Hoppy Easter FUSION...

"Hop" you have a fabulous Easter, and spare some crafty time to play along with FUSION this fortnight. Inspired by both the versatile FUSION sketch and super inspiration photo, this has to be one of my favourite Easter cards I have created to date - although I must admit it's mostly because of the too cute for words bunny suit from MFT (My Favorite Things). I stamped and fussy cut the bunny and paired it with gorgeous spotty paper from Lawn Fawn, h"o"ppy diecut from Winnie and Walter, MFT sentiment stamp and flair from Cocoa Vanilla.

To play along you can take inspiration from either the FUSION sketch or inspiration photo - or combine the two as I have!

Hop on over to the FUSION blog for some more super sized inspiration from our fabulous Design Team...

Becca Cruger - Betty J. - Jeanne Jachna - Jen Mitchell - Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan - Michelle Leone - Michelle Lupton - Michelle Williams

Hope you can join in the fun this fortnight @ FUSION.

Can't wait to see what you create!

Also playing along with CAS on Friday Easter,
Little Red Wagon Hippity Hoppity,
and Simon Says Anything Goes

Happy Easter with Stencils...

 

 

Created the background of these two Easter cards using this gorgeous Studio Calico mask and Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry for the bunny card and Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Tumbled Glass for the sheep card. As a rule, I like to stamp my baby cards and Easter cards in brown rather than black inks, and this is no exception - stamped in Hero Arts Cup O' Joe using Hero Arts Happy Day Animals, and the sentiment combines Happy Day Animals and Lawn Fawn Happy Easter. The papers are from Lily Bee Designs.

Playing along with A Blog Named Hero Build Your Own Background, 

Virginia's View Stencil Challenge, Moxie Fab World Styling with Stencils Challenge, 

and don't forget you still have time to play along with Keep It Simple Stencil Challenge too!

Spring Chick...

Playing along with Paper Smooches Sparks Cool Shades Challenge, combined with some more homework from Pattern Play Day 1 too.  Patterned papers are a mix of Echo Park, Lily Bee and Bo Bunny, with this gorgeous spring chick from Paper Smooches, with the sentiment created by combining Spring Fling and Chubby Chums,with a few buttons from my stash.  Sketch is flipped from this weeks fab Retro Sketches by Lori.

Also joining in the fun at:

Simon Says Stamp Easter / Spring Challenge
The Pink Elephant Easter Challenge

 These made me smile...

Hoppy Easter...

How cute is this little Stampendous Busy Bunny in a basket!  I thought it was perfect for playing along with this weeks CASology Bunny Challenge, and used this fab Freshly Made Sketch, Color Throwdown and Scrapbook Boutique photo as Easter inspiration.  Each bunny was stamped three times, once onto the background papers, once onto white cardstock and once onto kraft cardstock, then paper pieced, and finished with My Favourite Things Funny Bunny sentiment.

Hop you have are headed for a Hoppy Easter too ;)

This made me smile...

Practical CAS-ual Friendly Critter...

Hoppy to announce a second card for the day!

CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to create a Clean & Simple project featuring something you'd find in an Easter Basket - so I've created my bunny and grass from my Easter egg foils.  Being made almost entirely from non-paper scraps this card is perfect for the Moxie Fab World Don't Throw it Away Challenge. I couldn't resist including my card in this weeks DYSU Challenge Friendly Critters too. 

Paper Smooches A Little Lovin' bunny was stamped using StazOn Black ink.  I wasn't sure how well it would work and I must admit I was a bit dissappointed to discover it worked first time - I really wanted an excuse to eat another chocolate egg!!!  The die-cut grass using foil worked first go too.  Both are adhered with Terrifically Tacky red tape.  The sweet sentiment is also from Paper Smooches A Little Lovin' set. 

Paper Smooches Sparks DYSU...

You may be wondering why I photographed my card with an egg and egg cup!  From the first moment I saw the gorgeous inspiration photo for the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, I wanted to have a go at making one of those cute felt bunnies - I just wasn't sure how I would incorporate it into a card.  With the added inspiration from this weeks Do You Stack Up Stitching Challenge, I created this card, incorporating a pocket for my felt bunny egg-warmer. 

