It's Hoppy Easter Time at Scrap 'n Stamp

I'm on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog today with a bunny card for today's Random Acts of Cardness prompt, SUNNY! I'm hope you'll, um, hop over and take a look! 

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Inkspirational: Critters That Hop

It's a Designers Choice challenge at Inkspirational starting today, and I just so happen to be the designer that chose the theme: Critters That Hop! When I picked this idea, I had every intention of making a frog card when the time came. But then it was the middle of March, it's slowly approaching spring in my neck of the woods, and Easter is a month away! Out came a bunny: 

I revisited a technique I haven't used for a long time - debossing a focal area in my main panel. I die cut three squares out of cardboard, adhered them together, and then used the result with my die cutting machine for my focal square. In that square I stamped and embossed my little bunny, colouring him and a bit of grass with Copics. I stamped and embossed my punny sentiment, then added a bit of scoring around the edges to go with the square. Of course I had to add a bit of puff to his tail with a snow marker. 

Since I've had this cute stamp set for-approximately-ever, I'm adding this to the current anything goes Retro Rubber challenge. For the cuteness factor, I'm entering Time Out Challenges. 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that all my Ink teammates opted for rabbits, too! But don't let that stop you from choosing any critter that hops - we'd love to see your project in our gallery! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Marvy Uchida snow marker

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Do the POLKA HOP with Scrap n Stamp!

Happy Friday, happy start to a long weekend, and if you celebrate, Happy Easter! It's the first Friday of the month, and so the design team at Scrap n Stamp is ready to hop! This month we are hosting a Polka Blog Hop - polka dots, that is! (I was momentarily worried about having to do the polka, but phew, not necessary.) I combined Easter and polka dots, and this is what resulted: 

(Oh, the sacrifices we make - I had to buy chocolate eggs to stage my card!
Now I'll have to eat them! )

The Lawn Fawn Mini Easter Egg dies have two different polka dot options, so they were perfect for this hop. To replicate the look of dyed Easter eggs, I grabbed some Yupo paper and alcohol inks in fiesta, red pepper, sunshine yellow, sailboat blue and purple twilight for a rainbow of colours. I added the two styles of polka dot designs over top. Since purple is a traditional Easter colour, I picked a light shade for my main panel, and embossed my sentiment (a combination of Lawn Fawn's Hoppy Easter and My Silly Valentine - a classic!) in purple as well. 

Scrap n Stamp is offering a $50 gift certificate to a lucky commenter! Comment on all the stops along the hop for your chance to win. Here is your bunny hop order: 

Tara

Kia

Nancy

Chala

Lindsey  --> you are here! 

Deborah

Susan

Jessica

Come hop with us for lots of springtime inspiration and a chance to win! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Crafters Companion violet cardstock, Yupo paper, Lawn Fawn Hoppy Easter & My Silly Valentine stamps, Versamark ink, Ranger purple embossing powder, Adirondack fiesta, red pepper, sunshine yellow, sailboat blue & purple twilight alcohol inks, Lawn Fawn Mini Easter Eggs & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway dies, glue dots

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Happy Little Stampers: CAS

Welcome to the Happy Little Stampers March CAS Challenge! Our theme this month is Three of a Kind. With Easter coming up next month, I had the perfect stamp to use: 

Aren't they cute? The image is officially called Taking in the View, but in my head it will always be Bunny Butts. :D To add some extra interest to the clean and simple design, I used my most textured watercolour paper, and also dry-embossed a frame around my bunny scene. Some quick watercolouring and a sentiment keep the card CAS. Well, I did have to add some puff to their tails, too. ;) 

Lots of ways to interpret this theme, as a look at the cards on the HLS blog will show you! You have the month of March to play along. 

Supplies: Hero Arts green layering cardstock, Master's Studio watercolour paper, Great Impressions Taking in the View & Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolours, MFT stitched square frame die, Marvy snow marker

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Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, and this time we're looking for cards for Any Occasion! Having made more than enough Valentine's cards for this year, I moved on to an Easter card: 

Easter is such a good excuse to use bunny stamps! 🐰 This little cutie from Paper Smooches is coloured with Copic markers. I couldn't resist adding a little dimension to his tail. He's popped onto a panel I had from a playdate at Emily's from before the pandemic. (Sigh.) I lightly blended some pale green ink over the linen cardstock. White seemed a little plain, so everything was layered onto an orange card base. 

