Altered Easter egg box

I finished my Easter cards, so decided I would do something else for the remaining Easter challenges that are still around.

These challenges all call for something to do with Easter, eggs or spring (more details by clicking on the links):

Corrosive 57
Magical crafts 11
Crafty angels 28
One stitch at a time
Mixed media Monday
Created by hand
Creative craft 10
Moxie Tuesday trigger
Fab n funky 17
Little red wagon 22
Penny's challenges
Cute card Thursday
ECP 9
Fussy & fancy 7
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 29
Res-Q
Challenge up your life 17: 'Easter - anything but a card'

and this also fits these:

Allsorts 45: 'rags to riches' - alter or recycle something
Creative inspirations 30: 'anything but a card'
Pink elephant 60: 'pastels'
The craft garden: 'pastels'
Crafty Ann 11: 'make something for someone special'
KL stampin n scrappin 23: 'boxes-n-baskets'

I altered an Easter egg box (I bought this for mum for Sunday). This is the original:



I opened out the box to make a template:



and used the template the cut around some Easter wrapping paper:



I then stuck the wrapping paper on to the original box template and did it up again, adding a few flowers (originally from Early Learning - a long while ago).

Sorry to hear you're under the weather

I bought the Funstamps Puddle Duck stamp last week and have been itching to use it. I've based the card on Friday Sketchers 95:

When I saw the Get Funky challenge for this month: 'April showers' I knew I was going to use the Puddle duck stamp. I've used a couple of the freebie download papers from Funky Hand, as well as some bright pink DCWV textured card and a couple of fabric flowers.

It's also for:

Pile it on 12: 'Animal-riffic!'
Charisma cardz 13: 'animal magic'
Sunday stamper 97: 'and your bird can sing'
Alphabet: 'U is for umbrella' (I'm behind with these challenges, but still want to cover the whole alphabet)
Alota rubber 32: 'recipe: 3 of something (papers), 2 of something (flowers) and 1 of something (stamped image)
Sophisticat 28: 'raining cats and dogs' - no cats and dogs, but there's rain!
Cricut cardz 19: 'anyhing goes' - the circles were cut on my cricut using 'Make the cut' software
The colours are right for Stamping 411 colour inspiration 117:

This is the weekend for chocolate

Having made all my Easter cards now, I'm concentrating on 'chocolate' - no, not the calorific kind, although that would be most welcome, but the colour.

This card is for sketch FTL84 on Clean & simple (I love their sketches):

It's also for:

Daring cardmakers: 'how egg-citing!' - we were asked to use egg shapes or chocolate, so I chose the latter
I think this colour could also count as 'coffee' for Saturday Spotlight 24 inspirational challenge
And my favourite drink for Creatalicious 8 would have to be cocoa (particularly Green & Black'ss - lovely and rich and dark)
Crafty angels 28: 'Easter' - I went with a chocolate theme
Cupcake 84: 'lot of chocolate'
Another for Fiskarettes Monday challenge: chocolate/brown
Squigglefly 42: 'flower power'
Crafty creations 61: 'anything goes'
Cooking it up with Katie 14: 'something new' (the papers - got them today), 'something old' (the birthday sentiment), 'something sweet' (chocolate)
Simon says: 'it's so distressing' - edges were inked with chestnut chalk ink
Handfull of stamps 21: 'you're a sweet one' (chocolate)
Artful inkables (think ink Tuesday) 17: 'use any book or CD cover for inspiration' - the marvellous story 'Chocolat' (if you haven't read it or seen the film, you must - a good one to watch over Easter):

I used Daisy bucket papers - Newbury Court brownstone square and cut the flowers and scallops (3 x half of a flower) with nestabilities. In the centre of the flower is a prima 'say it in studs'.

Lovely prizes

I've received these lovely stamps today as prizes for a couple of challenges on Sunflowers & Dragonflies challenge blog - aren't they super - I am so fortunate:

BF March inchies and ATCs

Yesterday, both the BF ATC swaps and the inchies swaps arrived and they are wonderful - thanks to the ladies who took part and those who hosted the swaps.

