That's Life: Lucky To Know You blog hop

Hello friends and Happy Saturday!

Today, is the second day of the Simon Says Stamp Lucky To Know You Blog Hop and I'm really excited to be joining so many talented designers as one of the stops on this exciting hop! You can see the fabulous new release in full by just popping over to Simon Says Stamp and if you've been hopping along, you'll have arrived here from the talented Vicky's blog but if you've just popped by and want to join us from the very beginning, just hop over on the Simon Says Stamp's Blog.

For my card, I chose to use the adorable Spring Gnomes set and combine it with the Faberge Egg Die perfect for Easter and Spring celebrations.

So, let's get started and here's how I created this...

To begin with I cut a 15 x 18.5cm card blank from white card and placed it in front of me with the fold at the top.

I then cut a panel of kraft card, slightly smaller in size than the card blank and using the solid heart and the heart outline stamps from the Spring Gnomes set, I stamped a pattern over the entire background of my card using Hero Arts Unicorn White Ink.

After machine stitching a border around the edge, I matted the card panel onto blue card and then wrapped some twine around the centre of the panels before mounting them onto the front of my card blank.

Now to move onto the next layer and for this layer I took a piece of watercolour card and created two panels, 11.5 x 15cm and 11.5 x 8cm. I then applied some Distress Inks to my glass mat and used Tim Holtz's wrinkle free technique to add colour. The colours I chose to use in this order, were Antique Linen Distress Ink, Pumice Stone Distress Ink, Old Paper Oxide Ink, Scattered Straw Oxide Ink and finally, Scattered Straw Distress Ink. I applied each colour separately to my mat, spritzed the ink with water and then dipped the card in and out of the inks, drying the layers in between and adding more colour if I felt I needed it. Once I was happy, I heat dried the card thoroughly and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Taking the larger panel, I machine stitched a border around the edge, before matting it onto a further piece of the blue card and then mounting it centrally onto my card panel.

I then took the smaller panel and using the solid heart stamp that was used previously to create the background, I inked this with Scattered Straw Distress Ink and stamped the pattern over the small panel. Heat dry to set and then once again, machine stitched a border around the outside before matting it onto gold metallic kraft stash, a white panel of card cut using the Tim Holtz Stitched Rectangle Die from my own stash, followed by a layer of hessian. I then attached foam pads to the back of the layers and mounted it onto my card blank.

I now have all my layers ready for the egg...

To create the egg, I coloured a piece of watercolour card in exactly the same way as I coloured the background panels but this time I substituted the Scattered Straw coloured inks for Tumbled Glass.

Once I was happy with the colour, I used the solid egg shape from the Faberge Egg die set, to cut my blue card. I then splattered the card with a light coverage of white paint to create the little speckles.

Taking the second die in the Faberge Egg die set, I cut the decorative layer from white pearl card. I then snipped away the Happy Easter wording, (you can save this for another day and another card, nothing is wasted) before layering it onto my blue egg using Matte Collage Medium to adhere it into place.

I mounted the egg onto the card front using foam pads.

After stamping the Easter Bunny Gnome onto watercolour card, I then watercolored him with Distress Marker Pens before fussy cutting around the outline of the image. To add some interest and texture to the image, I added some small dots of Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops to the body. Allow for these to dry.

Cut a strip of inked blue watercolour card that was used for the egg and ink up the Spring Greetings message in clear embossing ink. Stamp the message onto the banner strip and heat emboss with Ultra Fine Gold Embossing Powder until molten.

After cutting an inverted 'v' into either end of the banner, I attached it using foam pads, across the centre of my egg, shaping it to create movement and form a wave. I then placed the Easter Bunny Gnome to the left of the banner.

Finally, I dyed some of the small Bouquet Findings flowers using Spun Sugar Distress Spray Stain and once the flowers were dry, I arranged these around the gnome, adding some die cut foliage, cut from green card using the Funky Florals 3 die set from Tim Holtz.

To complete my card, I added four pearls, one to each corner of the smallest background layer.

I hope you've enjoyed the creative process behind this fun card project and loved the ideas and techniques that will hopefully inspire you with some ideas of your own ~ it's been so much fun to share this with you!

HOP ORDER

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Debby Hughes
Laura Bassen
Yoonsun Hur
Amanda Korotkova
Yana Smakula
Amy Rysavy
Bibi Cameron
Gayatri Murali
Vicky Papaioannou
Emma Williams (YOU ARE HERE)
Karin Äkesdotter
Preeti Chandran
Sidnie Des Jardins
JD Collins
Anna-Karin Evaldsson

ALL THE HOP DETAILS

Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the blog hop! This means you can leave a comment here and on every stop along the way to increase your chances. Winners will be posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, 11th March and all winners will need to contact/email Simon Says Stamp to claim their prize. Also, last but by no means least ~ we are also running a special surprise promotion in conjunction with this hop and you can claim one free gift of your choice! The offer is valid until 8th March at 11:59 EST, or while supplies last and the codes to claim your gift, are: FLF584 or WLY777

Thanks so much for hopping by today, hope to see you again soon!

Emma xx

RECIPE FOR CARD:

Simon Says Stamp Lucky To Know You Release: Spring Gnomes, Faberge Egg