collection. (You may remember the “Crateful of Kittens” card that I had previously done which was using these same papers. I’ve used both the striped and solid papers for my card here. At the top of the striped papers, I used the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio dies to cut a curvy border. I cut another piece like that in black cardstock to layer behind it.

I took the WS Painted Sayings clear stamp set and stamped the greeting in the upper left corner of the image panel and I also used the splatter images from the set and stamped some black splatters over the solid colored digital papers. Before attaching the striped panel to the solid background, I added some white ribbon with a bow and a black button with a bow twine through it. I attached this to the solid panel and then attached all layers to a white 5″ square top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the image with my coloring. For around the edges of the image panel, I took a glue pen and sprinkled on some clear glitter for a bit of a sparkly touch around the design. I layered this onto a black piece of cardstock and then added some craft foam behind it for a slight dimension and attached it to the card front.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! Thanks for stopping by!! I’ll see you back again tomorrow for another really fun project I made!

Here’s the Whimsy Stamps products used on my card today: (For the Copic coloring list, please see the above underlined numbers to click and purchase.)

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

As You Like It – Pearls or Buttons? (I love to add buttons in the center of bows and with different colors it can work on any style you’re designing.)
Crafting From the Heart – #235 Anything Goes

Cuddle Bunny at Whimsy Stamps

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great weekend! The last time I posted I mentioned it was so nice that we could cook out on the grill, well this week it’s snow conditions and very cold! With life in the Midwest, you never know what you’re going to get.

I thought it would be nice to turn that warm weather feeling to the inside of my craft room and create with this January released digital image from Whimsy Stamps:

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Fell in love with this darling image by Crissy Armstrong called Cuddle Bunny. This had been a previous rubber stamp that is now available in digital format! I think there are many advantages to getting a digital version: 1) It NEVER runs out of stock in the store because it’s a digital file, PLUS, you don’t have to wait for it to come in the mail! 2) You can size the image(s) whatever size you want it to be! 3) You can easily combine other images with it and arrange them as you’d like before printing it out. 4) You can color with Copic markers without worrying about anything getting smeared and lastly: 5) You can still feel like you’re “getting your hands crafty” by coloring and finishing out your creation with other products! So, if you haven’t jumped on the “digital wagon”, an image like this would be a great one to try out!

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For my card, I have colored my image with Copic markers, see the detail list below and then sponged some Tumbled Glass distress ink with an ink blending foam tool and a cloud stencil. I then cut it out with the Whimsy Stamps Notched Rectangle dies and added a yellow layer behind it that I’ve notched out by hand.

For the background I’ve taken a piece of blue watercolor paper panel and lined the top and bottom of it with a strip of flower borders from my old stash. I used a glue pen for the centers of the flowers and attached some glitter over top. I added a strip of sheer white ribbon across it and attached it to a piece of shimmer luster paper whih was mounted onto a 5″ square yellow card base.

Lastly, I used some craft foam behind the image panel and attached it over my card and then added the ribbon bow with a chipboard flower in the center.

Here’s a closer look at the image where you can see how I’ve colored it. Hard to capture in the photo, but I’ve also taken some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops and added a tiny dot in the centers of the white flowers. I have also used the Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush and went over the butterfly.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and I thank you so much for stopping in! I look forward to sharing another project with you tomorrow! See you soon!

Here’s the list of Copic colors I’ve used: (Click on the underlined numbers below to purchase these markers from Whimsy Stamps.)