If you need a card for an occasion of any kind, we have the challenge for you! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white, white linen & Hero Arts layering cardstock, Paper Smooches Spring Fling stamp & die, Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamp, Simon Says Stamp intense black & bundled sage distress ink, Copic markers, Catherine Pooler Puddle Jumper mini cover plate & MFT blueprints 29 banner die, Nuvo gloss white crystal drops, foam tape

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Easter Card

Happy Easter/Happy Sunday! I decided to make one last Easter card to fulfill my obligations for Day 6 of Kathy Racoosin's current colouring challenge. 

This card uses up a little more stash (but no patterned paper this time) - a bunny couple from Mama Elephant stamped long ago and a previously cut sun. The bunnies are coloured with Copics with some extra shading with pencil crayons. I made the background using a mask cut from a My Favorite Things grass die as well as their cloud stencil. I ran the top panel through an embossing folder to add a little extra interest, then popped a sentiment banner on top. I'll see if this is CAS enough to qualify for the current Addicted to CAS animal challenge, and it's definitely very CAS for Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge, to add texture. 

   

Supplies: Neenah white & (?) yellow cardstock, Mama Elephant Honey Bunny & Clearly Besotted Sweet Little Sentiments stamps, Versafine onyx black & tumbled glass & mowed lawn distress inks, Wow clear sparkle embossing powder, Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, Spellbinders circle, Lil Inkers stitched sun, MFT grassy edges & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway dies, Cuttlebug Seeing Dots embossing folder, MFT mini cloud edges stencil, foam tape

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Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More - and the new challenge is HOLIDAY. Luckily for me (and maybe you), spring is here, so I was easily able to take a break from my fallback Christmas cards and make an Easter card: 

This card is my contribution to that age-old challenge of masculine holiday cards - and teenage boy cards in particular. This bunny is far enough away from the cutesy end of the spectrum that I thought he was just right. After I watercoloured him, it was a matter of what to do with him. I went for clean and simple (big surprise) with a big fishtail banner panel and some fun patterned paper. I used scraps of the same paper for my sentiment, witch is a mashup of two Clearly Besotted stamps. 

Do you need an Easter card, or just feel like making any kind of holiday card? Or maybe you can channel your current cabin fever into a holiday-away-from-home card. ;) I hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white linen & Recollections black yardstick, Canson watercolour paper, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Sketchbook patterned paper, Ellen Hutson Tree Farm stamp & die, Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages, Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Zig markers, Sunny Studio Stamps fishtail banners die, pop dot tape

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Inkspirational: Use Your Stash

It's time for my second post as guest designer at Inkspirational! You'd almost think the theme was picked with me in mind...

 If you know me at all, you know that most of what I use to make cards is considered STASH - stuff I've owned for a long time. When I do buy stuff, it's more often a product that's been around for a while, rather than something newly released. (A rare exception was jumping on Concord & 9th's new Turnabout Toolkit as soon as it came out. Generally, I buy something hot off the production line once a year or less...) So I gave myself an extra challenge - not just use my regular stash, but dig into my bins of stuff already stamped and sometimes already coloured, too. (Some people call these UFOs - unfinished objects.) As I looked through my collection, I put together several items and came up with this: 

Stash stuff: every single piece on the wreath, including the sentiment. They all came to live in my stash after a play date with Emily last spring! This is a great layering set, since it's designed to be more artistic than precise. Precision is not always my friend. :D I built the wreath on a base previously cut from an Altenew wreath-builder set. The warm grey base layer was freshly cut for this card. 

Of course, once I had my stash spread out all over the place, it only made sense to put together a few more cards! 

Stash stuff: the light bulb was coloured for one of Kathy Racoosin's 30 day colouring challenges, and the background was embossed for another card but not ultimately used. The sentiment is freshly stamped. 

