Signs of Spring

I am honored to have served as a Guest Designer for Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place and am now one of her “Contributors” (which means that she provides me with digis or clear stamp sets several times a year and I get to create cards or other items with them!)
It is always fun to see the images she invites me to use.  This time, the digi set, named Azaleas is one of Beccy’s encore sets, which means it’s been part of her collection for a while but is also an old favorite and so deserves to be highlighted! I was excited to create with this set because it’s been a favorite of mine for a few years. I used a tutorial that Beccy provided on her blog earlier this year, which details a “technique for creating four hand-coloured cards from one large image.”  After doing a little experimenting with the placement and size, it was pretty fast and easy to use the beautiful floral digi and one of the sentiments from this set to create four separate cards. I finished two and set aside the others for later.  
I’m entering this card into several challenges including TIME OUT Challenge (the quote mentions spending time in the garden… in my case, a flower garden!)

 

Supplies: 
·   Tutorial for creating a 4-in-1 card can be found HERE
·   Digis and  Sentiments- Beccy’s Place digital set (Azaleas)
·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·   Sparkletz Embellishments-Mermaid
·   Pink photo corners available from several web sources (WXJ13 13 Sheets 13 Colors)
·   All other items from my stash.
Entered into:  
Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge- Flower Power
TIME OUT Challenge- #184 Quote 
Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #483-484 Anything Goes                   
Dragonfly Dreams- Include a Flower or Flowers

My second card reminds me of the playful side of Easter morning, with jelly beans, chocolate eggs and a basket lined with the sparkle of plastic grass! This was followed by the beautiful music at the Easter morning service at our church… and a wonderful feast of baked ham and au gratin potatoes. (Hmmm… it’s funny how so many of my favorite childhood memories involve food!)
I’m entering this card into several challenges including Outlawz Tuesday Color Challenge (shades of blue and purple, white and twist of Easter grass sparkle and texture), and Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge (Twist- Use Fav color- I love all shades of purple/lavender.)

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Bugaboo (Brat- Boy Easter Bunny)
·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen
·   Inside Sentiment “Happy Easter” Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Easter Joy)
·   Egg made from oval stencil and scrapbook paper
·   Butterflies cut from patterned scrapbook paper, bodies and antennae added with fine-point Sharpie markie
·   All other items from my stash.
Entered into:  
The Sisterhood of Crafters- Easter/Spring
Cute Card Thursday- Challenge #679 Easter
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Easter Mood Board                                              
Outlawz Challenges- Tuesday Color Challenge-Inspiration Photo plus a twist         
Outlawz Challenge- Twisted Thursday Anything Goes 
        Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place (sponsor), I’m entering just for fun!
 
My final card for this posting is for one of my favorite challenges called the Butterfly Challenge. Each challenge includes a specific creative fold as one of the themes, but the sponsor, Mrs. A. provides easy-to-follow instructions that are really helpful. The current creative fold is Kite Fold. Mrs. A provides a tutorial for two different versions. I chose the second one, which is free-standing kite card.
I upcycled the patterned section from the front of a 12x12 paper pad as the base of my card as I liked the way the squares fit on the kite shape and the paper is thick enough to provide a really crisp fold. The pale blue butterfly adhered atop a circle of vellum on the kite, and the pretty butterfly printed ribbon were both prizes in an earlier win for this challenge. I loved using them on this card to show Mrs. A’s generosity in the prizes she offers!  I added punched butterflies instead of strips of ribbon to the kite tail because I liked the look of black butterfly silhouettes against the butterfly-printed ribbon. I sewed pairs of silhouettes together just above the ribbon knots so that they will show on both sides of the kite tail in case it gets twisted in the envelope.  I also sewed the antennae on the butterflies with black thread, which you can see if you look closely at the close-up photo. I did lay the kite on a strip of patterned paper when taking the photos to show how it will fit in a slimline (business) envelope.    
My kite fold card features all of the colors- Kilimanjaro (pale blue sky-although it doesn't show well in the photo, the butterfly on vellum is actually light blue), Kobi (light pink), Kombu Green (dark sage) and themes- Kite fold Card, Knots (in the ribbon), and Butterfly.

  

Supplies: 
·   Kite Fold Tutorial provided by challenge sponsor HERE
·   Inside Sentiment- maxammadestudio.com freebie (Happy Day)
·   Butterfly Punch- Fiskars
·   Pale blue butterfly and butterfly print ribbon from past win in this challenge.
·   All other items from my stash.
Entered into:  
Butterfly Challenge- #154 K is for Kite Fold     
Outlawz Sunday Challenge- The Butterfly Song 
Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday  
Outlawz Challenge- Inlinks Challenge
Outlawz Challenge- Saturday Paper Ala Mode- Spring or Easter