Two of my Easter cards needed to be in the mail yesterday. Since my grandchildren definitely do not read my blog, I thought I'd share them while some of the Easter challenges are live. These cards are proof that I don't always take weeks, months, and sometimes a year to use the products I love enough to order. These Honeycomb Bunnies from The Greetery were irresitable in last month's release. I have to restrain myself from buying all the different varieties in the Honeycomb line.

First off is Hannah's card. I borrowed a friend's Stitched Scallops die, also from The Greetery and found a My Favorite Things pack of gingham papers, Gingham Galore, to use as the background. The bunny was die cut from my palest gray cardstock, Soft Stone, from Papertrey Ink. All the detail pieces came from my scrap boxes. I used stamps from the Honeycomb Basics as well as Honeycomb Spring. 

I added a spring from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix for the embellishment. The tail was die cut twice from white and the top on raised up a bit for dimension. Here's the bunny with the honeycomb opened up.

I struggle with holiday cards for my 13 year old grandson, who is now taller than I am. But I went ahead and made another version of the same bunny for him. When I made the Honeycomb Penguins for Christmas, he ended up putting it on his dresser which I took for a sign that it was fine with him. I intend to ask him after Easter what he thought of the card. 

The patterned paper was in an envelope with Easter die cuts and left-overs from previous Easters. I suspect it's left over from my scrapbooking days. The die cut carrots were die cut at my friend's house a year or two ago, and I'm not sure who made them. I was, however, delighted to find those in the envelope as well. This bunny was die cut from Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream cardstock. I added some dimension behind this bunny since the background was so busy. I did cut the patterned paper and the narrow orange frame with Gina K's Master Layout #2.

The honeycomb on this bunny isn't as bright yellow in real life.

Several of the Easter/Bunny challenges are also CAS challenges. Neither of these come close to being CAS. The Fourseason Challenge: Anything Spring and the Inspired By: Bunnies Challenge are super appropriate. The Four Seasons has a beautiful moodboard, but I didn't add it here–there were no bunnies, but I saw some bunnies already in the gallery. I'm also sending this to Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. gallery (this week is dies) and to her NBUS Gallery these bunnies are new but never used before!

I had lunch today with two of my best friends, both of whom have April birthdays. Their birthday cards were in my mind when I asked for the Flower Shoppe dies from Concord & 9th for Christmas. 

I started putting together the flower pots, cart, and hanging plants when I was in Racine in March. I ended up needing more, but it was a good head start. After assembling the pop-up shoppe with Concord and 9th's Window Shoppe die, I added the acetate behind the windows, the architectural details, and the door. 

Getting the hanging pots, shelf and florals inside the shoppe would have been easier if I had added them before assembling the shoppe itself. But it was easier to know what I wanted back there, and a nice pair of straight tweezers made it pretty easy. Everything else was glued to the front of the shop.

I wanted the two cards to be somewhat different, so chose a different color for the shoppe and the awning. The "flower shoppe" sign dies looked fine on the green awning, but got lost on the black and white one.

I changed up some of the flowers, adding a tall plant in a gold pot from the Window Shoppe die, and a second hanging plant instead of a shelf. 

Both cards had the same inside message. 

Last year I created a Fashion Boutique for one of my granddaughtes. I love that the shoppes fold up and fit into an A2 envelope, and I love all the tiny details that are included in both the Fashion Boutique dies as well as these floral dies. Before I ever made one of these shoppe, I purchased the Book Shoppe dies and used it for a card for my grandson. Next on my list is to create a book shoppe. 

I'm sending these off to A Cut Above: Anything Goes.

Right before the latest Color Hues Challenge went live, I discovered this canvas from an Etsy shop:

Had I seen it earlier, I'm pretty sure I would have made this card:

But it didn't take me long to get to it since I needed another masculine birthday card. (In fact, I need several, so hopefully I'll be back soon with more.) I knew as soon as I saw the inspiration piece that I had the perfect die from Ellen Hutson, Abstract Sunset. After die cutting the pieces from multiple cardstocks, I pieced them back together on a cream rectangle cut with Ellen Hutson's Essential Rectangles.

