Eggstraordinary Easter Eggstravaganza...

Wow Max is really doing some fun give aways this Easter....



Check this out ....

This is what it's all about as described by Max herself...

"Each of the Easter Images has a number ... and behind every number is a prize. A name will be randomly selected from the new Eggstravaganza Prize Pot every day and that person will choose a number. They will e~mail me their choice along with their address details.I will then remove the image from the board to reveal the prize hiding behind the image.

Egg...citing huh??"

Well I think it is (but then I do lead quite a sad life!) - anyway if you want to join in pop over to Max's blog and sign up for the fun.

Happy Easter Everyone...

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend.

I'm certainly intending to - apart from all the usual Easter holiday things going on I'm also hoping to find chance to play with some gorgeous goodies very kindly sent to me by Max.

Look at these...

How lucky am I? I've got Perfect Pearls - some misters and a Dawn Bibby DVD to help me know what to do with them all. I can't wait to try out the ideas - watch this space!!!

So without further ado I'm off (apart from blog hopping to keep up with what everyone else is up to) until Monday when it will be Pink Elephant Day.

Yeah, I love Mondays.

Oh nearly forgot to say if you would like Max to send you some goodies there is still time to join in her Mad March Madness - I think she is doing something special this weekend so I'm definitely going to pop over to her blog to see what she's up to.

Happy Birthday Carol...

Today Carol, one of the DT at the Pink Elephant is celebrating a rather special birthday. I'm not saying which one, but look at the card for a huge clue!! Sorry Carol - I do hope I'm not in big trouble for this!

To make Carol's card I experimented with the idea of using shredded paper again in a similar way to how I used it on one of my Easter cards. This time I wanted to create a sort of gift bag card with stuff spilling out of the top.

I hope Carole likes it and anyone else visiting my blog does too! If you'd like to find out exactly how I made the card pop over to the Pink Elephant as it's Tu-Tu Tutorial day over there. This week it was my turn to do the tutorial and I based it on this 'Gift Bag' card.

Hands...

The challenge at Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog this week is hands. Not an easy one Cynthia - hope next week won't be quite so taxing!!

I've had this beautiful unmounted stamp for ages and not quite known what to do with it, but thanks to Cynthia's challenge I made myself really think about how to use it successfully and though I say it myself as shouldn't I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

The card I've used is from the co-ordinations naturals range - fabulous earthy colours and when embossed and sanded they are just wonderful. I stamped on to the smooth side of the card stock using a Sepia Verse Fine inkpad so that all the card used kept the same tones.

Easter Violas...

I think this maybe my very last Easter card. It's one I've made for a very special Auntie and one who reached her 90th birthday last summer. Cutie cards are not really her thing so for her card I chose an image and matching backing paper from the CD The Cardmaker's Year by Joanna Sheen.

I like to soften the backing papers from these CDs by overlaying them with vellum attached with brads. Making the piece of vellum smaller than the backing paper allows just a small part of the bright pattern to show in full while the rest is subdued by the vellum.

The tiny flower on the tag is made by using a heart punch and folding the hearts slightly to give them depth. I saw this done on some beautiful wedding cards in the Crafts Beautiful magazine this month and had to try it out.

My card is also for the challenges at...

Tanda Teasers where the challenge is to use vellum and the ABC challenge which this week is focussing on the letter H for Hearts.

And here comes the matching bag...

Well as I made a pink card and gift bag for my daughter Laura and the Pink Elephant challenge last week I would be in big trouble if younger daughter, Shelley only received a card.

World Wars have started for lesser reasons than this so here is my little gift bag to match Shelley's card - all ready to be filled with eggs.

Making it has also helped me to catch up with quite a few challenges too! Brilliant stuff I love it when plans come together like that - it doesn't happen often!

The challenges are:

Easter at Creative Inspirations
Easter Treat Containers at The Cuttlebug Spot
More than two folds (there are loads needed in this bag) at the Cupcake Craft Challenge
Get Eggy at No time to stamp
Easter Somethings at Stamp Something

The bag was cut using the Plantain Schoolbook cartridge and my Cricut and the cute stamp is one I have used loads this Easter and is from a clear set by Woodware.

Pink Elephant Challenge 9...

Yeah I used to hate Mondays but no more because it's Pink Elephant Day and that's got to be good. As I write this post and upload my card I'm singing 'chick chick chick chick chicken lay a little egg for me' so it's a good job nobody can hear me!!!

This week our challenge at the Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge. The ingredients to be used are rubber stamps, punches and embossing. Those ingredients sound like they may mix together to make some great cards - I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

My card uses a whole host of rubber stamps including a hen on a nest and lots of eggs from an Easter Set by Rubbadubbadoo and there's also a cute chick from a Woodware clear stamp set sneaking in on the act.

For punches I used an egg (oval?) punch to add some eggs to the nest and a tiny butterfly punch to add butterflies to the background.

My embossing was done using the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots - what would I do without that folder?

I can't take full credit for the design of this card as it is very, very similar to one that I was shown at a craft class many years ago. I guess it was time to try the card shape again and bring it more up to date.

To create my card I used a normal square card and cut half of the front away on the diagonal. Then I attached the piece I'd cut off to the rear of the front of the card. By only sticking the pieces together at the bottom edge and the side near the fold it meant that the top was able to be opened up to have that lovely tactile shredded paper pushed inside and left hanging to give a 'nestie' effect. Then I slipped lots of coloured eggs in to eggsaggerate the diagonal design.

Hope you like my card and will have chance to visit the Pink Elephant this week and maybe use our ingredients - I can't wait to see how everyone elses will turn out.

Penny Black Easter Card...

Well I've finally sorted out my craftroom - it was no easy task I can tell you. Rabbit has had all DST bits removed from his ears and all my rubber stamps and card are back where they should be. How long this will last I don't know. It's quite worrying to hear that this 'craftroom destroying fiend' has also visited other people. We really must be on our guard!!!

Well during this long tidying up session I may not have been card making, but I have been blog hopping and have seen some fabulous work and some great surprises!!! Pollycraft are celebrating their birthday and are offering 40% off rubber stamps to the first 100 customers to order. Oh my that one cost me a fortune!!

Another brilliant surprise was that last week my name was pulled out of the hat at Max's Mad March Spring Surprises . Thank you so much Max - I can't wait to receive my surprise! Max's surprise event is still going on so go and take a look if you too would like the chance to win a cool prize.

There's more...

I also won last week's challenge at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - I was so surprised I nearly fell off my chair. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket while the going is good!!! I love Penny Black stamps so this challenge is very high on my 'must do' challenge list, but to get a prize as well. Just fantastic!!

I guess after winning last week it seemed appropriate for my first card back in blogland to be for the Penny Black Challenge , which this week has an Easter theme. I still have a few more Easter cards to do so I was really please to see challenge blogs continuing this theme.

I love the Penny Black chick stamp I used to make this card. I think I got it in a sale last June and have been waiting patiently till now to use it. The backing paper is from the DCWV Spring stack (one of my favourite paper pads) and the other bits and bobs used are from my now tidy stash. Hmmmmmmmmm how long will that last?