Cards for Men challenge 8- Easter...

We had some great entries for our embossing challenge and I tried to get around to all of you. For this challenge we are moving on to making Easter cards for guys- and I know some of the team found it quite challenging but there are some lovely DT cards so do take a look if you are in need of inspiration!

I used this cute bunny in an egg which was a freebie from Prairy Fairy for my card. My papers are from a purchased set from Summer Driggs store called 'Sit a spell'. I took my colours from the papers and kept everything quite natural- even though I have used dark brown for the mats I think it still manages to look quite springy. The sentiment is on a nestie ribbon slider and I drew around the inside of the die and cut out the oval freehand. I found some natural cotton tape that I had salvaged from some packaging in my stash and this was just perfect to thread the slider on. The corner is cut with a Sizzlet die from the offcut that the circle came from- waste not want not!

We are sponsored by Peachy Keen Stamps and they are kindly offering 2 stamp sets for our lucky winner. Do pop over to Cards for Men to check out these sets as they have loads of stamps in each and while you're at it why not join in? The challenge closes on 24th April.

I would also like to enter this card for the following challenges:

• Craft your days away- spots and stripes
• Papertake weekly- anything goes
• Simon says- Easter
• CRAFT- animals/pets
• I love Promarkers- Easter
• Paper play- critters galore
• Paper cutz- image of a bunny. lamb,chick or egg
• Stampin' for the weekend- Easter
• Totally gorjuss- Something fluffy!

A box card for Easter...

I made this card to give to my son for Easter after getting the mini eggs the other day. The image is from Bugaboo and all the DP came from a digi scrap blogtrain called 'scripture heros'. Here is the inside:

There is space to write and a box full of eggs, which opens with a flap at the top. Here's a close up of the box (and eggs!).

The box has an acetate front. I used Labels 3 and the circles for all the shapes. If you would like to make one of these yourself, there is a tutorial here.

I would like to enter this box card in the following challenges:-

• Totally Papercrafts- cuddly and cute
• Stamp Something- spring somethings
• Gorjuss- spring is sprung
• CES challenges- Die cut crazy

A pink, polka dot Easter card !...

I wasn't going to use this paper set again as I have made 2 other cards with it lately, but then I saw that Cupcake Craft have 'pink polka dots' as their challenge- so what could I do?!

The papers are from a digi set called 'Think Pink' by Just so Scrappy and I do love them so! The layout is from the great sketch at Sketch Saturday this week. This sketch had quite a few layers so I would also like to enter my card for Do You Stack Up's challenge of 'layers'. I confess to buying the digi stamp from Bugaboo especially for this card, but I'm sure I will use it plenty more times. Catch the Bug have 'scallops' as their challenge so I took this opportunity to use one of the scalloped card cutting dies I bought from Go Kreate a little while back to cut the card base, a Nellies die for the image and a Nestie for the sentiment. I finished off with a piece of organza ribbon from my stash and some card candy.

Yellow and Green Easter.

It's amazing how similar lots of the challenges are this week! I made this one for:-
Dutch Dare, Easter theme. Cupcake Craft #33, a sketch. PTW, a recipe- 1 circle, 2 ribbons, 3 stamps.
The image stamp is Elzybells from the pack I have just got in the post- expect to see more Elzy cards! The sentiment stamp is from a little Studio G set. The pattern on the circle is done with a large Whispers background stamp. The ribbons are both by Anita's. I left out the extra embellishments at the top left of the sketch because I wanted to keep the card clean and simple.

Blue Easter.

I made this card for my son. It also fits with 2 challenges. Pink Elephant have 'Easter' as their theme this week. Elzybells have a recipe- 1 piece of ribbon, a circle and an embellishment. I love this Elzybells stamp that I have just bought and so did my son which is why it is on his card! The gingham and polkadot cardstock are from a Pay-per-box. The ribbon and button are both Papermania. I was so chuffed when I found the button because I was beginning to struggle over the embellishment- I find it hard to know what to put on boys' cards. Hope he likes it!

OCC Sketch Challenge Easter Card

I liked this sketch challenge at Our Creative Corner but was getting a bit lost with my papers again! Then I scrolled down and found Robin Willis' card and it got me on track! I decided to use the colour of my card instead of another pattern to back the sketch and used two papers from a free download at Papercraft Inspirations. When I layed it out it still looked a bit bare so I stamped and clear embossed the little flowers on the base card and was really pleased with the effect. Stamps and colouring as in my last post and ribbon from my stash.

My first Easter Card of 2009!

I followed the sketch at Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #60 for this card. It is a lovely simple sketch and I kept it really clean by not doing some of the extra mats- I know where trying to over complicate cards gets me!

I inked up this Personal Expressions clear stamp for the first time for this card. When I used some of the others they were a bit tricky to start with because they were quite 'sticky', even after the usual trick of giving it a wash with a bit of washing up liquid. This time I used a little Stazon Cleaner on it and rubbed it on my stamp scrubber and it stamped perfectly! I have done a couple of extra images to send to my friend.

The paper is from an old pack from Partners and I took my colours from this. I coloured the image with my favourite watercolour pencils and I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder and some scallop scissors to do the mat. I used a tiny piece of the paper for the band with the sentiment on to keep the design simple. The sentiment is from my Elzybells clear set.