Thanks for stopping by today! I'm having the best time creating all kinds of spring and Easter cards this year! I sat down to make ONE card and ended up making three! It reminded me of my springtime crafty session from last year when I made THESE cards and tags. I have so many leftover goodies from recent projects that are just begging to be used! That being said, I wasn't planning on mixing companies and products, but that is where my creative juices flowed! ha ha!
I originally sat down to create with some Honey Bee Stamps products because I bought them last year and just HAD to have them and only made THIS card. I've been itching to use them again, so that is where my starting point began. When it was all said and done, I actually NEVER used the bunny last year that is shown on this card, so I was happy to use it!
Also, I fell in love with Melissa's darling gingham chicks she made for the recent Bunnies and Bows release from The Greetery so I ordered 2 pads of gingham paper only for them to arrive being this LARGE gingham rather than the petite gingham I was hoping for (so I could make my own gingham chicks)! ha ha! Anyway, I was feeling irritated, but then I fell in love with this Vintage Gingham Paper as I was using it for these cards, so it all worked out!
To begin, I die cut all of the pieces for the bunny using the Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers: Rabbit Die from white cardstock. I used distress oxide inks and finger sponge daubers to color the pieces. I used liquid glue to adhere them together. To make the eyes look a little more realistic, I added a dot of white get pen to the centers and I also used a pale pink colored pencil to add pink to the inside of the ears, the nose, and the cheeks.
Once the bunny was complete, I was going to use him with some other Honey Bee Stamps pieces (I ended up using them on the other two cards), but as I was looking at the leftover pieces on my desk, I just casually picked up the extra Bunny Tales sentiment left over from the release and thought it looked so cute with this sweet bunny! In an instant, all of my crafty plans changed and I was on a new mission! I grabbed the gingham paper and adhered it to a top-folding A2 card base, added a leftover frame that was also on my desk and started building my card. I had leftover clusters of flowers from the Bitty Botanicals Stamp + Stencil, so those got tucked around the frame as well as a few Forget-Me-Nots.
I used a few leaves from the Lovely Layers: April Showers Die to tuck around the Forget-Me-Not. As I mentioned earlier, I was only planning on making one card and it was going to features the boots, umbrella, and bunny. So.....that meant I still had boots and an umbrella leftover, but funny story....these are not the boots OR the umbrella! ha ha! I will save that story for my FINAL card for today!
As you can see, the large gingham paper was the clear winner for these spring cards. This card ended up being tough to photograph for some reason and the gingham is coming off as more peach than yellow, but it is yellow.
I rummaged around in my stash of 5 by 5 paper pads and found this charming floral print from an ancient Making Memories pad, but with the petite print, it was perfect for the umbrella. All of the pieces for this card, with the exception of the pink flowers and sentiment are from the Lovely Layers: Spring Showers die.
The sentiment is from the Honey Bee Stamps Blessings of Spring Stamp Set and I stamped it in black and then die cut it using the coordinating Blessings of Spring Die.
All of the flowers are die cut from white cardstock and then colored with distress oxide ink and finger sponge daubers. I also added some details with colored pencils for added depth.
And here is the final card for today. This was the first umbrella I made (once again using Making Memories pattern paper) and the original boots. I had put this card together second after the bunny card and was going to call it a day, but decided to use this particular sentiment. I didn't have any "dirt" on the boots or the background so I thought it might seem weird to use that sentiment, but it was already stuck down! ha ha! I REALLY should have decided on the sentiment AHEAD of time so I could make better design decisions, but I didn't! ha ha!
It was easy to add rain with some Blueberry Sky ink, but deciding about how to add dirt was giving me fits! Lightbulb moment....I remembered I bought some Art Glitter Sediment a few years back for one of The Greetery releases!
I enlisted my daughter's help and we brainstormed on how to make the dirt look more organic rather than just stuck to a line of glue. I used an old frayed paintbrush dipped in glue to add glue here and there and then I poured the glitter/dirt. I felt immediate regret once I added the glitter and I thought I'd ruined the card.
I came back the next day with fresh eyes and I thought the dirt looked much better, especially since the sentiment REQUIRES dirt, right? ha ha! Anyway, since I thought I'd ruined this card, I made more boots and another umbrella for the second card! LOL! Needless to say, it was a fun crafty session and I'm pleased with the results (even the dirt when it was all said and done)! Thanks for fluttering by!