The theme for the inchies was 'spring':

and for the ATCs we were given a sketch to work from:

Salt: Gethsemane

It was Pauline's turn to choose the topic for today's Salt challenge - you can read what she wrote here.

When I pepared my LO, I hadn't seen Pauline's and only discovered when I uploaded to Salt that we had both used the same picture of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane - I got the picture from here. It's interesting too to read the reflections of Linda who used the picture on her blog.

I based my LO on the worship song 'the Servant King' by Graham Kendrick:

From heaven you came
Helpless babe
Entered our world
Your glory veiled
Not to be served
But to serve
And give Your life
That we might live

This is our God
The Servant King
He calls us now
To follow Him
To bring our lives
As a daily offering
Of worship to
The Servant King

There in the garden
Of tears
My heavy load
He chose to bear
His heart with sorrow
Was torn
'Yet not My will
But Yours,' He said

Come see His hands
And His feet
The scars that speak
Of sacrifice
Hands that flung stars
Into space
To cruel nails
Surrendered

So let us learn
How to serve
And in our lives
Enthrone Him
Each other's needs
To prefer
For it is Christ
We're serving

For me, this song sums up the surrendering of Jesus to His Father's will and also reminds me of the earlier time on the same evening as he prayed in the garden, when he washed the disciples feet. As we approach Good Friday tomorrow, let's remember the tremendous sacrifice made by Jesus, the Servant King.

I used BG periphery papers and elements for my LO and thickers chipboard letters.

Easter easel card

Yes, I'm still making Easter cards! (Only one more to do after this, I think - otherwise it will be too late anyway!)

This card is for the sketch on Moving along with the times 39:

It's an easel card, so the front has been done using the sketch.

It's also for:

Stampotique designers 4: 'hippity hoppity Easter's on it's way!' - I used the lovely Stampotique 'grow' stamp
Gingersnap G48 random redhead challenge: 'growth'
Prairie fairy week 12: 'easel card'
Stampin' for the weekend 35: 'Easter'
Town scrapper: 'Easter'
Ann's creative nook 82: 'Easter'
Corrosive 57: 'Easte/spring'
Magical crafts 11: 'spring/Easter theme'
Stamp dreams 24: 'Easter'
Going grey (Scrap-creations) 3: 'Easter' - I used BG lemonade papers
Moxie Tuesday trigger 'hippity hoppity Easter's on its way' (inspiration picture with bright colours)
Papertake weekly: 'open'
Cuttlebug be inspired 76: 'Easter' - the strip across the bottom was made with a Cuttlebug embossing border
Simon says: 'Easter or spring and some glimmer' - the centres of the Craftime flowers and the ribbon
Dutch dare 74: 'spring card with fabric' - the ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. 43: 'Easter'
Hanna and friends 37: 'Happy Easter'
One powerful hour: 'Easter'
Paperplay week 12: 'Easter'
ECP 9: 'Easter'
Fussy & fancy 7: 'Easter'
No time to stamp? 132: 'Easter'
Paper cutz 34: 'Easter' - no bunnies or chicks (not one in sight!)
Crafty angels 28: Easter
Stamptacular 52: 'flower power!'
Everybody art 84: 'spring'
Wednesday stamper: 'spring'
Charisma cardz 12: 'spring has sprung'
Susie's sassy 11: 'Sally's spring garden'
Secret crafter Saturday 76: 'pink, green & flowers' (some of the pink is within the base underneath the stand up piece - will be the area to write on
Cupcake inspiration 52 (Hope stamps eternal)
Quirky crafts 24: 'flowers'
Squigglefly 42: 'flower power'
Paper popsicles: 'ribbon'
Stampin' royalty 12: 'get glitter happy'
Paper garden projects 4: 'embossing' - the cuttlebug border embossing folder used along the bottom of the base of the card
Raise the bar 11: 'April fool' - show us a style you don't normally do - this stamp is not my usual style, but I love it and will be buying more Stampotique stamps (in fact I have another on order)

Another lovely prize

I've received another lovely prize.