Thinking ahead, I next made an Easter card: 

Stash stuff: the lamb, bunny ears and butterfly were all previously stamped and die cut but had to be coloured for this card, the sky background was stamped a long time ago and the green layer had also been previously die cut. I added the sentiment and the purple mat. 

What happens when you use jelly beans as a photo prop:
they look like cat toys! 

And finally, a cat card:

Stash stuff: My snarky sister Chris sent me a bunch of stamped Katzelkraft cats and dogs, since I have yet to add them to my collection, so I coloured and fussy-cut this one; the kraft layer had also been previously stamped. I added the stamped and die cut speech bubble and the patterned paper layer. 

Phew! I hope you're still with me. I'd like to say I made a dent in my stash using all these, but... not really. :D You don't have to go to the same extremes I did, just pull from your not-brand-new supplies and join us! Be sure to check out all the great makes from the Inkspirational team, too. 

Supplies: (smile) Neenah white & Papertrey Ink soft stone cardstock, Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Ashlee's Rosie Posies & Altenew Halftone Smile stamps & dies, many many Altenew inks, Altenew Create-a-Wreath & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway dies; (warm thoughts) Neenah white Cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, American Crafts patterned paper, Concord & 9th Shine Bright & Unity/Jillibean Soup Watermelon Gazpacho Soup stamps, Versafine onyx black & Archival black inks, Wow clear embossing powder, Zig markers, Sizzix grid embossing folder, MFT blueprints 24 sentiment banner die; (Easter) Neenah white and Recollections purple cardstock, Waffle Flower Welcome Spring, Impression Obsession clouds background & Simon Says Stamp Essential Greetings, Versafine onyx black, tumbled glass distress & Brilliance pearlescent orchid & lavender inks, Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Copic markers, Waffle Flower Welcome Spring, Paper Smooches Borders 1 & MFT stitched rounded rectangle dies, icicle Stickles, pop dot tape; (grumpy cat) Neenah white & desert storm cardstock, American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray patterned paper, Katzelkraft Les Chats Russe, Taylored Expressions Grouchy Grumplings & Hero Arts text background stamps, Archival black & Papertrey Ink fine linen ink, Copic markers, Memory Box Big Word Pop Curve die, pop dot tape

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Still Easter?

I'm sneaking in at the end of the evening on Easter Monday so I can share the cards I made this year. Usually I let the weekend go by and then don't want to extend the season... bad enough that you keep seeing Christmas cards from me. ;) 

I wanted the bunny to shine on this first card, but also felt like being a teeny bit artsy, so white-embossed a plaid background stamp then watercoloured it in Easter colours. It's possible the bunny really loves the carrot more than the recipient of the card, but I still thought the sentiment went well with the image. A few sequins added a little bling.

Another bunny, and when I looked at his arms, I thought he would make an excellent Easter egg juggler. I used some glitter glue for the egg white leaking out of the broken one. 

And just to keep things from getting too boring, an Easter chick for the third card I made this year. The watercoloured panel is another leftover from my experiments with tissue paper a few weeks ago. I added a little embossing and scoring to the card base, but otherwise kept it clean and simple. Because of that, I'm entering this in the almost-over CAS on Friday Easter challenge. 
Whether you were observing Easter or not, hope your weekend was a good one! 

Supplies: (some bunny) white & purple cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Paper Smooches Spring Fling stamp and die, Lawn Fawn My Silly Valentine & Hero Arts Plaid background stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black, squeezed lemonade & wilted violets distress inks, Ranger clear & Hero Arts white embossing powders, Copic markers, Spellbinders circle die, Little Things from Lucy's Cards heather sequins, frosted lace Stickles, foam tape; (hoppy Easter) white & Papertrey Ink soft stone cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Paper Smooches A Magical Spring stamps & die, Sunny Studio A Good Egg & (?) border stamps, Versafine onyx black & Memento dandelion ink, Ranger clear embossing powder, Zig markers, MFT blueprints 24 & Spellbinders circle dies, Studio G glitter glue, Nuvo ebony crystal drops, foam tape; (happy Easter) white cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, tissue paper, Sunny Studios A Good Egg stamp & die, Simon Says Stamp Big Greetings & Happy stamps, Versafine onyx black & squeezed lemonade, carved pumpkin & candy apple distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Zig markers, Cuttlebug Seeing Spots embossing folder, Spellbinders wonky reverse rectangle die, fun foam, foam tape 

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Snarky Silliness

Oh oh... a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge falls on APRIL 1st??? Let the shenanigans begin!!! 

