Easter Bunny

This wintry weather was really getting me down so I decided to break out my new WMS Folk Art stamp sets today and I made a little easter card for the one expat family in our village that hadn't left Luxembourg to head "home" for Easter.
I just let the card take shape by itself, starting with the beautiful WMS Folk Art Labels 25 stamped on a small piece of kraft card I had in my scraps with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.
I coloured the detail with some very old Tombow Markers (over 10 years old and still going strong !!!)
I then stamped the Easter greeting from WMS Compact Sentiments and embossed with WOW Tickled Pink embossing powder,  I then stamped the little bunny from WMS A Good Egg and embossed with Clearsnap Pistachio.
I mounted this on  Spellbinders Petite Scallop Circle cut from a scrap of pink card, and a Spellbinders Splendid Circle cut from a scrap of pale green vellum.  As I had no more kraft card I stamped the WMS Cabin Plaid background on a piece of white card using Raspberry Adirondack Ink, which I distressed with a little Weathered Wood DI, and mounted this on a Zeeman pale blue square card base.
Then the fun really began.  I stamped a flower from the Label 25 set in white embossing powder on some pink card.  I decided to make it a little bigger and add some more colour, so I broke out the WMS Folk Art Medallion set.  I stamped one of the flower parts and embossed in Pistachio.  I then added a flower surround and embossed in Pistachio.  Finally I added some little flowers in the empty spaces using pistachio and white for the centres.
I was only playing around so I didn't try very hard to line up the flowers so don't look too hard.  Even so I liked it so much I used it as an envelope seal.
Next time I'm going to try using white card and embossing with white, Pistachio and Tickled Pink.  The possibilities of this set are huge.  I loooooove it!

A Splendid 80th Birthday card for my Mum

I made this card for my mum who turned 80 yesterday.
As well as the Spellbinders Splendid Circles, I used Exquisite Circles which my friend Lena kindly loaned me to add another layer.  I then topped it with a WMS Opera Tag stamped in Pink Orchid and cut with the matching WMS Opera Tag die. I also played with my new Classic Ric Rac Edgeabililties set to create a little border.
The right side looked a little empty, so I stamped 8 (1 for each decade) of the smallest flowers I could find which happened to be from a WMS set I just bought - A Good Egg.
I found the little 3D Smile sticker in my stash and it seemed perfect.  I added another larger flower from the set to the inside as well.  To complete the inside, I partially stamped a wedding sentiment from the WMS Compact Sentiments set, to get "Congratulations on your", placed a glittery die cut 8 and 0 and a stamped "th" underneath this, and stamped "Birthday" from the WMS Celtic Heritage Collection on the bottom row.  It sounds a little mismatched but it looked lovely.  I only wish I had thought to take a photo of the inside.
We all wrote down our own messages for mum - even Simon, although his was just a few Xs and his name.  I'm sure she'll treasure it.

50th Birthday Greeting for a Celtic Couple

This was a commissioned card for my friend Ruth. Friends of hers (a couple) are both turning 50 soon and she wanted a special card to mark the event.
The recipients are a Scotsman and an Irish lass, so I thought I'd go with a celtic theme.  I already had quite a few celtic stamps as I've always been attracted to celtic design (they're great for male cards and although he's a 4th generation  Australian, my father still considers himself Irish).
So loaded with a couple of mismatched celtic stamps and a thistle stamp and the idea of including a photo or a pocket for a photo, I had no idea how I was going to fill an A5 card front.  I turned to my favourite sources of inspiration these days - the WMS blog (always good for a laugh as well - Claire has a wicked sense of humour) and the WMS Gallery, and was promptly reminded that WMS have several stunning celtic stamp sets.  In fact one of them Celtic Heritage had both a stylised thistle and shamrock, as well as loads of other celtic elements and plenty of sentiments in an Uncial font.  So yes even though I did already have quite a few celtic stamps, I just couldn't resist.
The design came together really quickly once I decided to drop orange from the colour mix and just stick with a green, navy and white - I even found this great tartan to match in a Basic Grey Marjolaine 6x6 paper pad, and my sewing machine was behaving itself for once.
I lined the inside with white sheets stamped with the same celtic squiggle border stamp I used on the front pocket.
I used Chipped Sapphire and Peeled Paint Distress Inks - don't forget to ink your clear stamps with Versamark first before using dye-based inks such as these Distress Inks if you want a clear crisp image.
The "50th" I created using an EK Success Loopy Numbers set for the "th" - these are rubber and almost impossible to line up perfectly so I stamped this first and then added the die cut 5 and 0 (Tim Holtz Chip Block alphabet) afterwards.
Ruth seemed to like it when she picked it up this evening - I hope her friends like it too.