Sweet Spring Nest

 This sweet spring nest card uses the colors brown, green, and rose for the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #335 this month. It's giving me hope that spring will come soon! 

My brown, green, and rose colors were all Gina K inks. I used Kraft ink to stencil the branches, Applemint for the stamped leaves and Dusty Rose for the flowers. The center of the flowers were stamped a little darker with Medium Cranberry

      

First, I stenciled on the branches, masking off the branches I didn't need for this card. Then I stamped the flower images, but didn't like how the branches showed through the flowers and leave! I started again with a little planning this time. 

I used my first attempt to plan where the flowers should be stamped first, then stenciled the branches in place. Small detail brushes help get into spaces near the stamping. 

The nest was cut from 3 different shades of brown with the darkest in the back. Some twigs and the eggs were shaded with some Kraft ink. Isn't the detailing on the eggs perfect?! The nest was elevated with foam tape. I love this sentiment and stamped it in Dark Chocolate ink. A few flower sequins finish it off. I left quite a bit of white space for more of a clean and simple look. 

Supplies: 

Altenew Nestled Whimsy layering stamp and die set (Mini Delight December)

Altenew Branching Out stencil

Gina K inks: Kraft, Applemint, Dusty Rose, Medium Cranberry, Dark Chocolate 

Gina K sequins from Advent Box

Foam Tape 

Hello Sunshine!

Wishing for the days of more sunshine here in the Midwest! This card uses sunny colors along with the glasses and sunny sentiment. Created in an arch shape for the A Place to Start "No Squares" challenge this month. Can't wait to brighten someone's day with this card. Check out the challenge and other design team inspiration here

Stenciled Background

              

The Altenew Stencil Art Bi-monthly subscription for March, Styled Backgrounds, includes stencils to make three backgrounds. One is a pretty floral and the other two are geometric. I'm sure I'll be making good use of these. 

 

To create this geometric background, just ink the first color, then rotate the stencil 90 degrees and match the etched lines to your first image and ink the next image. After rotating the image 4 times, you get this pattern. 

Assembling the Diecut

Assembling the die cut pair of glasses was easy by following the pictures on the packaging. The hardest part was deciding on the color to use for the frame. I did use a silver pen to add the little screw pieces on the corners. Honestly, I cut the tiny little pieces and lost one, twice!! These cute glasses are the Mini-Delight subscription for March. They come with a floral stamp set and two sentiment stamps. They will be available on the website without a subscription for a little higher price. 

The flowers are cut from the Pond Flowers dies. This is an older set and still so handy. The striped strip uses the Pinstripe background stamp. 

Arch Shaped Card

After cutting the geometric panel with an arch die, I chose a slightly larger arch die to cut the card. Just align the die so it is slightly to the left of the fold of your card. The die won't cut the folded edge as long as it's not touching the cardstock. Adhere elements in place and you have a card full of sunshine! 

Since I will be mailing this card, I outlined the geometric arch panel in gold pen instead of adding another layer. I did pop the glasses up with a lower loft foam tape. 

Supplies:

Altenew Stencil Art: Styled Backgrounds, Mini Delight: Stylish Shades, Pinstripe background stamp, Enamel Dots: Tea Party,  Fresh Dye inks: buttercream, warm sunshine, terracotta, blush rose.

Cardstocks unknown, metallic silver paper, gold gel pen

Challenges I'm entering:

A Place to Start- Anything Goes with a Twist of no squares (link above)

Little Red Wagon  L is for Leftovers (leftover yellow striped piece from my scrap box)

A Cut Above. Anything Goes with a Diecut