S is for SILLY! The Sisterhood does silly almost as well as it does snarky, so you know you're in for a fun challenge. Here is my contribution...

My Crazy Dog was coloured a few weeks ago as part of The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, so it was simply a matter of giving him this silly, over-sized Easter headband. I used blue and purple watercolour powders to make a border that looks vaguely like a pattern on a dye-dipped egg, then used a speech bubble to die cut my computer-generated sentiment. 
You'll want to check out all the silliness my snarky sisters have been up to, as well as our current Queen of Snark, Margo. I hope you feel inspired to come and join in on the silliness! 

Supplies: blue cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Tim Holtz/Sizzix Mini Crazy Cats & Dogs & Crazy Things stamps & dies, MFT black licorice & tumbled glass distress inks, Paper Smooches Word Bubbles die, Magenta Nuance water colour powders, watercolour pencils, pop-dot tape

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Chirp!

Four days in a row! I spent some fun time this afternoon watercolouring for The Daily Marker 30 Day challenge and making an Easter card. Here it is, with bonus cat hair along the top right of the fold! 🙄

As soon as I saw this stamp set, I saw a story my card could tell — although I realize I am probably the only one that sees it. Here are chickies two and three, with their fancy, store-bought Easter hats, ready for fun. Then there's mischievous chick on the left, with no ready-made Easter duds. So he makes do with an eggshell! Even though it's a little big and sliding down over his eyes, he's ready to have a good time! In the background, I've stamped a grass border and sponged in the grass and sky colours. The sentiment on the outside leads to "Chirpy-chirp-chirp!" on the inside (because of course that's what a bird is going to tell you), along with a Happy Easter translation. 
The current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge is "fluff"; I have fluffy chicks on my card and pulled some of my colours from the challenge photo. My lawn puts me in the running for the new Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, Bit O' Green. 

Supplies: white cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, Lawn Fawn Chirpy Chirp Chirp stamps & dies, Paper Smooches Woofers & Tweeters sentiment stamp, Versamark, MFT black licorice, Memento new sprout & grape jelly, Lawn Fawn freshly cut grass & tumbled glass distress inks, Hero Arts sparkle clear embossing powder, Zig clean colour real brush markers, pop-dot tape

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A Tweet Easter Card

Monday. Still winter, with more snow forecast tonight and tomorrow. Ugh. So a perfect day to look forward to spring by making an Easter card! 

I was inspired by Tracey's card for the latest Muse challenge and used the same stamp set, although I used different stamps (I think she's used the large Easter basket, where I used the smaller one.) In my mind (and possibly only there), my card tells a little before and after story, with some of the chick's supplies above the sentiment banner, and the happy artist with his finished eggs below. And just to go with it being a Monday, and winter, and everything else... as I was photographing my card, a fingernail caught the edge of the vellum strip, causing a crease and a teeny rip. 🙄 I will be re-doing the sentiment, but wanted to get this posted to extend my March colouring streak to two, count 'em two, days. (Yesterday I posted to Instagram, not here.) Coincidentally, this is the stamp set Tracey, Ardyth and Natasha are using for today's Daily Marker 30-Day colouring challenge as well. Or maybe not so coincidentally, since these were stamped using Ardyth's set. 😉
And one more I-blame-Monday thing... were I to make this again, I would put the paint can over to the right, with the paintbrush leaning against its left edge. I think the design would be more balanced that way. But given my day, I don't think I'll be attempting to move them... 😝 Maybe tomorrow, which is the earliest I'll attempt to replace the sentiment anyway. 

