More Easter Ideas!

Hey there folks!

 

Are you getting "eggscited" about Easter yet?! Hehe. Personally, I am looking forward to a lovely long sunny bank holiday weekend - or at least I'm looking forward to scoffing all that yummy guilt-free chocolate on Sunday, rain or shine!!

 

I've got a few more ideas for you, that I have made for Easter.... come and have a look:

 

Here are a couple of punch art Easter cards which were inspired by my mini Easter egg holders I designed and made for the recent Stampin' Up! UK Stampissimo Easter Treats youtube video. Do you recognise the little daffodils?!

 

 

 

I used Stampin' Up!'s fantastic Note cards & Envelopes as the base of these cards. (Yey, no cutting and scoring, makes for a quicker project and I like the size of them too - they are smaller than A6 cards.) The background piece is Soft Sky cardstock. As you probably know from my previous posts, the daffodils were made using the Petite Petals Punch and the flower shape from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack, with Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie cardstock. The leaves were hand cut using my trusty Paper Snips (what would I do without those essential wonders?!) and the grass was cut using the fabulous Fringe Scissors (both are cut from Gumball Green cardstock).

 

 

The clutch of Easter eggs were punched out of the really pretty Gingham Garden designer series paper (dsp) using the Small Oval Punch and then tucked behind the grass and under the Daffodil Delight Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon. Here is a close up to show you the three-dimensional effect and texture of the card's design:

 



 

 

Here is a closer view of the eggs:

 

 

 

Actually, I must confess that the idea for tucking the eggs behind the ribbon came from a little mistake I made when punching out one of the egg shapes - I wasn't concentrating and the dsp didn't go all the way into the punch properly (oops! "More haste, less speed" as my darling Nan used to say to me when I was little!). So, I ended up with an egg with a missing slice off it. I love this paper so much, I didn't want to waste it, plus, I liked the way the pink daisy was positioned on it - so following my ethos of "it's not a mistake, it's an opportunity for embellishment!" I decided to place the egg so it looked like it wasn't really missing a bit, but was a whole egg tucked behind the ribbon! Another example of a "happy accident" in Lucy's craft room! hehe ;O)

 

I often say that to be a good crafter, you don't have to be perfect, it's more important to know what to do when things go a bit wrong and be able to rectify these little mistakes and accidents to rescue your project - otherwise you can end up wasting a lot of time and effort as well as materials! A smudged finger print on your card, or, a dot of ink? Don't worry, "it's not a mistake it's an opportunity for embellishment..."  - so, think on your feet and hey presto, you can decide that actually where that finger print or ink spot was, is really a perfect place for a flower, a butterfly, a rhinestone jewel or even a ribbon bow!

 

I also had fun recently making a couple more designs of little Easter egg holders using the Scallop Tag Topper Punch - these are slightly larger than the Mini Daffodil Easter Egg Holders I have already showed you, but hold the same-sized egg. I made a yellow Easter Chick and an Easter Bunny - they were inspired by some I'd seen on a facebook crafting forum, but I'm afraid, I can't remember exactly where I saw them or who had made them now (I must start paying more attention to these things!) Sorry, if they were yours, thank you and please let me know who you are so that I can credit you by name! Anyway, here they are:

 

 

 

 

 I was really chuffed with my idea of using the Mosaic Punch for the chick's open beak! I think he looks like he's squawking rather loudly, don't you?! And possibly tapping his foot with impatience here maybe? hehe

 

We made these two egg holders in the last class that  I taught and all the ladies said that they had great fun making them and that they wanted to make more of them at home. Hope that they have! I know that my nieces and nephew would love making these...not sure the chocolate eggs would last until Easter Sunday though!!

 

Anyway, Happy Easter everybody, hope you all have a lovely long weekend, preferably a sunny one with lots of chocolate and plenty of time for crafting! I seem to have used a lot of punches recently but not done much stamping... Need to rectify that, I think...

 

Until next time, happy crafting!

 

Lucy x

 

 







More Easter Treats!

Hey there!

I thought I'd share some photographs of the Easter Treat projects that I designed especially for the Stampin' Up! UK Stampissimo video that I shared with you in my last post... come and have a look:

 

This is the Crocus Treat Pouch that I made, step-by-step, on the video:



 

And here is a close-up of the cello bag:

 

 

 

On this one I stamped the "Happy Easter" sentiment from the very versatile "Delightful Dozen" stamp set with my white Stazon ink pad. On the one I showed you how to make in the video, I changed it up a bit and stamped that cello bag with one of the flowers from the very popular "Petite Petals" stamp set. (Be careful that you use a food-safe cello bag like the ones that Stampin' Up! sell, though, if you are putting unwrapped food items in them like I have here.)

 

Next is the little Daffodil (or should that be narcissi?!) Miniature Easter Egg Holder which is made in a very similar way to the above Crocus Pouch but with the addition of a little upside-down tray to hold the egg in place:

I show you how to make this in the video too. It uses the fabulous Scallop Tag Topper Punch, the Petite Petals Punch and the really useful (and time-saving) Fringe Scissors - all of which are in the gorgeous 2014 Spring/Summer catalogue.

 

I think that these would make lovely table-setting gifts - you could stamp, print or write your guests' names on the little banner instead of the Happy Easter that I stamped using the  Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set. I am sure that you could also change the size up for a bigger egg if you wanted the gift to be a bit more generous, chocolate-wise!!

 

I got a little bit carried away with the punch art theme when I was designing these projects, but I couldn't leave out the Easter Bunny, now could I? Here he is:

I must confess that I have left the bunny's face blank, because whatever I tried just seemed to make it look cross-eyed, demonic or scary like the Were-Rabbit from the Wallace and Gromit film - so I just left it clean and simple... and plain. But, seeing as this bucket gift bag can house more chocolate treats than the other two treat holders can, I hope I am forgiven for leaving the bunny without a face?! hehe

 

 

The final two projects were a couple of 8"x8" (20.5cm x20.5cm) scrap book pages that I have turned into home decor pieces by placing them in 9"x9" (23.5cm) box frames:

 

 

The wording on these is stamped using the Notable Alphabet stamp set (for the larger letters) and the really useful, but perhaps over-looked, Simply Serif Mini Alphabet stamp set - which I use a lot for scrapbooking and for adding names onto special birthday cards etc.

Snowdrops are my absolute, all-time favourite flowers, as the optimistic arrival of their delicate pure white and bright green flowers, in the dull and dreary, early part of the year, is the first cheery sign that Spring will indeed at last be on it's way soon! They never fail to bring a smile to my face! :O)

 

Well, that's it for today, I hope that I have put a smile on your face and inspired you to make some of the above cute Spring and Easter projects.

 

I shall be back soon with some more Easter ideas and instructions on how to make the Easter Bunny bucket gift bag too...

 

Until then, happy crafting everyone!

 

Lucy x

 

 

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