Before we left home for our trip to Europe I was determined to put my new Penny Black Tulip Bloom to use. I’m posting from my brother’s in the Hudson Valley tonight. We’ll drive to JFK tomorrow to fly to Amsterdam, and my post is just in time to enter the card in The Flower Challenge: Spring Colors which closes in about an hour. It was also inspired by the Double D Challenge: Springtime Flowers. I have some birthday cards to share as well, but I’m not sure I’ll get them posted while we’re gone. 

I kept the design clean and simple, and used another new product, Pinkfresh Studio’s Scalloped Grid which I cut down for a smaller panel. The tulip was cut from cardstock scraps and ink blended with some red ink which, sadly, does not show well in the photograph.

The sentiment was foiled in gold with the Pinkfresh Here for You sentiments. 

In addition to The Flower Challenge and the Double D Challenge, I’m sending this off to A Cut Above–it’s my last of three entries for April.

My post for the May 1 Color Hues Challenge is ready to post, so be sure to stop by for that! 

Happy Easter if you celebrate! Ours is a quiet one–church and a visit to our granddaughters who arrived home yesterday from a week in Florida. They’ll all be tired and getting ready for school to resume, so it will most likely be a quick visit to drop off our Easter cards and a small gift for each of them.

All three cards are the same design, just different colors. I might never have come up with this colorful design had it not been for a comment on my blog from Diane Hover which sent me off to her blog to see her Hey, Honeycomb Bunny from The Greetery. I had kept to more realistic colors for my first two bunnies, but really these colorful bunnies are just perfect for the girls. I chose the honeycomb balls first, then searched through my patterned papers and came upon Sunny Studio’s Gingham Jewel Tones which had wonderful matches.

Once I had the colors and the patterned papers all three came together nicely. I die cut the patterned paper with my friend’s Stitched Scallops from The Greetery. The Hey, Honeycomb Bunny and all the rest of the dies are from The Greetery as well. The little florals are from the Winter Medley collection, and the little bows were die cut from the Diamond Ribbons die. I didn’t bother to stamp and emboss the “directions” for opening the honeycombs since the girls are already familiar with the routine. 

Here they are with the honeycombs closed and then open. Keeping them open is a challenge!

And that’s a wrap for Easter this year. I’ve got several birthday cards to share that also use the Hey, Honeycomb products. They work so well for kids, although I did make one I think will go to an adult. No reason not to spread joy to everyone!

There are still some challenges around where one of these bunnies would fit in the gallery: AAA Colorful with a beautiful colorboard, Shopping Our Stash: Hippity Hop. and A Cut Above where they are always looking for die cut images. 

As promised on Wednesday, here are the two cards that didn’t make the cut for the Color Hues Challenge: Lilac and Aqua. The first card was put aside once I realized the “lilac” ink I had used was actually more pink than lilac. I turned this one into a mini-slimline, adding the Pinkfresh Studio Charming Floral Border to a stitched rectangle from Gina K’s Master Layout #7, using some dimensional tape. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market Foiled Card Phrases. It’s always good to have another birthday card in your stash.

The second card has to be eliminated from the challenge when I used a stencil brush that still had significant green on it. No way could it be called aqua.

It’s hard to see, but I cut the top of the card off and layered the Charming Floral Border over it. The sentiment from Spellbinder’s Curved Everyday Sentiments is on the bottom of the inside of the card. This has already gone in the mail for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s anniversary.

The first card is off to Seize the Birthday Challenge: Layer it, and both cards are off to The Flower Challenge: Spring Colors and the Pinkfresh Studio April Challenge: Floral Frenzy.

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Two of my Easter cards needed to be in the mail yesterday. Since my grandchildren definitely do not read my blog, I thought I’d share them while some of the Easter challenges are live. These cards are proof that I don’t always take weeks, months, and sometimes a year to use the products I love enough to order. These Honeycomb Bunnies from The Greetery were irresitable in last month’s release. I have to restrain myself from buying all the different varieties in the Honeycomb line.

First off is Hannah’s card. I borrowed a friend’s Stitched Scallops die, also from The Greetery and found a My Favorite Things pack of gingham papers, Gingham Galore, to use as the background. The bunny was die cut from my palest gray cardstock, Soft Stone, from Papertrey Ink. All the detail pieces came from my scrap boxes. I used stamps from the Honeycomb Basics as well as Honeycomb Spring. 

I added a spring from The Greetery’s Wildflower Mix for the embellishment. The tail was die cut twice from white and the top on raised up a bit for dimension. Here’s the bunny with the honeycomb opened up.

