It’s Easter at Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends! Hope your March is going along well and you’re starting to see some signs of Spring coming! We even have a few flowers trying to pop up out of the ground which is so fun to see! I hope they can hold out for a few cold days ahead.

Today I’m stopping in to share my card for the new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have a very fitting theme of “Easter” this month. I think I’m more than ready to start some Spring related projects, so I look forward to seeing the gallery. Here’s the card I came up with:

How sweet is that bunny passing out his colorful eggs! I pull out an older card kit (2019) and it had this adorable Simon Says Stamp set called “Bunny Wishes” (no longer available) mixed in with the kit which I don’t think came with it, but I wanted to use it with some of the other items that were in the kit like the papers. It was like getting a brand new order and forgetting what I purchased! 😆

I also used this beautiful oval die (not available) from SSS that cuts the oval, the flowers and the stitching marks around it. I added a border of grass to place at the bottom and then I stamped the sentiment from the set and also stamped the “Easter” greeting on another piece of light blue cardstock cut with a banner die. The gingham background was cut with a double stitched rectangle die and then I used the oval die to cut an opening for the bunny scene. I added foam tape around the edges to pop up the panel on an A2 top folding pink card base.

Here’s a close-up view of the cute images that I’ve colored with Copic markers, cut out with the coordinating dies and then popped up over the floral oval scene with foam tape. The extra Easter egg behind the basket was just glued to the scene. It’s hard to see in a photo, but I’ve covered each egg with a glitter brush pen. It’s sparkly IRL.

I did recently get this pretty Iridescent White Cord from SSS and took two strands of it to create a bow and then I attached it to the top of the oval. It gives it a nice sheen and I might be using it again soon!

Thank you for stopping in today! Hope you enjoyed my card and will join us for the challenge this month! Have a great weekend!

Challenges:

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2510 Anything Goes
Make My Monday – #247 Use a Die/Punch
Passion for Markers – #779 Dies &/or Punches + markers (used dies and Copics)
Little Red Wagon – #798 Start Easter Projects
Penny’s – #592 Anything Goes Using Paper
Tic Tac Toe – #tttc266 I used 3rd down or middle across
Four Seasons – Spring/Easter

Playing With Paper Blocks and Bunnies

Hello friends! Easter is coming for us for very soon and I’ve been enjoying all of the Spring that’s starting to come up outside with flowers and buds on the trees! It’s still a little cool, but hopefully the weather will even out and stay warmer!

Since I’ve been trying to get motivated for Easter, I’ve pulled out some papers from my stash and have been inspired to CASE (copy & share everything) a friend that really inspires me to use things I have! First, I’d like to share a fun Easter card that I’ve made for a sketch challenge that I was inspired by as well:

That sitting bunny is so cute! (Thank you Carol…more on that later in post!) If you check out the sketch from the Sketch Saturday challenge blog (see in challenge list below), you will see all of the fun angle strips in the sketch. I thought it would be fun to pull out some Easter papers from my stash. I wasn’t sure how to do the background until I saw that this sitting bunny worked perfect for a part of the paper pad that had this wheelbarrow image in it! I cut it out from the paper and placed the bunny on it.

For the background of the card, I thought it would be fun to use my stencils to create a scene with grass and clouds. The wheelbarrow bunny fit in the open area and then I used the angles from the sketch to cut pieces with the same Easter paper pad. I just eyeballed everything by marking notches and lining those notches in my paper trimmer to get a straight cut. Even the solid paper on the base layer came from the paper pad. I just cut it A2 size to fit over an A2 top folding white card base.

The sentiment was stamped and cut out with the coordinating die. I added some shadow under wheelbarrow with a green marker (not really the color I wanted, but it worked), and colored a bit of pink on the bunny too. I added teal rhinestones next to the sentiment and done.

Next, I wanted to share something else that I was inspired by from my friend Carol at https://ourlittleinspirations.blogspot.com who sent me a very cool card and kind gift:

She always inspires me with her “snippet” creations and coming up with cards like this one to utilize those pattern papers we hoard so much! The pattern is very pleasing to the eye and so I wanted to create one myself! With all of the papers I have, I’m sure I could make a zillion cards! 😆 I also love how she used a monochromatic green theme with it…which I will need to try another one with this idea! You should go check her blog out and be inspired too!

Also, she was very kind in sending me these die cut sitting bunnies & stools! I do not know exactly where this bunny is from, but I’ve seen it around the craft world. So cute! Thank you so much for your kindness and inspiration my friend!

So here’s the card that I created inspired by Carol. I really love plaids and I thought it would be fun to re-create her design which I measured out her pieces and cut based on what I thought they were. It was really fun and not as hard as it looks like it might be. I wrote the measurements and cut from the same Easter paper pad as I used on the card above. I started with a white base…that way if I messed up, it wouldn’t matter too much. The sentiment piece was also from the same paper pad. I just white heat embossed the sentiment and added some stitch details with a white gel pen.

I used one of the sitting bunnies that Carol provided me with, and tried to match up what I had from my stash the best I could to die cut some hearts along with the A2 side folding card base.

I brushed the hearts with a glitter brush pen and called it done.

I had so much fun playing with these paper blocks and bunnies! I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations and inspiration today as well! Thanks so much for stopping by! C U SOON!

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday – #746 optional twist: feature an animal (top card)
Simply Create Too – Bunnies & Blooms #198 (top card)
Make My Monday – Spring, Flowers, Weather, etc. #221 (top card)
Fab ‘N Funky – Spring #591 (top card)
Daring Cardmakers – Spring is in the Air (top card)
The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: dies #63 (top card)

Hopping By For an Easter Hi

Hello friends! I don’t make too many Easter cards, but I sure do love those cute bunnies, the Spring theme and of course who doesn’t love a good chocolate candy or two?! I’ve been seeing some bunnies hopping around my yard lately and so they’ve inspired me! Since the month of March is starting to run away from me, I wanted to participate in a few challenges going on.

