Happy Easter!

 

Happy Easter from the Blondin household!

happy (hybrid) Easter!

Happy Easter, all!

I played a bit this a.m. Yesterday while at a make-'n-take I picked up a sheet of some stinkin' cute DP at my local stamping store. I thought it would make SUCH a cute background on a card if it weren't for the fact that the bunny was facing right ... and therefore away from what would become the center of the card. My BFFs know that's something that bugs me about some folkes' placement of stamps on cards ... and so what did I do, you ask?! Well, if I'd used the portion of the DP from the right-facing bunny to its right, I'd have lost those cute topiary bushes ... so I decided to go digi.

I haven't played around w PhotoShop in ages, so purchased, then scanned the DP, and flipped that bunny so he was left-facing. I printed out a couple pictures and then fussy cut around the bunny so that I could pop him up. I also used the color picker so that I could have the lavender from the polka dots as the card background. The white portion of the card is popped up off the lavender as well. Voila!

I'm happy w the results, tho' it's afternoon before I'm posting my happy Easter greetings. Such is life, eh?!

stamps: Heather's F-180-HK Happy Easter greeting; paper: We R Memory Keepers' Cotton Tails English Garden DP, Neenah Solar White card stock; ink: Ranger black soot distress ink, PC-generated photo

Happy Easter!

My family get- together was delayed an hour and a half, and to me that meant the opp to upload an Easter greeting! This card's winging its way to my brother-in-law and his bride ... which one, I'm not certain! I pulled together similar (one landscape, one portrait version of the same) cards together ... one for my DH's local brother and one for his brother in New York, you see!

Hope you and yours have a t'riffic Easter!

stamps: studio g (thanx, Pat!); paper: Reminisce DP, Compatible Papers embossed crinkle in sage advise and Staples white card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; tools: Fiskar's grass border punch

SWEET card from my stamping buddy Pat

This SWEET RAK card came in today's mail from my stamping buddy Pat, who's visiting w her daughter for Easter. We generally get together on Saturdays, have breakfast, and head to the local stamping store for their weekly make -'n- take. Not so this weekend!

I like everything about it ... from the cute chick to the basketweave embossing to the DP ... and yes, we BOTH purchased those butterfly dies. LOVE THEM! Anywho, I thought I'd share (and steal the sketch for a future card!) this card today, as I don't think today's make -'n- take project would photograph well.

CAM make-'n-take

This past Saturday's project at CAM was a simple Easter card. Jillibeans wondered whether it may be TOO easy ... but I don't think so! Variety is the spice of life, and you need to offer a range of projects to appeal to paper crafters of all levels of ability, right?! We repeatedly stamped a Stamps by Judith carrot for a background, colored it in using a variety of water-based markers, then popped up a bunny die and attached his bow-die and eye ... easy peasy and voilà! Here's my first Easter card!

pinwheels

I used a pinwheel cut from designer paper using a die from CAM (Capture-A-Memory, a Flint-area paper crafting store I frequent) for today's card - that and complementary cardstock is all this CAS Easter card took, add a bit of ribbon, and voilà! My final Easter card for 2011! Thanx, CAM! I needed that!

Those mailing their pinwheel cards flattened their pinwheels. Mine's being hand-delivered on Sunday - sigh, the only Easter cards that will be on time this year besides the eCards I try to send!

Hope you have a t'riffic Easter!

lessons from the Easter Bunny

Today's make -'n- take at CAM was this cutie patootie card and basket combo led by the lovely and talented Jill, who stamped lots of the sentiment in advance and kitted our packets. We were able to use some of the extra stamped sentiments to choose which pictures from the sentiment we popped up. I dunno if you can tell from the photo, but I popped up the bunnies and the carrot. We also used flocking, which I added to the large bunny on the basket, and to the tails of all the smaller bunnies on the matching card. To finish off the basket, we added "grass" and marshmallow bunnies. YUM! Mine's gone already ... I know, how'd THAT happen?! grins ...

all supplies provided by the lovely and talented Jill ... and I fought temptation and resisted purchasing the stamp, tho' it IS STINKIN' CUTE, eh?!

Blessed

If you're looking for the OWH bunny hop, please scoll down a post!

Otherwise, here's what probably will turn out to be an Easter card ... I'm not 100% sure yet, so left the inside blank for the time being. While checking the bunny hop posts this morning, I noticed that Christine of Christine's Crafting Capers posted three color challenges, so I'm posting this in response to challenge #2 - to use cream, red, lime green (I don't have any so substituted Old Olive), and brown. Kiwi Kiss may have been closer to lime green but I couldn't find my marker ... sigh ... Oh, I roughed up the edges of and popped up the cream panel.

