Happy Spring Flowers

I can't believe this! It SNOWED again !!! This is the strangest weather we have ever had here. I woke up Sunday morning to see the Magnolia tree covered in snow, and then again this morning! I have photos of it in full bloom in mid April other years. In spite of the warmer temperatures we are getting, there is still at least three feet of snow covering the backyard and the snowbank by the driveway is at least ten feet high. I can tell you that the Toy Manchester Terrier  I am looking after would have prefered her owners to have taken her with them to Cuba than to be here with me. She's not that fond of snow!

I decided to take the photo of my card outside on a deck railing, with a pile of snow behind it. The top of that railing is five feet from the ground and the snow level is higher than that.

This beautiful image filled with happy Spring flowers is an Impression Obsession stamp called "Bird in Flower Pot" (H16003). It would be a great stamp to colour with Copics, but I like to colour outside the lines, so I stamped it with Antique Linen Distress ink and water coloured it using Distress markers as paint.
I've been so obsessed with IO's fun dies lately, that I almost forgot that I have some new IO stamps. This is the first time I used this one and I can't wait to use it again!
I think I owe a thank-you to my sister. I'm pretty sure that this Spellbinders Labels Twenty Three is one she gave me. ( She is responsible for a lot of my SB dies! :D )

I am entering the following challenges:

Impression Obsession - Happy Flowers
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
Hiding In My Craft Room -#193 Any Holiday             ( my card is Easter)

OCC Day 3 : Basic Shapes

One of the class videos showed how to make a folded card with a window cut with a basic shaped die. Here's my attempt:

This was fun, but I think it needs a bit more embellishment before I'm really happy with it. I did get to use a very pretty stamp that I haven't used in ages.
The sentiment is from a SSS stamp set.

OCC : Flower Dies

This is based on a design I did before. I used the same Cheery Lynn die and this time the watercoloured piece is behind rather than being the foreground.

The sentiment is embossed on vellum.

Inlaid Die Cuts : Thank-You Card

We just finished cleaning up after being walloped by a major snow storm. Our driveway and walkways are clean right down to the pavement, but I can't say the same for our street. Even thought a payloader was used, there is still only one lane cleared, and it's not very clear.

It is gorgeous out there , if you love snow. We just don't have anywhere else to put it!

We normally have very mild winters, without a lot of snow, and usually none until January and it should be pretty much gone by now. Our snow is so deep, I don't think I'll see my tulips until July! There is more coming this weekend !
Since we really aren't able to go anywhere, I thought it would be fun to take another Online Card Class. This one is about finding ways to get more use from your dies. I think we are up to Day 4, but this is my card for Day 1, which was about word dies. I used an Impression Obsession die from their Greetings set and cut it out multiple times in white card stock and replaced them with ones cut in black.

I carefully used a Swiss dots embossing folder above and below the inlaid part. I stamped, heat embossed. and diecut the flowers from the SSS Summer Garden stamp and die set. I thought I would like the flowers in colour better, but I didn't care for it at all, so all I added was some Wink of Stella. I mounted the front panel on SSS black cardstock, so a bit shows at the top and bottom.
It is much nicer IRL where you can see the shimmer. I'm finally getting one of those photo light boxes, so maybe I'll be able to take pictures that will show shimmer in the future. :)

Bunnies, Blossoms, Birds and Bulbs in a Box

I became enamoured with pop-up box cards because of Karen Amidon's sweet cards using Impression Obsession dies. IO makes great dies that work perfectly for this style of card. Here is my latest using my newest IO dies.

I ordered the Easter boy and girl the day they appeared on the IO site. I fell in love with them and when they arrived I did a happy dance. I paper pieced the clothes and hair on both. I used Core'dinations cardstock for the boy's jeans, so I could distress them. The floral paper is one of my very few pieces of Graphic 45, and the flocked purple paper is some old Doodlebug. Hiding in the branches is a little wood veneer bird. I used flocking on the bunnies and I used Distress markers to paint the tulips before I molded them into a cup shape.

Here's the back with another flocked bunny, IO grass, MS border punch and a felt egg from my stash.
I'll add a piece to this side with the to and from etc.

Here's the front and one side, the other side is the same. The felt egg came from Michael's a few years ago.

