Sweet Spring Wishes

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a fabulous day!  This card has been in design for almost a full year - I received the STAMPlorations goodies in April of 2017!  I've used all of the products individually, but this is the first time I've used both dies together.  There is a story behind why it took me a year but, thankfully, the story isn't as long as it took me to make the card.  I'll even condense it for you!

What I Used to Make my Card:
Lilac Card Base
Watercolor Paper
Oxide Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick and Wilted Violet {set 1}
Distress Markers in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Blueprint Sketch
Ken Oliver's Liquid Metal in Yellow Gold 
Distress Sprayer
STAMPlorations CUTplorations Sweet Spring Wishes Phrase Die
STAMPlorations CUTplorations Flutter Zen 2 Layering Dies
Pink Cardstock
Light Blue Glitter Cardstock

On with the story - Oxide Inks came out and I was as obsessed with everyone

Paper I Cut the Butterflies From

else who was pretty much not doing much of anything else but playing with these amazing new inks.  I had gotten the first set and was making background after background, positive I could never make a color combination with these inks that I wasn't going to like.  Until I did.  I don't recall what Oxide colors I used, but I remember strongly disliking it.  I had seen some crafters using Liquid Metals along with the Oxides, so I thought

I'd give it a try.  I ended up covering the entire thing with the Liquid Metal and I liked the color MUCH better! That's when it hit me - I had a butterfly die that was beautifully intricate and wouldn't this look nice cut from the "ruined" background? So, I proceeded to dig out the CUTplorations die and cut the "fixed" background paper.  It did look pretty!  I used a pink card to cut the underside of the butterfly and attached the top to it.  Then I set the butterflies aside and continued to play with the Oxide inks.

I played and played {remember, the Oxides were BRAND NEW!} and finally

settled on the card background.  Once the background was dry, I glued it to a matching card base which, in this case, was a lilac color.  Then I couldn't find the butterflies!  That pushed the card production back further; but I kept that background because I knew it fit the butterflies perfectly.  Eventually, I cleaned my desk off {and it stayed clean for about 15 minutes!} and found the 

wandering butterflies.  Happily, I glued them to the card and then decided to cut the sentiment out of Light Blue Glitter card.  I set the saying onto the card and the year long saga was finished!

Another Look

I hope my story didn't bore you too badly.  I recently got some more goodies from STAMPlorations; they are having a great sale and I just couldn't resist, so you will be seeing more of their stamps and dies shortly.  The card came out much prettier than I expected and I hope you like it as much as I do!  Thanks for sticking with me and, since you have made it this far, I'll let you in on a secret.  I'm getting ready for another giveaway and you'll need to be a follower to win, so you might as well follow me now and get ahead of the rush.  Thanks so much! Christi 

I'm entering my Sweet Spring Wishes Card in the following challenges:
STAMPlorations - M, Spring & Faith
Butterfly Challenges - #97, Spin the Wheel with the Letter L - I used Letters, Lavender & Layers :) 
Cuttlebug Mania - Spring
That's Crafty! - M, Spring into Action
Papercraft Business Challenges - M, Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes w/ Dies
STAMPlorations Ever Ending Anything Goes Challenge

Any Occasion Bunny Card

Hi all, today I am showcasing a cute little bunny card. This card originally began as an Easter Card, complete with the little bunny holding an Easter basket.  But, as Easter came and went, this little card was still left on my desk.  So I decided to change things up a bit.

What I Used to Make my Card:
Hoppy Easter by Lawn Fawn, stamps, LF1319
Hoppy Easter by Lawn Fawn, die set, LF1320
Die-Versions Stitched Nesting Squares, DV-572
CUTplorations Sweet Spring Wishes Die, CUTPL-070
Small Detail Water Brush
Pastel Cardstock
Clean Color Markers
Watercolor Card
Small white "puff" (for the tail)
Purple Scrap
Small Heart, punched out

First I want to share a picture with you of the original card. I know it doesn't look too different, but it's different enough! Notice the basket and the flat (no puff!) tail.

Back to when this was still an Easter card, I had stamped the bunny on watercolor card and used my Zig Clean Color Markers to lightly color the body of the bunny brown, with a slight tint of pink on the ears. I used the same technique to color in the basket as well. It's easy to get a very light wash when you are using a water brush. Just scribble some marker on your craft sheet and water the color down.  Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take it away and dry your watercolor card thoroughly before adding more color (a mistake I made all the time until I finally got it through my head.  I could never understand why my water color paper was always pilling so badly, no matter the brand, when everyone else's seemed fine.)  I die cut the bunny and the basket and set them aside.

I decided that some pastel papers would look very springy and pretty so I cut

out three squares using the DieVersions die set; one of each in blue, peach and yellow.  I stacked the squares together, glued them and set them to dry under my drying tile.  At this point I still had Easter in my mind, so I attached the basket to the bunny and set the card aside for everything to dry.  While the card was drying it hit me that I had a bunch of "puffs" hiding in a small drawer, that were eons old and would look charming on the bunny.  I attached the puff to the butt of the bunny and put the card aside.

The card stayed aside for entirely too long, but I really like the stamp/die set, so

Another Look

I decided to upgrade to an all occasion card.  I needed to find something that was slightly larger than the basket the bunny was holding, which I did. I punched a heart out of pink cardstock, then carefully removed the basket and attached the heart.  While I was pleased with the look, it needed something more, not bling, but something.  Wracking my brain, I discovered the word die from STAMPlorations hiding under a pile of stuff on my desk.  I die cut the sentiment out of lavender cardstock and used only the "sweet" portion of the cut.  Now my card was ready to go!

Thank you for visiting the Dies R Us Inspiration Blog and I hope you get inspired either by me or one of my fabulous teamies.  Perhaps inspired enough to join in the Dies R Us Challenge? We'd love for you to visit and follow all of Dies R Us pages, click below for an easy way to check them all out. Thanks again! Christi

Don't forget to play along at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog for your chance to win a gift voucher to the Dies R Us Store.  A new challenge begins on the first and fifteenth of every month.  
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I am entering my All Occasion Bunny Card in the following challenges:
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes, #255
Fussy and Fancy - Pamper Your Pets, #189
Delicious Doodles Challenge - All Creatures Big & Small, M June
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes w/ a Critter, M June
Creative Inspirations - Our Furry/Feathered Friends, #277
Deep Ocean Challenge - Use Die Cuts, Chipboard and/or Punches, #157