A cherry of an Easter Tradition

My husband and I got our traditional Easter gift early!  I talked the other day about our Black Friday tradition, so it seems fitting to talk about an Easter tradition.

Cherries are one of my favorite foods (and pasta- no worries I don't eat these together! lol!) These are my socks and I thought they deserved a fun thank you card for my MIL.  I saw that the cherry blossom festival has begun in DC so...

I made this fun little cherry card!  The image is Cherries in Colander by Karen Lockhart and it is so sweet!  I colored the image with copics and then glazed the cherries to give them a juicy look.

I used my Cricut Wild Card cartridge to make the card and the coordinating envie.   The base and envie are Bazzill paper.  I punched a circle for the inside of the card so I could actually write a thank you. :)  I'll post DH's socks later when I can think of a card that goes with them (wait 'til you see 'em).

I entered this at Hand Full of Stamps for their sweet challenge. :)

What kinda Easter tradition(s) do you have?  What kind of project could you make that's inspired by an Easter tradition?

Happy Cluckers!

Hope Stamps Eternal posted their Cupcake Inspiration Challenge for the week and it has the best colors!

I literally just got this set of stamps and the papers at my LSS yesterday.  I went so I could join in some make-and-take fun with Alma de la Rosa from Cat's Pajamas.  I'll post what I got to make soon- promise!  In the meantime, I got really inspired and ...

Made a fun chicken card!  I'm not one who usually goes for cluckers, but this was so darn cute, I couldn't resist.  The set is Cat's Pajamas Beans and Bunnies clear set.

I made 5 of these little cluckers using BG Kioshi and green Bazzill paper for the background.  The ribbon is from Papertrey, oh and I stamped the card base with the egg trio that came in the stamp set.  I was trying to give the card a lot of texture and eye candy.  The chick 'n eggs were colored with Copics- RV34, R12, B00, YG03, Y15, C-1, and T1 and the image is mounted on the reverse side of Little Yellow Bicycle's Lucky Me paper (except for the one below, it's on a scrap that was in front of me when I made the first one. :) ).

I was pretty happy with the layout and colors, but the more I looked at these I thought they were missing something.  So I decided to add a little flower and brad for a little extra visual bliss. :)

I'm pretty happy that I stretched myself and added so many patterns 'n such.  Hopefully I'll actually send these cards out in time for Easter (if not, Hi family! Imagine one of these cards in your mailbox!)

Have a GREAT Sunday everyone!

EDIT- I also added this card to the following challenges:
The Pink Elephant, Lexi's Creations, Stamp with Fun, Charisma Cardz, Stampin for the Weekend, Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, Incy Wincy Designs, Fussy and Fancy Friday, Pile it on

SSDS Sketch Saturday!

This week the challenge was to follow the sketch.  I love the challenge of working within a sketch.  I pretend I am on Project Runway (I know kinda dorky of me) and I have Tim telling me to "make it work". 

I'm pretty pleased about the results and a little surprised that it seems to have more of a Fall feel in spite of the fact that Spring has arrived.  I must have Clemson orange on the brain (I was making this while watching them play lose last Friday).

The image is from Sunshine Stamps, who is sponsoring the challenge over at Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday this week.  Be sure to join in the fun for a chance to win 3 digi stamps of your choice!  

Don't forget to see what everyone on the DT created and leave us comments.  We'd all love to hear what you think. :)

Sparkles Christmas Challenge- Favorites

Sparkle has a Christmas challenge each week.  This week she challenged us to use something on our card that represents our favorite part of the holidays.  Thanksgiving has always been a bigger holiday in my husbands family than Christmas.  We have 2 family birthdays during that time and many moons ago his whole family used to descend on the family dairy farm Ala Norman Rockwell.

 

When I was a kid, my Grandpa Ahboo (my nickname for him) used to put up the tree after we finished eating the turkey.  A few years ago we had to change the Thanksgiving venue and a new tradition was begun.  We all go to my SIL on Turkey Day and everyone comes to our place on Black Friday to decorate my house.

 My husband and I have 4 trees that get decorated with ornaments and everyone gets a job.  No I didn't buy all these trees.  We bought one and inherited the others when family members downsized.  I love that day.  We have pulled pork cooking, hot spiced cider, and carols playing all day.  We have a tiny family with mostly just adults so we draw names in August for presents (it's supposed to be a surprise, but we all manage to figure out who has who).  After dinner we open presents since we won't get to see each other again until after the new year has begun. 
So that's how come my card has an ornament! :)

I used Penny Black stickers and embellished them with various Stickles to give the card some glitz.  The card base is Amuse and the ribbon is random scraps.  No stamping at all!  Quick and easy!!

Have you begun making any Christmas cards yet?

