Spring Brings Hope Anew

Hello and welcome friends! I have quite a few springtime projects to share with you today. Over the last few releases and crafty sessions I've ended up with a lot of extra bits and bobs that I set aside to use on other projects. I like adding tags to baked goods and gifts here and there during the year, so I decided to sit down an make some tags with the extra bits. As you can see, this is NOT a tag....this ended up being one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" situations! ha ha!

Let me explain; I DID make tags, which I'm sharing in this post, but those tags inspired cards, which meant making MORE bits and bobs to use, which turned out to be a few crafty sessions full of pure delight. Easter came WAY too early this year, and I wasn't ready to be done, so I chose to make some springtime cards.

This card was the second in the series and I will explain how I made it. To begin, I used the Exquisite Leaf Frame Hot Foil Plate and Glimmer Hot Foil-Champagne on Lilac Grace cardstock.  I trimmed it down and then stamped the "brings hope anew" portion of the sentiment at the bottom. The sentiments are from the Spring Snowdrops Stamp/Stencil set and they are just perfect for my cards.

The bunny and egg are from the new Spring Silhouette die set that was released in February. I die cut them from white cardstock and then colored the bunny with Classic Kraft ink and colored the eye with a fine-tip Sharpie marker and then added a white dot using a white gel pen. The egg is colored using a blending brush and Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink. I added speckles to the bunny and egg using brown ink. The butterfly is from the Elegant Eggs die and it got some splatter as well.

I used a few different die sets for the foliage and flowers; the dotted detailed leaves are from the Into the Blooms: Blossoming Beauties die set (I used these on my Flash Sale project this week), Winter Medley Die for the flowers and greenery they are glued to, and finally, the BotaniCuts Strawberries Die. I arranged them around the egg and then added glitter to finish it off. The entire panel is adhered to a top-folding A2 card base using foam squares.

My second card is actually the first card I made with the tag as inspiration. As I mentioned earlier, it was the tags that inspired the cards. I had so much fun with this little tag that I thought it needed a bigger, card version. As you can see, I got a bit carried away with the Shimmer Spray (it's almost gone so it ended up spraying with globs of glitter) but it actually looks just fine in real life.

This card was made exactly the same way as the first, just with Berry Sorbet cardstock and a different sentiment, but it's from the same set.

Here are two of the original tags. The tag base is from an old retired PTI die, but they are cut using Aqua Mist and Berry Sorbet cardstock. The oval is from the Love to Layer: Delightful Brackets Die...I also had this out from my Flash Sale project. I am planning on blogging that project, so stay tuned. The eggs are left over from THIS card if you're interested in seeing how I made them.

The "thinking of you" sentiment is from the Perfect Pairs: Essentials stamp set. I had that out from the Flash Sale as well and it fit perfectly in the space for the tags.

My next series of tags uses the same tag base, but this time I die cut it twice: once from pattern paper and once from white cardstock. I glued them together for a sturdy piece. I used the Vase Collection 7 stamp set and then filled them with the flowers and greenery from the Winter Medley die I linked on the first card.

The For You tag uses an old tag die as well and the same gingham paper as the two previous tags. A few strawberry blossoms from a project I'll be sharing in a few days and the main flower is from the Into the Blooms II dies. The purple flower tag has lots of leftovers from THIS POST. I will talk more about the elements when I explain how I made the card that was inspired by the tag.

I decided to actually add a similar tag directly to the card front. Over the years when I have made tags, I have suggested to my readers that if they aren't into tags or tag making, they can simply add them to a card front. THIS is what I'm talking about! ha ha! As you can see, I didn't deviate from using the Hot Foil plate for the background; such a perfect frame for your focal point. The purple rectangle layer uses the new Elegant Script Hot Foil Plate and has such a fun subtle detail on the tags. The tag-tag, not the tag on the card, features a sentiment from the Rejoice! Stamp Set. I added glitter to finish off the card. A new, full bottle of Shimmer Spray arrived yesterday so I can add some to the cards that didn't get any (I didn't want to risk any more blobs). So, in the end I made WAY more pieces than I had leftover, but I had SO much fun! And, to enhance the "if you give a mouse a cookie" theme, I decided that I want to deliver these cards around the neighborhood with some lemon cupcakes so that required new cupcake boxes (because I was out) and edible butterfly accents for the cupcakes. So....you can see what happens when you simply want to "use up" the extras sitting on your desk! LOL! ha ha! Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. I also started a new sewing project so I will be sharing that soon on my other (sorely neglected) blog.