I created the bunny egg-warmer by blanket stitching together white felt, with hot pink ears.  The pocket card was created by cutting my card an extra 2 inches long, and reverse folding this extra edge to create an outside pocket.  The card front was then lined with Echo Park paper.  I used an awl to create my stitching holes before I blanket stitched the top and side edges of the card pocket.  The sentiment was created using Paper Smooches Alphadots, heat embossed in Seafoam White.  The gorgeous little bunny stamp is also Paper Smooches from their Spring Fling set.

Wishing you and yours a very Hoppy Easter too!

Paper Smooches Easter Joy...

Inspired by this fortnights gorgeous photo from Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, I love the cute felt bunnies and the saturated colours.

I tried something new by stamping images from Paper Smooches Spring Fling onto felt to achieve a light outline to use as a stitching guide.  I found the best option was to stamp them using Distress Ink. I used Victorian Velvet, but any light colour could achieve the same effect (although Spun Sugar was too light to see the outline). The outline was then highlighted by using 3 strands of embroidery thread - the usual 6 strands did not produce a fine enough line.  I used DMC Embroidery Thread in 704 (green), 3806 (pink) and... yellow whose code has fallen off!  The papers are from Alison Ellis Design and Rose Moka - although you could be really creative and make your own ;)  The egg shape negative cut was achieved by enlarging the Paper Smooches Spring Fling image on a photocopier, then cutting out the shape using a craft knife.  The Spring Fling sentiment is stamped using Versa Colour Lime, and I love the subtlety of the sentiment in the midst of all the saturated colours.

To adhere the egg and bunny to the card, I used Provo Crafts Terrifically Tacky Tape (also known as red tape). The best thing about Terrifically Tacky Tape is that it is terrifically tacky, the worst thing about Terrifically Tacky Tape, is that it is terrifically tacky - so you have to be extra careful - once it sticks, it stays!

Today is a gloriously sunny day - hope you are enjoying Spring / Autumn wherever you are!

A CAS-ual Easter with There She Goes and Skipping Stones

I've joined in this weeks There She Goes Easter Animal Challenge again - this time featuring these cute chick and sun images from There She Goes Under The Weather stamps with Paper Smooches sentiment (which I triple masked to change from a square sentiment to a rectangle one to suit the card).  The sketch for this card was based on this fantastically versatile sketch from Skipping Stones Design.  Believe it or not the yellow polka dot paper from Carolees Creations is actually lemon - so fits in perfectly with The Bold and The Beautiful Challenge this week over at CAS-ual Fridays.  The paper punch I have used is a cute scalloped edge from EK Success.

Hope you have a wonderful day in your corner of the world :)

Hop Hop Hooray for a Paper Players Playdate...

I couldn't resist playing along this week at The Play Date Cafe - look at this gorgeous colour combo!  As my button collection must be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, I couldn't resist adding a few buttons for the Paper Players Challenge too.  This gorgeous buuny stamp is from Stampendous, the wider grosgrain ribbons are from Kaisercraft, the top two are from my stash, acouple of the orange buttons are from Basic Grey, and the teal is from My Minds Eye.  I hand drew the balloon strings and the sentiment - which could either be a Birthday or Easter sentiment.  There She Goes has a weekly challenge of incorporating an animal into your Easter card so I'll hop on over and enter this card too :)

Hope you are having a hoppy day too :)

PS. Hop Hop Hooray for this too :)

Have a Hoppy Day...

Realised in the nick of time that I had not yet done the February i{heart}2stamp {SFYTT} challenge.  I was inspired by this gorgeous colour combination from Color Throwdown, and another CAS-ual Fridays Jest for the Pun of it sentiment.

I stamped and paper pieced this cute rabbit from Stampendous - I love that it reminds me of when my kids were little and I'd always be buying them clothes that were too big so they could get lots of wear out of them :)  Papers are from Three Bugs in a Rug and MME - I have in mind a way to use the scraps from this card too.

I hope you are having the hoppiest of days!