I struggle with holiday cards for my 13 year old grandson, who is now taller than I am. But I went ahead and made another version of the same bunny for him. When I made the Honeycomb Penguins for Christmas, he ended up putting it on his dresser which I took for a sign that it was fine with him. I intend to ask him after Easter what he thought of the card. 

The patterned paper was in an envelope with Easter die cuts and left-overs from previous Easters. I suspect it’s left over from my scrapbooking days. The die cut carrots were die cut at my friend’s house a year or two ago, and I’m not sure who made them. I was, however, delighted to find those in the envelope as well. This bunny was die cut from Papertrey Ink’s Rustic Cream cardstock. I added some dimension behind this bunny since the background was so busy. I did cut the patterned paper and the narrow orange frame with Gina K’s Master Layout #2.

The honeycomb on this bunny isn’t as bright yellow in real life.

Several of the Easter/Bunny challenges are also CAS challenges. Neither of these come close to being CAS. The Fourseason Challenge: Anything Spring and the Inspired By: Bunnies Challenge are super appropriate. The Four Seasons has a beautiful moodboard, but I didn’t add it here–there were no bunnies, but I saw some bunnies already in the gallery. I’m also sending this to Darnell’s I.D.E.A.S. gallery (this week is dies) and to her NBUS Gallery these bunnies are new but never used before!

I had lunch today with two of my best friends, both of whom have April birthdays. Their birthday cards were in my mind when I asked for the Flower Shoppe dies from Concord & 9th for Christmas. 

I started putting together the flower pots, cart, and hanging plants when I was in Racine in March. I ended up needing more, but it was a good head start. After assembling the pop-up shoppe with Concord and 9th’s Window Shoppe die, I added the acetate behind the windows, the architectural details, and the door. 

Getting the hanging pots, shelf and florals inside the shoppe would have been easier if I had added them before assembling the shoppe itself. But it was easier to know what I wanted back there, and a nice pair of straight tweezers made it pretty easy. Everything else was glued to the front of the shop.

I wanted the two cards to be somewhat different, so chose a different color for the shoppe and the awning. The “flower shoppe” sign dies looked fine on the green awning, but got lost on the black and white one.

I changed up some of the flowers, adding a tall plant in a gold pot from the Window Shoppe die, and a second hanging plant instead of a shelf. 

Both cards had the same inside message. 

Last year I created a Fashion Boutique for one of my granddaughtes. I love that the shoppes fold up and fit into an A2 envelope, and I love all the tiny details that are included in both the Fashion Boutique dies as well as these floral dies. Before I ever made one of these shoppe, I purchased the Book Shoppe dies and used it for a card for my grandson. Next on my list is to create a book shoppe. 

I’m sending these off to A Cut Above: Anything Goes.

Right before the latest Color Hues Challenge went live, I discovered this canvas from an Etsy shop:

Had I seen it earlier, I’m pretty sure I would have made this card:

But it didn’t take me long to get to it since I needed another masculine birthday card. (In fact, I need several, so hopefully I’ll be back soon with more.) I knew as soon as I saw the inspiration piece that I had the perfect die from Ellen Hutson, Abstract Sunset. After die cutting the pieces from multiple cardstocks, I pieced them back together on a cream rectangle cut with Ellen Hutson’s Essential Rectangles.

Then I pieced together some oranges, and die cut the sun. I ended up using one of Ellen Hutson’s Essential Circles, since the circle die in the Abstract Sunset was smaller than I wanted. Once again the gold foiled Black Tabs from Memory Box was the perfect sentiment. 

This is off to the Just Us Girls Challenge where they want die cuts, but no flowers, and the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Birthday Cards.

We’re in Wisconsin for a few days. It’s always good to be visiting family, but Sunday was a rude awakening–snow, ending up with nearly 2″ of the white stuff. Meanwhile, back in Rochester it was 60°+.

The day before we left, I squeezed in a little time to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law. The main foiled pattern, Pinkfresh Studio’s Abstract Triangles, had already been foiled, so it was pretty quick and easy once I settled on the design. 

I did manage to put another NBUS die to use: My Favorite Things: Stitched Diamond STAX. Recently, I spent some time hot foiling lots of sentiments, so the Happy Birthday from Spellbinders, You Are Everything, was also ready to add to the diamond die cut. 

I love this design–elegant, but simple, and another great card for a guy. I’m quite sure I’ll use the design again. No additional embellishment was needed. 

The card is off to three challenges and Darnell’s NBUS site. AAA Birthday Challenge is looking for Masculine Cards, Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday Cards, and I’ll add it to Seize the Birthday’s Anything Goes category.