*Edit- I also added this card to the ABC Christmas Challenge this week! :)

Triplets for the Papertrey Blog Hop

Papertrey's Blog Hop for March was a call to button lovers.  I SO LOVE USING BUTTONS!!!  Maybe it's a throwback to my childhood when my mom would hand me her cookie tin full of buttons.

How much fun is this Papertrey Baby Button Bits set!?!  I hand punched the scallops to get the lace effect.  I like the effect, but my hand is not as fond. ;)  The peapod is stamped with StazOn Olive and then I just colored it in with a random copic marker that seemed to work.  The buttons are from Papertrey.  The ribbon and card base are AMuse.

This snail is too cute!  I used lots of scraps that I conned convinced my DH, FIL, and MIL to help punch out ages ago for the background papers (I figured I better start making stuff with those or I may never be able to con convince them to help again).  I used a random white button I had and colored the little fella with yet another random copic.

 

For this card, I finally got my act together and actually sewed the button on to the tag.  I like the sewn detail, but I get so excited to put the cards together sometimes I forget (blush).

So here are the triplets all together.  They are each sure to go to a good home in the near future.  I know a few ladies who are expecting a bundle of joy soon!

Butterfly Flutterby

Hope Stamps Eternal has this image as their inspiration piece for this weeks challenge.  We have a running joke at the stamp club I belong to at my LSS about how many butterfly stamps are in everyone's stash, so I knew this was the challenge for me! :)

I'm still using paper from Amy Butler collection!

I'm not sure you can tell, but I stamped the card base with my favorite gerber daisy, and then put lots of layers on the base.  I was trying to go for a simple and elegant look.  What do you think?  I put the same daisy on the envie.  I get very "martha" about the envies sometimes.

I used a very old SU set to make this little fella.  I was really making every piece of paper count here.  I had just enough scraps to make five exact cards with this look.  You can't see it very well here, but I used a glitter pen to add some sparkle to the butterfly wings.

I love the look of this card, but I'm kinda disappointed with the rub-on.  As I look at it in this post, it looks like it is already peeling!!!!!  Ugh!  It may be time to go back to the drawing board.  At least the envie is cute. :)

Any advice out there for stubborn rub-ons?

Tear it Up!

My fun news........

I'm one of the newest DT members of Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturdays!  This weeks challenge is Tear it Up.

I have a love/hate relationship with tearing.  I always have these great visions of things I can create from tearing paper, but I always seem to get too aggressive with the tearing. :)  I used Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety papers for the various layers and Memory Box's Twizzle Tree stamp.  The ribbon and flower came from "The Store", so no idea on those, and I put my Copics away before jotting down which ones I used.  

Hopefully the weather is a fantastic where you are as it is here!  This is good, 'cause my beloved Clemson Tigers broke my heart in yesterday's game (along with several other pick's on my bracket) and I need something to lift my b-ball woes.  Who do you have going all the way in the Big Dance?

Be sure to check out all the other cards from the new DT at Stamp Scrap & Doodle Saturdays. We'd all love to hear from you and we'd love to see your card! Our sponsor this week is Sew Many Card.  Enter your cards and you could win 5 digis of your choice.

Enjoy Life

I'll have some fun news to share soon!  In the meantime...

Enjoy Life!  I made this little guy bit ago, but it seemed like the perfect card to share on a cheerful day.  The paper is from Bloom and Grow from My Minds Eye, the image is from Stamps by Judith, and the sentiment is, well, a mystery.  (If you know, please share!)

I "colored" him/her using some random Copics and think this furry one is just a sweetheart!  Do you have a favorite furry?

Spring Cleaning

 

I have come to discover that I own a shockingly large amount of supplies and have completely lost track of what I own.  I know, I'm the only one that has ever had this discovery! :)  After 5 moves to 4 towns in 2 states and about a bazillion dollars spent on organizing books/magazines, I have come to the conclusion that I am an out-of-sight = out-of-mind kinda gal.  I've also put the pieces together to realize that I think in rainbows and am VERY lazy about putting things away.  If it ain't easy, I ain't gonna put it back where it belongs.  Where am I going on this rant?  After yet another nutty where I was yelling in my studio about what I couldn't find, my husband took pity (or was it self preservation) and helped me move around my furniture and better organize my space. 

Bless his heart, he's such a good guy.  He calls this The Store. He says it looks like a store front and keeps asking me "How's The Store treating you today?".  I have to say, since getting this set up this way, I have used a TON more stuff and have had only a little itch to buy something new!  So here's something I made with the toys from The Store.

I used some cards from heaven-only-knows where and used my cricut to cut the green Amuse paper.  I stamped the cupcake on Memory Box paper with stamps from Papertrey and I colored the leaves with one of my green copics.

