Happy Easter

 I don't normally make Easter cards and have never really had much in the way of Easter crafting items in my stash but I have to confess that in a weak moment I succumbed - couldn't resist the Hoppy Bunnies die set.  Of course once I'd got my sticky mitts on them I just had to make a couple of cards which I'm sharing today to wish Happy Easter to all of my bloggy friends and the people who visit my blog leaving lovely comments.  Would you believe it was only a few days ago that I realised that it was actually Easter this weekend - caught me out by being so early this year 🤣🤣.  Bunnies aren't just for Easter and I'm sure the dies will get used through the year, either as a group or trimmed down somewhat which is what happened here. There are actually seven bunnies in a row, the grass, carrots, eggs and the sentiment complete with shadow.

Slatted Circle - dies from Craft Addiction UK
Bunnies etc - also all from CAUK
Crate - an unbranded die
Torn Edge dies - also unbranded from Amazon
Cut out circle detail on second card -  die from CAUK

A Bookmark to Share

 There is a new theme this month for the Tag-along and ATC challenge, set by Brenda who would like to see **Blooms - Butterflies - Birds** with a choice of either one, two or all three as the fancy takes you and if this doesn't suit, then there is always the *Anything Goes* option.  You can choose to make an ATC, a Tag or a Bookmark so there are many possibilities open to you with a super prize at the end of the month for a lucky winner.

I thought for a change I'd make a bookmark and as luck would have it I had some already inked and decorated strips of card to hand.  These white strips are left over when I cut into an A4 sheet of card to make my approximately 6" square cards.  I taped four of them together using low tack tape on the back before getting into a session of smooshing colour, random stamping and stencilling to form an attractive overall background effect.  Once dry the tape was removed and I'm left with four long narrow strips which are ideal for trimming into ATCs, tags or bookmarks.  For this project I used a punch to shape the top and another punch to round the bottom corners - a piece of ribbon or tassel will be added eventually.  I then selected some stamps to add the flowers at the bottom, a quotation (which includes birds) and a couple of butterflies in between.  All stamping was done using Versafine Claire Twilight and the smooshing was Distress Oxides in various colours.

Quotation - from a  magazine give away set dated 2016
Butterflies - stamps from Visible Image Wings of Change (a recent win from Snippets)
Flowers - also from the magazine stamp set dated 2016
Punches used - top a very ancient from Stampin' Up and X-cut for the bottom corners

Snippets Challenge # 529

 I'm off to the Snippets Playground to hand in my homework for the current challenge and as usual have made my own card blank and then used a selection of Snippets to build up the design.  I started with a fairly large snippet of white card which I embossed with a brick wall design, then a smaller white snippet to cut out the slatted arch which was backed with yet another white snippet which had been smooshed with some yellow ink.  The flowers were die cut from an even smaller white snippet and coloured using watercolour and a fine paintbrush. Rocky the dog is a digital download and was fussy cut from a sheet which I'd printed.  He was also coloured using ink pressed onto a ceramic tile from an inkpad and applied with a paintbrush (slightly watered down).  I do hope Rocky doesn't intend burying his bone amongst the flowers 🤣.  The final touch is a die cut sentiment using snippets of white and some purple to tone with the flower heads.

Brick Wall Effect - embossing folder from Stampin' Up (long retired
Slatted Arch - unbranded die
Flowers - dies from Gummiapan
Rocky - digital download from Craft Addiction UK hand drawn by Louise Dunne
Sentiment - unbranded die set from Temu