UPDATE : I decided to add some more info on this card. 

This card when closed measures 5 1/2 X 6 inches. The cardstock was 6 X 11 1/2 inches to start ( cut from a 12X12 sheet). It was scored at 3 1/2, 5, 9, and 11, and at 3 inches the other way.

I learned how to make this type of card by watching Youtube videos like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe1W1VecF4

There are lots of things you can use to make the pop-up part, but I am partial to the dies from Impression Obsession. They are the perfect size for these cards and they are VERY reasonably priced. They are available through their website, and lots of Scrapbook stores carry them, including Simon Says Stamp online, and locally here in Nova Scotia, Nika's in Windsor and The Cutting Garden in Halifax.

Posting this happy Spring/Easter card today is very funny, as we are buried in snow! We got dumped on overnight. I think it's the most snow we got all winter. YAY !! Mud Season is a long way off now. I think we got more snow this winter than we've had in years. I'm not complaining, I LOVE the white stuff. I can't share any more bird bath photos now, I can't find the bird bath!

Here's a list of the dies (and stamps) I used :

DIE178-C Small Grass

DIE060-I Grass Border

DIE147-A Tulip Set

DIE150-D Leaves and Stems

DIE055-N Leafy Branch

DIE140-D Tiny Flowers

DIE156-H Birdhouses

DIE043-G Bunny Set  ( Thanks to Carmen for cutting some for me, this set is still on my wish list)

DIE260-I Girl with Easter Basket

DIE261-G Boy with Easter Basket

B14416 Hippity Hoppity

D5643 Garden Animal set

I'm entering this in:

 IO's Think Spring challenge

 Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge- B is For...       ( See blog title for what B is for on my project)

 Curtain Call Jelly Bean challenge

Check out the gorgeous inspiration picture ! LOVE IT !!

Hiding in my Craft Room - Super Scraps Saturday  I used nothing but scraps for this card! :)

Birthday Bouquet

WOW ! It's 4 degrees celsius today and the sun is shining brightly. My DH got inspired to clean out the pool and we're having a party. Robin was the first one in, but he was quickly joined by a whole lot of friends.

 Chickadees, Red Polls. Pine Siskins, Goldfinches and Juncos were all lined up just waiting for a chance to get in. I've never seen so many birds in the bath at one time before!

As you can see, the snow is still right up to the level of the bath, but it is really starting to melt. Thankfully, it will be a while yet before it melts down to mud level. I hate Mud Season!
Well, in spite of all the snow, it does feel like Spring is on it's way, so I made a card loaded with flowers using all Impression Obsession flower dies.

The pink polka dot paper has sparkly dots, and is really pretty. I cut all the flowers out of white paper and painted them with Twinkling H2O's. The sentiment was cut out three times and layered then painted with white Perfect Pearls. I added Liquid Pearls to the centres of all the flowers.
Here are the dies I used:
Spellbinders A2 Floral Ribbon Threader
Impression Obsession : Spiral Daisy DIE071-I
                                     Small Sprial Flowers DIE042-I
                                     Leaf Cluster DIE066-C
                                     Leaves and Stems DIE150-D
                                     Greeting Set DIE174-W

I'm entering this into the following :
Impression Obsession's Challenge, Think Spring
Simon Says Stamp's Challenge, Special lady/ Girly

Trying CAS Again

I`m determined to do lots of cards that are easy to mail and I think I`m getting the hang of it. It`s all about self -control, which is usually not my strong suit. I liked how this watercoloured background worked out, so it was easy to exercise restraint.

After adding the ink ( Peeled Paint & Broken China ) to the background, I used a Cheery Lynn Flourish die to emboss the design into the paper. It was just enough so I could just follow the design with my paintbrush and pretty green Twinkling H20`s.
Okay, now here`s the funny part. I haven`t done a Curtain Call challenge in a long time, and here is the inspiration photo.


The green and the leaves appealed to me, but things kind of went awry when it came to the sentiment. This card just had to be a sympathy card. I used Ranger Liquid Platinum EP on vellum and the gorgeous JustRite Extra Grand Sentiments stamp. I`m thinking that `Lucky` may not suit my card, but then again, maybe it does! MWAH HA HA !!
I`m also entering the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, No Rules
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Anything Goes