Hoppy Easter!

A little extra post for my Easter cards I have been working on! It's no secret I am a huge bunny fan (and am often to be found sporting bunny slippers) so it's probably not surprising I love this time of year. Nice weather, flowers coming into bloom (I love photography too, so it's a happy time for me!) bunnies and chocolate.... and probably some more bunnies! I came across this cheeky chap by Art Impressions and fell in love. I had to design a card around him.

I designed the grass cutaway card using my Silhouette machine and altering a grass pattern from the Silhouette store. I cut a separate piece of grass and then sponged it using Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint. I then spritzed with some water and blotted. I altered an image of a spotty egg in various sizes, printed it out on cardstock, cut it out, then ran it through my Minc foiling machine with gold foil. Then I sponged over the top with Distress Inks in Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry. Spritz and blot again. You will need two of the biggest egg. When you have coloured them, stick them back to back. Then stamp the bunny from the Art Impressions set in Black Memento Ink and cut him out. I coloured him with Prismacolor pencils. Cut a slit around his arm and stick his back and front together, leaving the arm a little loose. Stick the middle egg to the card, then stick the bottom grass over it and adhere the smallest egg. Stick our leporine friend to the largest egg, with it nestled under his arm. Then stick the egg to the card. If needed cut some more grass to hide the back of the middle egg.. Stamp and gold heat emboss the Happy Easter sentiment.

Laura's Loft have some great offers on Distress Inks at the moment, so do pop over and get yourself some...I love them so much I land up using them on nearly every card!!!

Meanwhile have a wonderful holiday weekend, however you celebrate it. May the bunnies be with you!

Entered in the Cat's Pyjama's blog contest.

March Calling All Sistahs

Please click above for the beginning of the hop.

Calling All Sistahs!

1 in 8 women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.

On August 17th, 2015  an awesome friend of ours became 1 in 8

Calling All Sistahs was started by Michele Gross, owner of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, shortly after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is her hope to create awareness for breast cancer beyond just the month of October by reminding you to do your self breast exams on the 17th of each month, and encouraging us all to remind all the great women in our lives to do the same. You can read more about her story HERE 

The Calling All Sistahs Collection was created by Michele with the specific intent of donating 50% of her profits from this collection to Breast Cancer Research and Awareness programs in honor of all who have been affected by breast cancer.

Laura's Loft are thrilled to be one of the first stores in the country to offer this special collection of stamps and dies. It's important to us to be able to remind all of our sistahs to check yourself and we are proud to continue Michele's effort by donating 50% of our own profits from this collection to breast cancer research in VA. 

Join us here on the blog on the 17th of each month for CAS-ual Fridays projects dedicated to the fight against Breast Cancer and in support of our sistahs suffering through it along with a personal reminder to get yourself checked. 

I am so happy to support this cause, I lost a friend a university to breast cancer, and know several woman who have suffered from this horrible disease. Catching it early is a life saver! 

 ***This is your reminder to do your breast self-exam!***

and remind your sistahs too! 

If you're not exactly sure how to do a self exam, you can click here to get the information you need, and then follow up with your doctor at your next appointment.

Don't forget to go for your mammograms!

Here is my card for this months hop.
On some pink card, stamp in white pigment and clear emboss the ribbon from the Hope Ribbon set. Add some shading with Zig clean colour pens and a watercolour pen. Cut our with the Ruffled Ribbon Fri die. Cut out some flowers from vellum with the Friendly Flowers Fri-dies. Sponge daub some Chalk inks on the back in Warm Violet and Berrylicious. Let dry. Add some details with a white gelly roll pen. Adhere layers of flower together with Designer Dries Clear adhesive. Add some white prills with the same glue and let dry. Adhere the ribbon to a white panel that has been sponged using a Tim Holtz mini blending foam and Distress Ink in Spun Sugar. Stick that to larger accent panels and a base card in shades of pink. Place the assembled flower in the middle. 

There are some great prizes again this month.... Cas-ual Fridays is giving away three $25 vouchers to their store. The winners will be pulled randomly from comments on ANY of the blog stops...the more you comment on, the more you might win! Laura's Loft is generously giving away two $25 store credits and all you need to do is comment on ALL the blog hop stops.

Hop on over to Lisa's blog next for more inspiration....

The complete hop:

1.CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 
2.Jingle 
3.Kelly 
4.Laura 
5.Deana
6.Jasmine
7.Emma  ←you are here!
8.Lisa 
9.Robbie
10.Angie 
11. Archana 
12.Joanna 

CHA Release Hop with Laura's Loft

See Robbie's beautiful work here!

Welcome to the CHA new release hop!

                                                                                                           So many exciting new products this month... Wow! 

Here's my card using Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set. I had a lots of fun with this.

Using Kraft card stock make a greetings card with three circles on the right hand side. You want them slightly towards the top to leave room for the sentiment. I used my Silhouette Cameo, but you could also use dies or punches. The circles are 1 1/2 " across. Cut a second set of just the circles to use as a mask.

Take some white card stock and print out the dictionary definition of a dragonfly on it (I typed mine up in a word processor) three times. Place a circle mask over one and using Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain sponge over it using Tim Holtz's mini ink blenders. Use darker colours at the edges and for the end blending remove the mask. Spritz with water and blot. Repeat twice more. Cut into squares (you need the border to stick it to your card). Adhere to the back of your circles. 