Have you tried SU's seam binding ribbon yet?! It's soft and silky, and I was lucky enough to get into a ribbon share recently so I scored some in each of the colors listed on p16 of the latest Occasions Mini Catalog (Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, and Rose Red - thanx, Carol!). I'm lovin' the Cherry Cobbler color but had been putting off purchasing supplies in it 'til the Sale-A-Bration and now have to hurry before it's passed me by (I'll be calling, Angie!)! Anywho, it's very close to CTMH's Cranberry, which I used for the red parts of the flowers. So tell me, should I add more flowers or leave well enough alone?!

stamps: Hero Arts' Wreath of Leaves, Just Johanna's unnamed open flower, Studio G's Series 46 sentiment and silhouette mini flower; paper: A1's Neenah Natural White and SU's Crumb Cake card stocks; ink: CTMH's Cranberry, SU's Crumb Cake and Old Olive; accessories: SU's Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon; tools: Tim Holtz distresser

Easter's late this year

Or so it is at our house. My eldest was rummaging thru the kitchen cupboards this afternoon and happened upon some Easter cookies I'd picked up for a craft project and then forgotten about. Cute, eh? We colored one each and ate 'em up - YUM!

a case of mistaken identity?

There's no mistaking ... and the inside reads "some bunny loves you! Happy Easter!" Here's another digi quickie that I made for my DH. Sorry for the picture quality - I'm scanning as it's after 10 p.m. and I'm too lazy to get out the camera, LOL!

I got an e-mail from my buddy Connie at work the other day that included a dozen pics of bunnies with what looks like matched sets of kittens and puppies - CUTE, eh?! My DH and I have collected bunnies for years ... or rather, I pick 'em up for every anniversary or birthday or whatever. So, this seemed a good fit for his Easter card for this year.

Have a happy Easter, everyone!

a digi Easter card

My DH just kinda groaned when I showed him this one ... sigh ... so, do you know why did the Easter egg hide? The inside reads "He was a little chicken!"

Did I happen to tell you I love my latest printer? It's a Canon MP610 all-in-one printer w scanner and fax. I had saved this cartoon that I'd received in an email years ago and added the text (Brody font), then used Photoshop's eyedropper tool to select the light blue from the picture to print as a slightly askew background, found this ribbon in my stash, and voila! Another Easter card - this one a quick digi version - ready to mail tomorrow!

another QK cutie

I should be done w Easter cards by now as they're due to hit the mail this week ... but I'm NOT! Here's another from this past Saturday's QuicKutz Club meeting at CAM (link at right), led by the lovely and talented Pat L. I have this chick and used it as (methinks) a duck last year, judging by the coloring, LOL! It's much softer in Pat's colors.

We made our lacy scalloped trim by using a 12" scallop punch, then running it thru a crimper and adding some extra crimps by hand on the flat edge, then positioning it around the circle. It's definitely something that will take a bit more practice on my part! Fun projects, Pat - TFS!

the incredible edible egg

Here's an Easter card from my weekend's QuicKutz club meeting led by the lovely and talented Pat L. We made two Easter cards and I love how Pat led us in converting this cupcake die into a basket. She has a knack for seeing possible uses in dies that others usually don't. Once we used a cannon die as a vase ... another time she pointed out that a ship could be an ice cream sundae bowl. Well, I collect bunnies so thought I'd share this one first! Pat provided all the "parts," we simply assembled our cards at the class. Thanx again, Pat!

CAM make-'n-take

Ahem ... did you notice anything different about this photo, folkes? Maybe just the fact that it's a photo and not a scan for today's post? Whoo hoo! My recent birthday seems to have coincided with the demise of my camera, so my DH replaced it today! We got a Canon subcompact - the PowerShot SD1100 IS - and while I'm on a learning curve, I've installed the software and drivers and used the accompanying software, so I'm back in business! The camera itself is smaller than my cell phone. The software doesn't accomplish everything my Toshiba's would do (it seems strange but I can't find an option to resize photos ... just crop and add text, various sharpness and brighness options, red eye, etc.) but I'm making do!