Supplies: PTI soft stone & plum pudding cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, vellum, Sunny Studio Stamps A Good Egg stamps & dies, The Angel Company sentiment stamp, Versamark & MFT black licorice inks, purple metallic embossing powder, Mama Elephant Femme Frames die, Zig clean colour real brush markers, pop-dot tape

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An Easter MFT Sketch

Happy Monday! But not just any Monday... today is PI DAY! March 14th = 3/14, or in more mathematical terms, 3.14. Bonus this year... if we add the year, we get 3.1416. Happy sigh. 
Okay, enough math geekiness for one day. I have a card for the current MFT sketch challenge. 

I have a couple of Easter cards to make, and this sketch seemed to work perfectly for an idea I already had in my mind: 

On my vertical panel, I added embossing paste with glitter through a scraped paint stencil to suggest the stripe. My three part sentiment stands in for the star elements. For some reason, I didn't have this exact sentiment in my collection (weird, I know), so I had to print it on computer. My Easter birdie is grounded by a little bit of MFT grass. He's watercoloured with distress inks and markers. If I had a yellow distress ink, I'd have used it to sponge the vertical panel, but since I don't, I used two Memento inks along with carved pumpkin distress. 
Hope you enjoyed Pi Day... perhaps it included pie! 

Supplies: white, American Crafts green textured & Stampin' Up basic black cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, Craft City green textured card base, Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Bird Crazy & Crazy Things stamps @ dies, MFT black licorice hybrid, Memento dandelion & cantaloupe & carved pumpkin distress inks, MFT grassy edges die, distress markers, Memory Box scraped paint stencil, Dreamweavers glossy white embossing paste, Stampin' Up dazzling diamonds glitter, pop dot tape

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Happy Day!

... and happy Easter, if that's your thing. Our family get-together was yesterday, and I realized today I have one more Easter card I could post:

Such an adorable bunny. His eyes looked a bit lost in the grey ink in which he's stamped, so I went over them with a fine black Sharpie then added a little smile to his face. Since he's sitting, I thought he'd be perfect on a mountain of colourful chocolate eggs. Wouldn't it be nice if I had an Easter egg die or punch? Of course I don't, but at least I have an appropriately-shaped balloon die. Then it was just a matter of rounding off the narrower end, where the knot is. The background is stamped as well, with a giant cloud background stamp. 
Since Easter takes place in spring (why yes, I am ignoring the dusting of snow we got last night), I am entering this in the "Spring" Just Us Girls word challenge. 

Supplies: white & green cardstock, copious patterned paper scraps, Mama Elephant Honey Bunny, Impression Obsession Clouds & Studio G sentiment stamps, Versafine smokey grey & Memento rose bud inks, watercolour pencils, Sizzix balloon & Paper Smooches stitched dies, Twinery pink sorbet twine, pop-dot tape

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E is for Easter with the Sisterhood!

Spring has sprung (except, perhaps, for snarky sister Jessi), so Easter must be on its way as well! What better time for the latest Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge: 

I snuck just the teensiest bit of snark into my card.

It's hard to go wrong with this Paper Smooches bunny! I decided I wanted him popping out of this little frame (which I've had in my stash o' die cuts so long, I can't tell you where it came from... I think it's Papertrey Ink paper and die, but I'm not at all sure). It's too hard to resist adding glossy accents to his eyes and teeth. A little vellum behind the frame softens the colours underneath. I was inspired by the current Shopping Our Stash challenge to make my own background for him. Nothing too fancy... patted some Memento teardrop ink pads onto some butcher paper, spritzed with some yellow/gold mist, then smushed my cardstock into it. After it dried, I dry embossed it for some extra texture. Orange and yellow are far from go-to colours for me, but they just seemed to work here.

As well as Shopping our Stash, this is being entered into Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes challenge. 

Now it's your turn! Be sure to check out the creations of my Snarky Sisters, as well as this week's guest designers, Majo and Glo. I hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: white & orange cardstock, vellum, Papertrey Ink (?) patterned paper, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin' stamps, Colorbox truffle & Memento dandelion, cantaloupe & tangerine inks, Zing clear embossing powder, Papertrey Ink (?) & Paper Smooches word bubble dies, Cuttlebug seeing spots embossing folder, Art Anthology timeless colour mist, glossy accents, pop-dot tape & squares

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