He Is Risen

I just absolutely love the Easter season. The promise of spring comes to fruition. The trees push out their blooms and the tulips and daffodils extend their tender stems towards the sun. Their reward for braving the cooler temperatures: luscious flowers that bring us joy and delight in a myriad of beautiful color.

In the springtime everything is fresh and bright and new. It is truly a rebirth. As we celebrate the death and the resurrection of Christ, let us remember that life can began anew at anytime. As a matter of fact this month's Vee-ism is, "The best time to begin is now." It falls right behind why put off for tomorrow what you can do today. There is so much satisfaction in beginning and finishing what we start.

My ScrappinFriendz Yahoogroup issued an Easter card challenge. Everyone who enters will get a prize. So, well, why not. I entered two. Both were experimentations on my part. I had gotten some new Spellbinder Dies:  Kaleidoscope being one of them, and wanted to play with my Sakura Stardust pens and my water pen.  Thus this first card was born. Disregard the cluttered background--not enough time to take a proper picture.

The water pen used on the diecut template behind the egg was the large size. Therefore, I did get some bleeding of the color under the die. Lesson learned.

I diecut everything using watercolor paper--I wanted something that would stand up to the pen and water work without warping. The base for this card is a piece of American Crafts grape paper cut to 8x8. I used the Victoria Cuttlebug Folder to add some texture.

This is my original pop up design and it will fold flat for mailing. I added some of the Dew Drops/Pebbles around the egg and some of the Martha Stewart micro clear gemstones. I do like the overall composition and debated on covering the centers of the two side pieces with a small flower image stamped onto the smallest oval die cut.

Here is the center image up close and in person. You can see what I mean about the bleeding so I corrected for the second card.

This base on this cute little card was edged in a mixture of Tim Holtz Distress Inks--Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. The second layer is a card from Die Cuts With a View. I simply cut it in half and embossed the striped side with the Floral Fantasy CuttleBug folder. TH Distress Ink Worn Lipstick was used on the edges.  The white dots were created using the Sakura glaze gel pen.

To paint the bunnies, I used the smallest water pen I could find. I do think the results were much better.

This is a close-up of the large egg used. I created about 6-7 eggs in total using various background colors and Sakura pens.

I like the natural texture created by the watercolor paper. And this Spellbinder oval die gives the appearance of triple matting although it is only the single piece of diecut. I stamped the quote using some Martha Stewart acrylic alpha stamps. That was embossed onto a scalloped rectangle and layered onto one of the long Spellbinder rectangular tags. I needed it to reach from the bunnies and overlap the DCWV card. The gauzy ribbon mimics the stripes in the card without being too overwhelming.

It is my hope to get the remaining cards created and post them here. One will be for my DS. His favorite color is red, but I am hoping I can sway him with a deep orange or red-rose colored egg.

Have fun this coming weekend with family and friends. Remember the reason for the season. This is a celebration of the Risen Christ.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and see what I have been inking in the name of love.

Until then.