This is a make-'n-take from last Saturday at CAM. It's surreal but I've been out of commission since last Thursday about noon, was off work ill due to blood pressure issues, but appear to be on the mend now. I was feeling better Saturday and stopped by the make-'n-take after dropping my son off at school to work on a project, then picked up some paper for another project. Hope this finds you all doing well!

first Easter card

My first Easter card of the season! I got the oak leaf punch using a Mike's 40% off coupon a couple weeks ago and hadn't used it yet. I'd purchased it thinking it'd make good carrot greenery (and I'm hooked on leaves, remember!), and had this Easter-y DP left from last year. Had you seen the two bunnies cartoon distributed in the last couple years via e-mail? I'd intended to make a card using 'em and finally got to it! Dunno who's the recipient yet ... someone who shares my warped sense of humor tho'!

stamps: A Muse Artstamps' Chocolate Bunny, Rubber Stampede's mirror image stamp; paper: Reminisce's Easter Ribbons DP, Mrs Grossman's sage embossed crinkle cardstock, SU's Whisper White cardstock; ink: PC-generated; tools: unknown circle and MS oak leaf punches

in my Easter basket ...

Isn't that the beginning of an Easter song's refrain? No, it's bonnet, isn't it?! Well, CLOSE! Here's another couple projects from last weekend's stampin' get-together - a basket (looks pretty empty now, LOL!) and matching card. The basket's a simple 3x3 square panel folded in thirds, then cut at the ends to fold the paper into a basket shape. The last of the candy disappeared this morning!

Updated to add: Want to make your own basket? There's a video available here that you can follow along!

I'd found the DP earlier in a prior CTMH catty but just now when ready to upload the pic wasn't able to locate it. Ever have days like this?! sigh ... and my youngest son needs the PC (timed post - he's really gonna be done w homework before midnight - honest!) so I'm outta here! See ya later, alligators!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone's having a t'riffic Easter! Here's the card I made for my sweetie for today. He always picks me up the PRETTIEST cards, and today mentioned he usually feels they're inferior and wonders why he even does it, as I've been making my own cards the last couple years and he thinks they're so much nicer than what he can purchase at the stores. OK, everybody together now ... Aaawwwww! The man can certainly talk the talk! I'm gonna extend his contract, I tell ya! Anywho, this one's for him ... based on Taylor's TECC8 sketch challenge.

stamps: Artful Stamper's smooching bunnies, SU's warm words, Hero Arts' Easter greetings; paper: ColorMates' medium mostly mauve 'n deep spring green cardstocks, Melissa Frances' dawn DP, SU's Kraft cardstock; ink: StazOn's Jet Black, Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: satin ribbon from my fav LSS - CAM, DCWV's rose envelope seals; tools: TheCraftersWorkshop's mini hearts stencil

Easter inchies

My family's been bitten by a horrendous nasty flu bug this past week - starting on Saturday with my eldest, then Monday by my youngest son and me, then my DH ... and getting over it in pretty much the same sequence with me feeling MUCH better today. Boy, you don't really appreciate being in good health 'til you're hit like this, do you?! Today was both boys' first day back to school so I stamped a bit and made this, my last Easter card to be mailed ... today! Sheesh!

Mish recently issued an Easter inchies challenge, and at paper crafters anonymous, this one was to make an Easter card with a basket holding something you might get for Easter. I'd picked up 3 of these stamps recently at Mike's thinking I'd snip them into inchies for an Easter card.

stamps: A Muse Artstamps (bunny), Hero Arts (sentiment), and Katie & Co for studio g; paper: Mrs Grossman's embossed cardstock, Reminisce's DP, SU's Almost Amethyst cardstock; ink: StazOn Jet Black, Tri-C watercolor markers

in spurts

That's how I work with different techniques ... also the way I post, apparently! LOL

I read in spurts (books, newspapers), do needlework in spurts, and scrapbook in spurts (now THERE's a long-neglected hobby) ... so it really shouldn't come as any surprise that I also seem to use tools in spurts, I guess. I seem to have been picking up the Cuttlebug more lately, and here's another card using it. I picked up the Polka Dot BK most recently and went thru my QuicKutz supplies to see what I had in the way of Easter dies.

stamps: Hero Arts; paper: Creative Memories' contemporary collection, Reminisce's Easter Ribbons, bright green and white cardstock on hand; ink: StazOn Jet Black; accessories: polka dot organdy from one of texasjodylyn's ribbon shares, eyelets from one of hedgehogink's eyelet shares (hey ladies, do I get a discount commission if folkes tell you I sent 'em your way?!); tools: Creative Memories' oval cutting system, Cuttlebug w polka dot BK, QuicKutz Squeeze w chick die set