Stamp the dragonfly from Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set in black ink. I ran mine through a copier and then my Minc machine with silver foil. But if you don't have a Minc, you could heat emboss them in silver instead. Sponge them with Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Tumbled Glass and Wilted Violet. If wished add a little shading to the body with a fine tipped marker.  Make sure the dragonflies are flat and cover the wings in glossy accents and a little glitter. Let dry and then stick the body only to the card. Lift the wings.

Stamp the thanks and so very much from Avery Elle's Sentimental set using black Memento Ink.

A quick bonus project for you here. Cut a circle from the centre of a kraft card. Place some scrap paper behind it to protect while you stamp around the edges using Memento Inks in New Sprout, Pear Tart, Cottage Ivy and Grape Jelly and MFT's Fall Florals. Add some dots with a pink marker. Then stamp the ladybird from Hero Arts Mason Jar Bugs set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Colour with prismacolour pencils. Stamp the small firefly off to the right and colour. On a separate piece of kraft cardstock stamp the dragonfly again and colour with pencils. Cut out and cover the wings with stickles glue in Crystal. Let dry and adhere body to card. Lift wings.  Die cut Thanks from Avery Elle's Sentimental die set using purple cardstock. Shade it with Black Soot Distress Ink and a white coloured pencil.

Here's the prize for our hop.

Aren't those bunnies adorable! And those papers are sooooo pretty.

How do you win it I hear you cry?

TO ENTER:

There are several ways to enter and the more comments you make in the different social media platforms, the more entries you earn! It is required that you comment on each blog in the Hop.  After that, you are encouraged to like and comment on our Facebook page, tag on our Instagram post and pin on Pinterest, as well as share on your own pages. The participant with the most entries wins the fabulous prize package! 

Don't forget March is National Craft Month so there are lots of bargains in the shop... 

                                 
                                                                    15% off store wide till April 3rd as well as the $10 off if you spend $75 (code $10off75)

Hop on over to see what the lovely Lisa has to offer...

Here's the complete list of hoppers....

1. Laura's Loft

2. Deana

3. Jasmine

4. Robbie

5. Heart of Craft  ←you are here

6. Lisa

7. Sue

Hopping into Spring with Laura's Loft

Welcome to March with Laura's Loft...finally we are hopping into spring.

Spring is one of my favourite times of year. 

Flowers blooming, nice balmy temperatures....and bunnies! Lots and lots of bunnies.... (also...chocolate :))

So I decided to make a nice bright cheery card to celebrate it.

Firstly I designed my Easter eggs. I cut them using my Silhouette Cameo, but you could use dies, a Cricut or cut them by hand from white cardstock. One egg must be big enough to conceal your bunny!

Then using Tim Holtz's mini blending foam I sponged on Distress Inks. I used Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry and Shaded Lilac. Spritz with water and blot.

Over stamp using My Favourite Things Party Patterns stamp set to give the eggs pretty patterns. Cut (or have precut) one egg. Sponge a backing panel with Distress Ink in Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Tumbled Glass. Leave the centre whiter. Spritz and blot. Cut two layers of grass in two different shades of green card using a Silhouette Cameo, Cricut, dies or by hand. Stamp the bunny from Avery Elle's More Stories on Tim Holtz's Distress Watercolour cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black, or any other waterproof black stamping ink and colour with Zig Clean colour pens and a water pen. Fussy cut.  Mock up a rough arrangement. 

Stick the largest eggs to the big back panel, then the first layer of grass. Measure the width of your bunny. It's a triangle shape, so you want the pop up slit in the card to be smaller than the largest width of it (across the bottom/ tail), else your bunny will pop right out of the card!. Hold your broken egg in place, lift the top slightly and make a small mark with a pencil in the middle where you want to make your slit. Adhere the blue panel to a larger green panel. Stick the top of the broken egg to the bunnies ears. If you wish, reinforce it by sticking another top part behind so it's a double layer with the ears stuck between. Make sure that when the egg is closed the bunny will not stick out over the bottom of the card. Then using a ruler as a guide cut a slit through the blue and first green panel using a craft knife. Check the bunny fits through nicely. The line up your base broken egg and stick onto the card, being careful not to stick over the slit area. Wiggle your bunny through the slit (if you find this difficult, cut slit wider (but not wider than the egg), push bunny through and adhere a small strip of card across his bottom forming an upside down T).

Adhere other egg, then another layer of grass and final eggs. Stick onto background card and stamp an Easter greeting. 

Here's an extra quick card to make for you! Cut some bunny shaped holes from a greeting card. Back the card with stamped patterns using My Favourite Things Abstract Art set. Stick on tails made from pom poms, or for a post friendly version as here, white card covered with a Marvy Snow Marker and heated.

The fabulous prize this month is:

Distress Ink pack, a Stamping Bella Stamp and some pretty sequins.

TO ENTER AND WIN THIS WONDERFUL PRIZE:

There are several ways to enter and the more comments you make in the different social media outlets, the more entries you earn! It is required that you comment on each blog in the Hop.  After that, you are encouraged to like, and comment on our Facebook page, tag on our Instagram post and pin on Pinterest, as well as share on your own pages. The participant with the most entries wins the fabulous prize package!

There are some great special offers for you in store too...

Because March is national craft month there will be 15% off store wide till April 3rd as well as the $10 off if you spend $75 (and the store prices are already below RRP...wowza!)

While you are there please check out the new additions to the store...fabulous products by Stamping Bella, Hero Arts and Tim Holtz have joined our ranks. 

Please hop on over to Sue next by clicking below:

Complete hop in case you are lost

1. Laura

2. Deana Benson 

3. Jasmine Burgess

4. Robbie Rubala

5. Heart of Craft  ← you are here

6. Sue T

7. Lisa