Part of my discovery when I was cleaning was that I have an inordinate amount of pink stuff.  I had no idea that I was such a girl!  Now I'm on a mission to use up those girlie embellies.  Got any great inspiration?  Leave me a comment so I can check out your stuff!

Go Green :)

As promised, more goodies from Crafting Hands!  Fran, one of our uber talented crafters, created these fantastic beaded bracelets. I'm hoping to get her to show me how these are made at the next Crafting Hands workshop.

I really enjoy how happy these bracelets look.  Don't you just love when a craft can make you smile?!?  This one in particular seemed very March/spring/St. Paddyish so I ran to my supplies to see what I could create! 

I thought the blues and greens of the background papers were an excellent play on the bracelet.  The overall effect is a little more subdued, maybe the rain outside had some influence on the final product too. :)  The base of the card is Memory Box that I stamped with Delightful Daisy in Olive Green StazOn ink.  I layered on with Amy Butler Faded China paper and then used a rub-on I had in my scraps.  I think it's also from Amy Butler, but let me know if that's wrong. :)

I guess then the bling could be subliminal raindrops (hee-hee). Well, we wouldn't get May flowers without April, a-hem March, showers.

Here are the challenges in which I've entered this card.  Check out the links from other entrants!
Raise the Bar- Go Green 
The Treehouse- Clean and Simple
Stamp with Fun- Spring
Hope Stamps Eternal- Green
Etsy Inspired- Inspired by

More birds!

It's pretty stormy here, but it seems to be rain and not snow, for now.  In New England we all know nothing lasts for too long. :)

 

My Unitarian church hosts a huge (no really it's something to behold) Country Fair every September and participates in the town Holiday Bazaar in December.  I've been "blessed" ;) with being the chair for the Country Store booth at the Country Fair for the last couple of years.  It is a blast, but it's a huge amount of work.  In the past, the crafting work has fallen on a small group of crafters within the church.  This past January, I helped launch Crafting Hands to help get new crafters involved and ease some of the last minute production burden for these events.  We had our second workshop this past Friday and Saturday and these cardinals were among the many fantastic items created!  (I'll post other crafty goodies later).

These are going to be sold as pins for the Holiday Bazaar and we have 20 others that have flown to homes to be sew together and brought back for painting in May.  One of the helpers found a pattern at home to make a dove pin in the style of the cardinal (that should be a fun flock too!).  I thought these fine feathered friends would make for some fun card inspiration!

I used Bird and Nest from Memory Box, then stamped it with Cardinal Red Archival Ink and Timber Brown StazOn ink.  Technically the bird isn't a cardinal, but he's so darn cute!  The papers of from my scraps and are Basic Grey, Bo Bunny, and Pink Paislee.

I added Stickles to the berries on the bird's nest twig and to the "dots" on the sentiment.  You can barely see it in the photo, but I also freehand "stitched" around the edge of the background paper with a marker.  The layout is from Sparkles Sketch on her Christmas Challenge blog.  I send a crazy number of Christmas cards, so every motivation to get them done early helps! :)

What gets you motivated when the weather is yucko?

Old School Tweet

I adore pasta dinners.  I mean really, I adore pasta!  It's one of my Top 10 favorite foods.  I haven't made birds nest pasta in ages, but since I have actually heard birds tweeting these last few days...

When you look closely you'll see there's nothing too fancy here, but boy did it taste good last night for dinner and again today for lunch!  The "eggs" are mozzarella, the "nest" is nidi pasta which comes in the nest shape, and then some red sauce.  I made some garlic bread to go with (love garlic too!).

With this nest in mind I just had to make a little birdy kinda card!

The tag is ancient!  I bought it in a set of tags and envies on sale at Target ages ago.  I went on a rampage in my studio this weekend (more on that in alter post) and found them.  I decided I should use them, especially when I found the cute red paper with white polka dots.  I cut the flower with my cricut on Saturday and then I was stuck for an idea.  My friend Lynn let me borrow this little birdie to make cards for a craft fair we were in on Saturday.

This morning inspiration struck and I thought "how cute would this little fella look in the center of this card"!  I colored him with my copics (Y38, Y11, RV13 & RV14).  I'm so happy with how he came out.  I'm still learning how to use these fancy little pens, so sometimes my stuff looks a little more like my baby nephew sis the coloring (actually he's probably do better!)  I have all the goodies to make five more of these so I'm pretty excited that I could make a card purse with these cards.

Hope the birds are singing where you are!

I entered this card in the following challenges- please check out what other folks have made!
Hope Stamps Eternal- Cupcake Inspiration
Cupcake Craft Challenge- Round and Round
PaperPlay- Just Because
Stamp Something- Something Girly
Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle- Open Challenge
Saturday Spotlight- Hey Girlfriend
Simon Says- Girly
Gingersnap Creations- Celebrate