Joyful Easter Duckling

 Hi there!  Hope you're doing well and staying warm during all these cold temperature days and nights.  Yes, I'm sticking with spring themes here to combat the weather, just like yesterday.  Today I'm heading for Easter with a cute little duckling that looks like it's doing a 'happy dance'.  He's from the Easter Friends stamp set.  It just makes me smile to look at him!  I hope he makes you happy too!

Sorry the colors on this picture don't quite measure up to the colors I actually used which are so much warmer and inviting.  The card base is Pear Pizzazz cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2".  It's scored at 4 1/4" and folded in half.  

Here's where a little sisterly influence comes into play today.  I hardly ever remember to use my Decorative Masks for adding a background to a card.  My sister uses the masks quite often with great results.  I usually reach for embossing folders instead, but thought I'd give it a try this time.   I used the Basic Patterns Decorative Masks and Blending Brushes for this card.  So happy I did.  For the most part, I blended Pear Pizzazz ink onto the same color card.  When I was almost finished, a light touch of Mossy Meadow ink was added to the center of the card.  For clean-up, the stencil gets rinsed off in the sink with just water and then blotted with a paper towel before putting away.  Easy peasy.

Here you can see the correct coloring much better.

At this point, that cute little duckling from Easter Friends was stamped on Basic White cardstock with Bumblebee ink.  That's a color I usually only use in the fall, but he seemed to need it.  I used a Mango Melody Blends to color in his beak and feet.  Some of the grasses were stamped in Mossy Meadow ink along the bottom.

It was time to get him cut out.  Again, like yesterday, I fussed with what die set to use.  That's been a problem lately as I've been trying to use something other than my usual rectangle shapes.  Got stuck in a rut, you know how that is?  This cool shape is from the Stitched So Sweetly dies.  It's a fun look for my little ducky.

Putting ducky on the card front with no layering wasn't a great idea.  Just too blah for that happy ducky.  Ok, back to the dies again.  After much searching to find just the right die, I found one from way back when I just started out die cutting layers.  We won't say how many years ago that was, but needless to say, it was before Stampin'Up! was selling dies.  Oh yeah, way back in the dark ages!  😆   It is from Spellbinders and is a series of oval dies, some scalloped and some plain.  For some odd reason, this seemed to work for ducky, so that's what I used.  Gotta keep him happy you know.  The oval was cut from Mossy Meadow cardstock to be a good contrast for ducky.  The two layers were attached with adhesive, then popped up onto the card front with Dimensionals.

The Easter sentiment is from the same stamp set and was stamped onto a 3/4" strip of Basic White cardstock.  Mossy Meadow ink was used for this.  The right edge of the strip was cut to lay flush with the right edge of the card, but the left edge got a little punchy treatment.  The Banners Pick-a-Punch was used to flag the end.  This was attached to the card front with adhesive.

A small bow was needed but couldn't be too feminine for this little guy.  A bit of Mossy Meadow woven trim (retired) looked fine and not too frou-frou, so it was made into a small bow.  It's attached to the card front with a Mini Glue Dot.

Lastly, ducky wanted to play with some little friends to share in his joy.   Several butterflies from the Brushed Brass Butterflies came to play with him.  This made him so happy he started doing his 'happy dance' again.

Hope you enjoyed our little outing with ducky.  He really is so easy to stamp and play with.  And he makes me happy just looking at him!  And it's wonderful to have one more Easter card finished and put away until needed.

Thanks for stopping in today.  I appreciate hearing about what you think of my projects.  Hope you get some inspiration and ideas from what is shared with you.  That is my goal each time I post.  I miss you and love hearing from you.  

Reminder - Sale-a-Bration ends next Monday February 28th!

Keep on creating and having fun!

Sharon