Hoppy Easter – SSS Hopping Along Card Kit

I came up with a rough idea for a card over the course of today. When I got home and looked at the challenges I had originally been planning on using I realised I’d actually mixed up today’s card and tomorrow’s, so my idea used a couple of the challenges I’d planned to use today as well as a couple of those for tomorrow. So I decided to temporarily ignore the challenges, make the card that had been on my mind, then work out what challenges I could enter it to. Sometimes I work that way, sometimes the other. But the most important thing is to have fun doing it!

I started by creating my egg patterned paper. I used the egg stamps from the Simon Says Stamp Easter Greetings stamp set which came in the Hopping Along card kit. (You can see the other cards I’ve made with the kit here.) First I tested out some different colour options for the layering. This is the first stamp layering stamps I’ve tried! I settled on yellow, pink and purple. The yellow and purple are second generation stamping for their base layer. All the other stamping was first generation. Once I was done stamping the eggs on to my snippet of white card I ink blended some of the yellow around the outer edge of the panel to help differentiate it from the white card base I would be adding it to.

I trimmed down another snippet of white card to create my second panel. Then I had to pause and work out what I wanted to do next! I knew I wanted a bunny image, and was originally planning on using a sticker from the card kit but they didn’t seem big enough. In the end I dug out a piece of patterned paper from an Easter set I got last year, and fussy cut the image you see of a bunny sitting on Easter eggs from a snippet that I had not completely used. I considered trimming it to fit on the panel but decided I actually liked the way it overhung.

For my sentiment strip I trimmed off a piece of the backing from the Doodlebug Easter Express Mini Icons Sticker Sheet which came in the set and heat embossed the Hopping Along sentiment (from the Easter Greetings stamp set) in black onto it.  The circle image that I added is die cut from one of the patterned papers in the kit, which is from the Doodlebug Easter Express 6×6 Paper Pad.

Whilst I considered using foam tape to add dimension, I ended up just using tape runner to adhere all the elements of my card into place. The only exception is the sentiment strip which, having come from the sticker sheet, had a self adhesive backing.

As a final touch, I stamped the sentiment “you’ll always be someone egg-stra special to me” on the inside of the card, and added a little pile of eggs (one in each colour) beside it. I’m afraid I didn’t remember to photograph that! I do like finishing the inside of cards, though it seems I rarely remember to do so!

Despite the changes along the way I’m very pleased with how this card came out. It’s undeniably cute, and I like the touch of sparkle on the large eggs from the fussy cut patterned paper. I really enjoyed the stamp layering on the eggs, though it probably helped that it was pretty easy to do! I have avoided buying stamp layering sets because I only have limited inks. Or, well… I did get a set of several very cheap pigment inks last year so that I would have some, and that’s what I used on the eggs. I guess I felt that because I don’t have “proper” inks it wasn’t worth trying to do stamp layering. I definitely want to get some stamp layering sets now though!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

AAA Cards – Spring and Optional: Shiny

Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge – Use Patterned Paper

Mojo Monday – Sketch/Layout

Pixie’s Snippets Playground – Snippets

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Uniko Challenge – Spring and Optional: Easter

Work It Wednesday – Spring