This cute little bunny waving out his hand to say “hello” is Bunny from Inky Stamper! He comes with the bow tie I have colored and popped up with foam tape. He also comes with the sentiment as well as the smaller egg hiding among the grass. Such a CUTE stamp set not just for Easter, but other occasions too!

For the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group, the challenge for the month of March is “stitching” and it can be any sort of stitching. I’ve pulled out some Doodlebug Swiss Dot papers along with a special Doodlebug Cute & Crafty paper pad (used for the large egg) to create my scene.

I’ve used lots of fun stitched style dies to help me out including the stitched hexagon die from the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die set you see at the top to create a border. I’ve also used the Taylored Expressions Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over my stitched oval piece. (You will see this same cutting plate in the card below too.) I’ve also used some stitched cloud dies from Lawn Fawn. I’ve also used a grass border die for the bunny to stand on too.

Once I’ve die cut and placed all of my images and die cut pieces together on my card front, I took a black marker and a white gel pen to create stitch lines for the challenge theme as well. I even added stitch marks to the small egg and the bunny’s bow tie. The sentiment was white heat embossed over a black strip and attached to the large oval “egg” and I’ve added some glossy accents to the bunny’s eyes. I think he turned out pretty cute!

This card was made for the #TEMaker challenge in the Taylored Expressions FB Fan Group. The challenge for March is using the colors Lavender Glaze & Potato Chip and/or Easter Parade (Easter/Spring theme). There are SO MANY cute Easter products, but I was trying to use some things that I haven’t pulled out yet.

As in the card above, I’ve used the TE Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock. I used a double stitched circle die to cut it out along with another piece of white cardstock to layer behind the Toffee.

The center of the circle was made by taking the Lavender Glaze and Potato Chip cardstock and using the Easy Strips 1/4″ die and layering them over a double adhesive sheet. Once I’ve cut it down to size, I attached it over the white A2 top folding card base and stamped the Full Circle -Easter stamp in Toffee ink. I took a white pencil to color in portions of the images within it.

I then used foam tape to pop up the toffee layer over top centering the circle image through it. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut from a banner die in my stash and popped it up over the center of the circle image. I also die cut a Lavender Glaze frame from the TE A2 Think Frame Cutting Plate and attached to the card along with a little white bunny from the TE Little Bits-Oh Hoppy Day die set. I sponged some brown ink around the edges and glued a white pom pom for his tail and attached him right above the frame on the right bottom of the card.

It looks like he’s getting ready to hop into the hole to join his other Spring friends.

Well, I HOP you’ve enjoyed my Easter cards today, or at least gotten a smile or been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz – Equinox Seasonal Change-Spring
CRAFT – Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with Colored image (top card)
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes Optional Easter
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft – Anything Goes

Peyton is Painting Eggs for Easter!

Hello there friends! Where have I been? Well, I went off looking for my “MOJO” and he’s doing some disappearing acts on me for sure! I’m having such a hard time getting motivated and feel that my creative juices have completely dried out! Do you ever feel this way too? What are some things you have done to help you? I will keep trying for now! LOL! So sorry for being MIA lately!

Today I must share with you a card I came up with using this really adorable image from Digi Doodle Studios just in time for Easter!

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Isn’t he adorable?! This digital image is called Peyton’s Painted Eggs from DDS and he’s busy at work painting up eggs to get them done in time for Easter! I’d say he looks like myself getting messy and into the job! LOL!

After coloring him up, I used a MFT die to cut him out and create the layered frame around him with some purple glitterstock along with some black and white cardstock. I white heat embossed a sentiment (from Simon Says Stamp) and cut it out with a banner die to go over the image panel.

I took some white ribbon and wrapped it around the corners and attached a bow on the top corner with a flower embellishment in the center…found in my stash.

Also “found in my stash” was the fence and grass dies that I used to attach to the bottom of the card front panel. Some of the “grass” was placed behind the image panel and some in front of it. I also attached in the center a strip of the purple glitterstock Lawn Fawn Spring Plaid paper for the front of the card and this was layered over another piece of black cardstock which was mounted over a top folding 5″ square white card base.

Here you can see how I’ve got him all colored up with Copic markers. He was actually really fun to color up. My first notion was to make him a white bunny, but I thought he would really stand out if he was brown in color instead. I added some blades of grass around him with my markers.

I left the egg he was in the process of painting white along with the plain one on the ground…after all, he IS in the process of working on them! LOL!

I’ve only used the white gel pen for his cheeks and I’ve used a clear metallic gel pen on the paint brush. The “shinny” areas you see on the “fresh paint” colors are the places that I’ve covered with glossy accents. The light is naturally highlighting them!

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Easter bunny card today and it’s helped get you in the mood thinking warm Spring thoughts! I know I’m really looking forward to warmer weather and being outdoors for sure! Easter is just around the corner now!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #73 Anything Goes
Love to Craft – LTCCB44 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #127 Anything Goes
Creative with Stamps – #48 Egg
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2010 Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #407 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – #181 Anything Goes
Sweet Stampers – #42 Easter or Spring
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Easter

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 a lot 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 stencil separately from the kit though. I have actually used all of those items on my card today too!

For the background, I took the jellybean 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 eggs 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. Lastly, 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 jellybeans 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!

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

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 as a design team member. I have enjoyed 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 stamp set 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 Dimensional Glue to adhere the flat images down.

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For the eggs, as mentioned above, I melted the powders (carefully 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!

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)

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:

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!

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 which 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 markers I’ve used: