Easter Eggs and Rockers

Hello!  Doesn't that title make you wonder what I've been up to lately?  I had so much fun making the Rocker birthday card for my friend that I wanted to make some more.  Since Easter is coming up, I thought this would be a great time to use the Excellent Eggs dies on a fun fold card.  Ready to create along with me?  I made one version that was pretty close to Susan Campfield's idea, and then I changed things up and made another version of the card.  Hope you like this idea and give it a try.

These are the two cards I made using mostly the same materials with some minor changes.  But they look so different because of the colors used.  Let's break them down so you can make them too.

The base of the rocker part of the card is Granny Apple Green cardstock that is cut with the Deckled Circles Dies.  The second largest die was used because the diameter of the die is just about 5 3/8" so the card will fit into a regular sized envelope.

This one is the first one I made and looks very similar to Susan Campfield's card.  The half-circle layer of green on this card is the back-side of one of the designs in the Delightful Floral DSP.  It is a soft, mottled light green print.  This is an Online Exclusive paper and is gorgeous.  To cut this in a half circle, the third largest die from the Deckled Circles Dies was used.  The die was positioned on an edge of the DSP so only half of a circle was cut.  It was a little big to fit the card base, so a little was trimmed from the straight edge so it fit nicely. The piece was layered onto the folded circle using "green glue".

The eggs were cut from two different prints from the Lighter Than Air DSP.  Love these soft pastel prints!  The smallest plain egg was used to die-cut the eggs.  The same size die was used to die-cut eggs from Granny Apple Green cardstock.  The print eggs were attached to the Granny Apple Green eggs to give the back of the card a finished look as you can see here.

Tip:  When you're adding the eggs to your card, make sure they are less than 4 1/4" high so then will fit a regular size envelope.

The bird from the Easter Bunny set was stamped with Balmy Blue on Basic White cardstock.  It was colored in with Balmy Blue Light and Dark Stampin' Blends.  Daffodil Delight Light Blends was used for the beak.

The sentiment comes from the Easter Bunny set and is stamped with Granny Apple Green ink.  It's stamped on a Basic White 3/4" strip of cardstock.  After stamping the ends were punched with the Banners Pick a Punch to flag them.  The banner was attached on the eggs using Dimensionals.  The little bird was added to the banner with a Mini Dimensional.  

For this card several of the new Rainbow Adhesive-backed Dots were added for extra interest.  This time I used the Fresh Freesia dots and one of the Petal Pink dots.  A bow made from the White Glitter Ribbon is attached with a Mini Glue Dot under the sentiment.

Switching cards now, it is made the same way as the first card, but the colors have gotten a little brighter.  The green print layer is from the Meandering Meadows DSP.  I love how this really gives the feeling of grass to the card.  The eggs are cut and layered onto the Granny Apple Green on the back like the first card, but the prints used have a little extra pizzazz.  

The sentiment is the same except the strip is only 5/8" wide.  It's also attached with Dimenisonals.  The bird was stamped with Lost Lagoon ink then colored with Daffodil Delight Light and Dark Stampin' Blends.  Then attached with a Mini Dimensional.  

The same package of the Rainbow Adhesive-backed Dots were used, just different colors to match up with the eggs.  These are Balmy Blue and Lemon Lolly colored.  Don't they accent the card perfectly?  A double bow made from the Parakeet Party Metallic Woven Ribbon was added for a bit of glitz.

The insides of the cards are finished very similarly.  A half circle is die-cut from Basic White cardstock just like the green DSP layers.  The sentiment comes from the Easter Lilies stamp set.  It's stamped in Granny Apple Green ink.

The daffodils inside each card are one of the stamps in the February 2024 Paper Pumpkin kit.  They are colored with markers directly on the rubber to get the two-toned effect.  Just a smidgeon of extra color was added to them by using a Blender Pen and ink.

How about just one more picture of these darling Easter Egg Rocker cards.  I'm so pleased with how they turned out.  If they make me smile, hopefully they'll do the same for someone else too.

Please go to my Online Store to see all the new Online Exclusive stamps, dies, papers and other goodies.  I'm so NOT tech savvy and I've given up trying to post them here.  Sorry.  My first order of the new products finally came today, so guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?  Stamping!!!  I'm looking forward to creating some fun cards to share with you very soon.

Sale-a-bration is over for now, but you can still purchase each one of the items I used for these two cards.  Let me know if you're having any trouble ordering.  I'd be happy to help.  Thanks for stopping by today.  And thanks for leaving a comment along the way.  I love hearing from you!   

Happy stamping and creating, 

Sharon

Paper Pumpkin Easter Lilies

Hello Friend!  I don't know about you, but one of the things I enjoy seeing at Easter time are the lovely lilies that are in full bloom.  I think they are just gorgeous.  Stampin'Up! hasn't had a lily stamp set for a while, so I was very excited with my new Paper Pumpkin Kit that came last week.  First of all, there were two stamp sets included instead of the usual one.  And since the second set has a pretty lily stamp, I was simply thrilled.  Of course, I had to make something as soon as possible.  I finished it up this afternoon and here it is!

I love the softly serene look to the finished card.  I kept it fairly simple because I wanted the lilies to stand out, and I think they do.  The card base is cut from Soft Succulent cardstock and measures 11" x 4 1/4".  It's scored at 5 1/2" and folded in half.

The next step was deciding what shape I wanted to stamp the lilies on.  The Stitched So Sweetly dies were used here.  Yes, I know they're retired, but the size and shape worked so nicely.  The largest rectangle was chosen to cut the Basic White cardstock piece.

The lilies were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink near the top of the die-cut shape.  The planter was stamped with Gray Granite ink onto a scrap of white.  The leaves were water-colored with Soft Succulent ink.  The planter is painted the same Gray Granite as the outline.  

After the water-colored images dried, all the images received a wash of Wink of Stella.  I think you can see this better on the next picture. The golden stamens were touched in after this.  I used the Daffodil Delight Dark Blends for this and just dotted them in.  The planter was also cut out at this point.

After trying to decide on an accent strip of some kind to fill in the card more, but not detract from the lilies, I decided on the leafy border die from the Delicate Edges Die set.  They are on page 170 of the Annual Catalog.  All of these dies are lovely, but I felt the leaves worked with the design the best.  It is cut from the Fine Shimmer Paper on page 86 in the January - April Mini Catalog.  This specialty paper comes in three colors - Soft Succulent, Fresh Freesia, and Gold.  If you haven't gotten these gorgeous papers yet, you don't know what you're missing!  The shimmer is very fine, and nothing will rub off.  And the colors!!  What can I say?  I think they were made with me in mind!  lol  The leafy die-cut does a lovely job as a subtle accent that draws your eye to the card, but it's not over-powering at all.  When die-cutting the leaves, I did run the die back and forth a couple times to make sure all the little bits would come out without fussing too much.

Before adding the leafy border to the card base, I used Soft Succulent ink and a Blending Brush to give me a darker swath to adhere the border to.  The area that was darkened was only about 1 1/2" wide and not quite out to the top and bottom edges.  I just wanted the pretty leaves to stand out from the card color a little more.  The leaves were attached to the card with Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue touched on very lightly.  If I would have been thinking ahead better, I would have used an Adhesive Sheet behind the paper before die-cutting.  It would have made attaching it so much easier.

The "Happy Easter" sentiment was stamped on the bottom edge of the card at this time.  The sentiment comes from the Easter Bunny stamp set. You can find this set in the January - April Mini Catalog on page 52.  It's stamped right near the bottom edge of the card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.   

The lily layer was attached with Dimensionals to overlap the leafy accent a little bit.  The planter was added over the stem of the lily using a Dimensional to attach.

All that's left to do is the inside of the card.  The sentiment used here is from the Rejoice in Him stamp set.  It's in the January - April Mini Catalog on page 54.  It's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto a quarter sheet of Basic White cardstock.  As an accent, the palm branch from this set was used to the side.  It's stamped with Soft Succulent ink that has been off-stamped to give it a lighter color.

I had planned to use a skinny strip of scrap Fine Shimmer Paper that was left over from a different project.  I mean, it's way too pretty to throw those extra strips away.  You never know when you might need them!  But it worked out that I had a mini strip of Soft Succulent cardstock sitting on my table too.  They layered up just right.  So, there you are, the final touch to this simple and elegant card.  I did debate with myself whether it needed any bling added and decided it didn't.  I liked the simplicity of the card.  And the Fine Shimmer leafy border was just enough.

Thanks for stopping by today.  If you'd like to place an order soon.  Please consider using the Host Code at the top of this blog post.  I really appreciate you continued patronage.  I'll be ordering the new Annual Catalogs very soon.  If you're interested in receiving one, please make sure I know.  Otherwise, you might not get one next month, and that would be sad, now wouldn't it?  I'm excited to see what's going to be new and what's retiring.  I'm especially excited to see what the new Color Refresh is going to look like.  I'm already happy that Lost Lagoon and Pretty Peacock are coming back.  But what's leaving??  I don't know any more than you do at this point, so I'm pretty excited!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon

Two-Tone Flora Cards

Good day to you, my friend!   Today I have a simple card to share with you using the SIP technique.  Do you know what SIP is?  It stands for Stamps, Ink, and Paper.  Pretty basic, and that's really what so many of our cards are.  I didn't use any die-cuts on these cards.  But I did add sequins and on one of the cards there's a bit of ribbon.  I couldn't help myself!  What I'm sharing today is the same card with three different color combos to choose from.  Never know which one you might feel like making.

This is the first one I made.  I just love these colors together!  Sweet Sorbet, Pale Papaya, and Granny Apple Green - yum!  Sounds good enough to eat, doesn't it?  The Two-Tone Flora stamp set actually has 6 different flowers to choose from, and each one is a two-step stamp process giving you lots of detail easily.  For my cards this time, I used the largest flower and the third largest flower.  For some reason I keep gravitating to these two sizes.  One of these days I'll have to have a go at the other size flowers and show them some love too!

This card started with a Basic White layer that is stamped on.  It measures 5 1/2" x 4" so it goes edge to edge with a small cardstock strip showing on top and bottom.  On scrap paper, I stamped the large solid flower with Sweet Sorbet, then stamped again to check on which color strength I wanted to use.  The full strength was way too dark for my taste, so all the Sweet Sorbet flowers on this card are off-stamped with a full-strength detail stamp on top of it.  I did it the same way with the smaller Pale Papaya flowers too.  As you can see, one of the Pale Papaya flowers wasn't off-stamped and the detail just doesn't show up as nicely.  If you want to get a brighter flower, use a darker color on the detail stamp to give it some contrast.

After stamping in the flowers, the leaves were tucked in around them.  They are stamped with Granny Apple Green ink.  Both full strength and off-stamped versions of the leaves were used.

The sentiment used on this card is from the Something Fancy stamp set.  It's on page 17 of the January-April Mini Catalog.  For this card, Basic Gray ink was used.  With the lighter flowers, I thought the Memento Tuxedo Black ink was a little too harsh.

To put the card together, I checked on using Sweet Sorbet or Pale Papaya for the base.  As you can see, I chose a base of Pale Papaya cardstock.  It measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is scored and folded in half.  It's attached with adhesive.  

I was going to make the card plain with no bling.  But I just couldn't leave it bare.  I know, I know.  I just had to get in there and add a little more!  Three of the Pastel Adhesive-backed Sequins in gold were added for the bling.  Nice touch.

The inside of the card needed to be pretty too.  I went with smaller flowers in the same set and same colors to add a bouquet in the bottom right corner.  Didn't that dress it up nicely?  And I still have lots of room to write a note.

Now, wouldn't it be nice to try this in different color combinations?  Let's see what I did.  Let me know which color combo you like the best.

I have hardly used my Tahitian Tide cardstock and ink.  Wouldn't that be a pretty flower color?  Using the largest flower again, the solid stamp was off-stamped before stamping on the Basic White.  The detail stamp was full strength.  For the smaller contrasting flowers, I used Mango Melody ink stamping in the same way.  I really love the contrast of these two colors together.  For the leaves, the color was changed to Parakeet Party ink.

There are a few more changes.  The Mango Melody cardstock is cut to 11" x 4 1/4", scored and folded in half.  A sentiment was used from the Framed Florets set.  This time the sentiment was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink to be nice and bold.  More of the Pastel Adhesive-backed Sequins were used for an accent.  And I couldn't help myself - this time it was adding the ribbon too.  This is the 1/8" Metallic Woven Ribbon that's tied in a bow across the side of the card.  I liked that it was darker than the flowers and had some sparkle to it.  Pretty.

This time I used Tahitian Tide cardstock for the card base.  I still wanted to use the same color for the smaller flowers but wanted to try a different color for the larger flowers.  I've always loved the combo of blue and yellow, so I tried Daffodil Delight ink this time.  I was surprised in the pictures that there is very little difference between the Daffodil and the Mango.  In real life, there is a definite difference, but the camera really didn't pick that up.  Sorry!

The sentiment was changed on this card to a stamp from the Easter Bunny set.  I like this cute little sentiment.  Again, I used Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp the sentiment.  This card also uses the same Pastel Adhesive-backed Sequins for an accent.  But this time I chose the blue shade instead and got carried away and used five of them.

I guess this is as close to a SIP card as I can get.  Seems like there's always a little something that needs to be added.  Guess I need to work on controlling my 'bling' addiction.  It really is only a small addiction.  I didn't go overboard or anything, do I?  Just a small accent or two.  Anyway, hope you are inspired to make some SIP cards.  With the lovely papers and stamps you have to choose from, you might never make two cards the same ever again!  Don't forget to let me know which combo you like the best!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon