Easter card

Hello! I made this card for the Stampotique Animal/Bird/Insect challenge, and when I went to enter it, I found the challenge closed. This is the second time I've missed the challenge. How stunned am I? I am losing my mind. Granted, there wasn't a lot left to lose, but this is irritating. Still, it's a cute card and I mean to give it to a friend for Easter.

I don't have any Stampotique animal/insect/bird stamps, so my thought was to make Marci here into a little Easter bunny. Her bunny ears are actually parts of Moon Girl's wings (feeling quite clever about that!). I stamped Moon Girl on vellum and embossed with Moonstone (no other choice of ep really seemed appropriate) and trimmed out the parts of the wing I wanted. Then after I had Marci stamped and embossed in Chocolate Brown (again, no other ep seemed right for an Easter bunny), I made a slit in the card stock at the top of her head and inserted the "ears". When I trimmed them out, I left little tabs on the bottom to glue down on the back. Marci is stamped on a light pink cardstock that has a faint texture. I coloured her with Distress inks (crushed olive, forest moss, tattered rose, pumice stone) and added in some small grass clumps too. She's embellished with some stickles (champagne, star dust). The card base is the light lemon PTI card, topped with some pretty decorative paper from my stash. It's a pad of Provo Craft handmade paper that I've had since I first got hooked, and I am trying to use it up. Then the card still needed a little something else, and I found a gorgeous piece of textured Japanese paper and used that. I found a great deal on scraps of Japanese paper, all in a big bundle for a good price (at Wallack's art supply store). It's ideal, because I can never bear to bring myself to cut into a full sheet, but these scraps, well they're already scraps so I feel free to use them. Unless they're really pretty and there's only one.... Ok, maybe I'm not quite cured of hoarditis, but I'm getting better and at least it's a start! The final touch took the form of three dots of Espresso dimensional pearls. On the inside is an Inkadinkado stamp that says "Chocolate: It's not just for breakfast".

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have some time to stamp this week.

Easter Blessings and Alcohol Inks

Woohoo! New toys!!! I got this Easter stamp way back when because one time (years ago) I didn't realize that all the Easter stamps would be sold way before Easter. I had gone to my LSS to get one and she shook her head sadly and said they had all sold shortly after Christmas. I stored away that little nugget and this year when I saw this adorable filigree egg, I snapped it up, I think it was September.

Card details - short version. The eggs were stamped on pre-made background paper and embossed in black and silver, trimmed and mounted on the background papers. The sentiment is heat embossed too. So pretty!

Card details - long version.

I recently got my first alcohol inks. I used these a while ago in a class and fell in love with their rich, vibrant colours and the beautiful patterns they make. I used Wild Plum, Bottle and Silver on photo paper (misguided thriftiness, stay tuned) and the blending solution to make a sort of polished stone look background. Then I stamped the egg three times with versamark and embossed two with black and one with silver. The silver one got embossed on a paler piece that I'd inked when the felt was starting to lose its colour. So it's just a lighter version of the other two. The misguided thriftiness became apparent when the photo paper started to curl and melt a little under the heat tool. Still, it was salvageable, but I think I'll only use the photo paper when I know I won't be embossing. But I wasn't done with my heat tool yet! I used it to emboss the sentiment and heat up some neat craft foam that I got from my LSS for making texture stamps. After it was heated, I pressed the bristles of my hair brush into it (long side in) to make sort of a grassy look. I used this foam piece to stamp the turquoise background. It's a bit faint. I'll be experimenting more with this foam - it's fun! My aunt generously shared some with me when she was visiting. Wonder if she's tried hers yet??? I trimmed the eggs, stuck them down, added ticket corner punch and black mat, peeled off eggs to add organdy ribbon, stuck them down again, added matching brads and mounted the whole thing on an orchid opulence card base.

Now if you're still reading, you deserve a medal! Hope it was all worth it ;-) It's also why I put in the short version!

Supplies: Stamps: Easter egg - The Artful Stamper, sentiment - Magenta; Ink: versamark; Paper: glossy photo paper, cool caribbean, basic black, orchid opulence; Other: ticket corner punch, light turquoise brads, orchid organdy ribbon, black and silver embossing powder, moldable craft foam and hair brush, alcohol inks (Ranger) in Wild Plum, Bottle and Silver plus blending solution, felt and dabber tool.