Happy Birthday Girl

Happy Saturday everyone! Tonight's post is a sweet birthday girl. She was stamped and colored using Spectrum Noir markers. I added a little bling and more shading with Wink of Stella glitter markers. The stamp is from StampWorkz. Here's a close-up.

And here's the inside sentiment. Lately I've been dressing up the envelopes a little. This one got a glitter embossed package.

Well, that's all for me tonight. Hope you have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Easter!

I am pleased to enter my card into these challenges:
Crafting from the Heart Challenge-104
Little Scrap Pieces 3/26/26
Fresh Brewed Designs-201611
Craft Rocket Challenges-11-anything-goes
Glitter N Sparkle Challenge-180
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends-30

Follow my blog via Blogger, Facebook, Bloglovin' or Google Circles and win something sweet for yourself! Everyone who is a new follower gets an entry into a drawing for a $20 gift card from Amazon from me.

Chose one of the notice methods on the right and leave me a comment with your email or PM me privately on Facebook so I can contact you if you win. That's it!

A winner will be published and notified by June 1, 2016. You'll have 2 weeks to claim the card if you're the winner. Good luck!

Envelope Punch Easter Basket

I do a good bit of scrap booking and over time I've acquired paper with large patterns thinking they'd be great in a scrapbook but I realized that though that type of paper looks great in the store, it usually doesn't work at all for scrap booking because it dominates the pictures. Though I can't really use it, I also can't bare to waste the paper either. The result is that I've hung on to paper like this that I really like. That's why I love today's project. I finally found a use for the cute Easter egg paper that I've had for years!

This basket is made with a envelope card punch. I've recently discovered through YouTube that there are many different things that can be made with an envelope punch board. Way cool. My inspiration for this basket comes from Linda Parker. She is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator from the UK. I just recently found her channel and she has some fabulous paper crafting ideas that I plan to try soon. You can find her here: Linda Parker YouTube Channel. Actually my basket combines two of Linda's basket projects. 

The basket is a simple punch, score and glue project with a 7" square sheet of paper. If you use card stock, you only need to form the basket once but since my Easter Egg paper was light, I made another basket base out of green card stock then used that as a lining for the inside of the basket. It turns out that it's a good thing to do because it finishes the inside of the basket off as well as gives it more support. 

To decorate the basket, I made a bow out of Easter ribbon I had in my stash. The doily was made on my Cricut Explore. Once it was ready, I cut it in half and put half at each base of the handle. I cut the diamond border from a Our Memories for Life border punch. The butterfly is from a Sizzix Hero Arts Framelit set. I colored it with watercolor and Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Markers. The Happy Easter sentiment is a recycled piece from a card I got several years ago. When I see something that would work great on a new card or in some decorative project, I keep it. I've had this piece for close to 10 years I think! Did I say I have a crafting hoard? Guilty!

Here's a quick list of the major components and tools I used in this project:

Sizzix Framelits # 657778

Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Dust Markers

Glitzy Glitter Card Stock from DCWV

WeRMemory Keepers Envelope Punch

Our Memories for Life Border Maker - Zig Zag

I am entering a few contests this week. Please check these sites out for lots of inspiration!.

Cardz TV 3-D Challenge #4 - 3/31

The Sisterhood of Crafters-Dies or Punches - 3/22

Happy Easter Shaker Card

Finished Card Front

Card Interior

I was inspired by spring weather today to make a shaker card. I recently purchased the Cricut Explore deep cut blade and used it to cut a foam frame to hold the shaker pieces inside was a good test for it. I have a Cricut image subscription for the Explore machine. I prefer to use my iPad and the Cricut app to design a card like this. It's a series of rectangles that you import and it makes it simpler to make sure that each rectangle fits the way it's supposed to.

Here's what I did. Using the Cricut Explore subscription, find the shapes you need: grass strip, chick, rabbit and egg. You can choose any shapes you like. The smaller shapes will be the confetti along with a few sequins. A frame was designed by slicing two rectangles together to form the open interior and then one strip of grass was welded to the frame. Two single grass strips are also needed. The pieces can be seen below.

Card Parts

Once this is done, design a simple rectangle foam frame the same way as the paper frame that fits underneath the card frame. The foam frame is what forms the raised frame that holds the confetti inside the shaker card. In addition to these pieces, cut a rectangle from a transparency sheet which fits between the paper frame and the foam frame. Then cut a piece of sky printed paper and stamp the Happy Easter sentiment on it.

Shaker Card before gluing the sentiment paper on top of the foam frame

To put the card together, layer the two grass strips behind the frame to create three levels of grass. Then the transparency is glued behind the frame. The foam frame is glued to the back and then the shaker pieces were added to the interior. The sky paper with the sentiment was glued on top of the foam frame so that the sentiment would appear above the grass. A green bow is attached to the front of the card frame. This finishes the shaker. The shaker was then glued on top of the card base. Finally a rectangle of white card stock was stamped with the Wishing You a Happy Easter sentiment and bunny. It was colored with Wink of Stella Glitter markers in pink and green. A pretty pastel effect with the markers is done by writing with each marker on a craft sheet and picking it up with a damp brush. This creates a soft shimmery watercolor effect.

I have really enjoyed using my Cricut Explore machine lately. They have added many materials options in the custom cut selection and it cuts like a dream. It reliably cuts just about anything at any size I ask it to cut. It's easy to design with it and the software is getting more intuitive and simple for anyone to be successful. 

Thanks for checking our my card today. I hope I've given you a few ideas of your own.

Janet

This week's card contests:

Robyns Fetish Challenge-Easter Cards

Hiding In My Craft Room-Super Scraps Saturday