Then I pieced together some oranges, and die cut the sun. I ended up using one of Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles, since the circle die in the Abstract Sunset was smaller than I wanted. Once again the gold foiled Black Tabs from Memory Box was the perfect sentiment. 

This is off to the Just Us Girls Challenge where they want die cuts, but no flowers, and the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Birthday Cards.

We're in Wisconsin for a few days. It's always good to be visiting family, but Sunday was a rude awakening–snow, ending up with nearly 2" of the white stuff. Meanwhile, back in Rochester it was 60°+.

The day before we left, I squeezed in a little time to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law. The main foiled pattern, Pinkfresh Studio's Abstract Triangles, had already been foiled, so it was pretty quick and easy once I settled on the design. 

I did manage to put another NBUS die to use: My Favorite Things: Stitched Diamond STAX. Recently, I spent some time hot foiling lots of sentiments, so the Happy Birthday from Spellbinders, You Are Everything, was also ready to add to the diamond die cut. 

I love this design–elegant, but simple, and another great card for a guy. I'm quite sure I'll use the design again. No additional embellishment was needed. 

The card is off to three challenges and Darnell's NBUS site. AAA Birthday Challenge is looking for Masculine Cards, Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday Cards, and I'll add it to Seize the Birthday's Anything Goes category. 

I have two cards to share, both inspired by current challenges which also gave me an opportunity to move one more item out of my NBUS box. The pretty little blooms were perfect for these challenges, all of which are among my favorite challenges. First off was Just Us Girls where it's Die Week and they want a birthday card. Seize the Birthday wants "no stamping," and The Flower Challenge (they're celebrating their 100th challenge!!) wants a circle in the design. Here's my answer to these three challenges. 

I started by die cutting Simon Says Exotic Blooms from watercolor paper as well as a Simon Says Stitched Circles die. I used finger daubers to color the florals, picking bright and happy hues to celebrate some of the first warm days we've had recently. They just make me happy. It's hard to tell but I very lightly ink blended a pale blue onto the circle before adding the flowers. Since no stamping is allowed, I pulled out my fave Memory Box Black Tab Sentiments. 

I had another set of die cut florals, and remembered that The Paper Players are looking for pastel colors. The flowers are the same, but the design is different.

Once again I used the watercolor paper. I love the texture it gives to CAS cards. This time I die cut two of Pinkfresh Studio's Nested Hexagon Blanket Stitched dies and layered them before adding the florals which I again colored with finger daubers. I thought this card needed a little something so I added three small gold pearls, and another Black Tab birthday greeting in a different font.

This card is also off to Seize the Birthday  and Just Us Girls as well as The Paper Players.

It's unusual for me to post twice in a day, but here is a set of three cards that, once again, came out of my "Work on This" box. This particular set of products have been sitting around for quite some time, but when I saw the As You See It Challenge for Birds, I knew it was time to get a move on. Having been away, I'm just posting these under the wire since the challenge closes in just a few hours.

The project idea began months ago when a friend gifted me with three charming die cut birds all assembled. I put them in a wooden bowl and pulled out Paper Trey Ink's Songbirds stamp and die set, a long-time favorite. The three birds were created with a gradient of blues, so I chose a different card base for each of them.

This was the lightest of the three birds, so I chose Papertrey Ink's Rustic White cardstock for the base. This card has a slightly different design than the other two. When I initially added the die cut branch, I glued it in the wrong place, so had to start all over. I had already put the MISTI away, so had to reposition the stamps. The musical stamp ended up being higher than the others, so I added a second branch to the bottom. I might like this design a bit better, but it was the last one I put together.

For the second card, I chose Papertrey Ink's Soft Stone, another favorite of mine. I added a few musical notes at the top of the card from My Favorite Things, Strike Up the Band.

 This combination of the darkest bird on the kraft cardbase ended up being my favorite. One of the things I like about these cards is that they are pretty generic birthday card. I'd feel comfortable ending them to guys or girls. One close up so you can see how darling these birds are. 

In addition to As You See It, I'm sending this off to A Cut Above challenge as well.