This My Acryllix set of stamps 'true friends' was sent to me for winning challenge 9 on Prairie Fairy Fridays with this card.

I'm so looking forward to using these lovely stamps.

A springtime birthday card

This card is for the sketch for challenge 53 on Creative Inspirations:

It's also for:

Corrosive 57: 'spring theme' - with a daffodil the card is for a spring birthday
Going grey (Scrap-creations) 3: 'spring' - I've used BG papers - lime rickey and marrakech
Colour challenge TCP102 on Dancing in Pajamas:

I used one of my favourite daffodil stamps again, this time leaving out the rectangular frame - coloured with copics (printed on yellow paper).

Look what I caught!

This card is for the Papertake 37 sketch:



It's also for:

Cards and things colour challenge 25:

My time to craft 84: 'make it manly'
Cute Daisy May: 'for the boys!' (although I'm not sure you'd call this image 'cute'!)
Penny's: 'another birthday challenge'
Pile it on 12: 'animal-riffic!' (well, a fish is an animal ...)
Crafty Ann 11: 'make something for someone special' - birthday card for a special man
Simple doodles 14: 'add some layers'
Sunflowers and dragonflies 35: 'they say it's your birthday'
Etsy inspired 81: 'Ponder and stitch' - inspired for the colours by this item

Papers are 'stars and stripes' collection by Nancy Watt (free with Making cards magazine) and the stamp is Paper Nation fisherman, coloured with copics.

Butterfly or fairy?

This card is for Mercy sketch 66:

I've used a beautiful digi image called 'butterfly swirl' designed by Karen for Dewdrop Craftz - I won it and have already used it before and know it's a digi that I'll want to use again and again.

I used pink, black and white for the Monday challenge on Apron strings (ooops - just discovered this was last week - oh well!)

And I'm just scraping in at the last minute (again!) for 'fairy, fairy' on Cute Daisy May - I know that this image is called a butterfly, but I hope she qualifies too as a fairy!

It's also for Tuesday trigger 'butterfly dreams' on Moxie fab world and another for Crazy amigo 'butterflies'. I'm linking too for Created by hand 'my heart dances' and Die cut dreams 41: 'black, white and one other colour'.

What a silly I am - I used ribbon that has a black and pink pattern on a white background, but now most of it is covered by the image and bow - d'oh!

It's your day ...

so relax and enjoy it!

This card is for the sketch on Crafts 4 eternity receipe 25, which also calls for the use of notepaper and a butterfly:

As the main colours are pink and green, the card is also for Totally papercrafts 9. And the butterflies are suitable for this week's Crazy amigo and also another for Flutter by Wednesday 102, which this week is an open challenge, as long as it includes a butterfly, fairy or angel.

The background paper is English paper company, the handbag is Dena designs and the piece of notepaper is Dream street hugs and kisses - as it was notepaper I braved using handwriting for the Monday challenge on Apron strings.

I am here for you ... anytime

This card is for sketch 84 on Cutie Sunday:

and also for Easy breezy Kewl colour challenge 18:

It was an opportunity to use one of the new stamps that arrived this morning, part of the Hero arts cuckoo set - the sentiment is from that set too. I particularly used this because this week's Sunday stamper (just getting in at the last minute again!) challenge 96 is 'any time at all' - I love the sentiment 'I am here for you - anytime' - although I have to admit that the ex-teacher in me finds it difficult using a sentiment that starts with 'i' instead of 'I'.

Easter card production line

Mum phoned this morning and asked if she could please have 12 Easter cards. I counted up how many I'd made so far, which was the grand sum of 8 - and we need more than that for ourselves. (Incidentally, if she'd asked for Christmas cards it would have been much easier - lol! - I've already made over 50).

So I spent time this morning stamping and colouring with copics - the stamps I used are all foam ones bought from QVC - they give a surprisingly good, clear impression. I needed to keep everything quite simple if I was going to get enough cards made - I managed to do 16 in all, including 3 non-stamped cards. I made good use of some of the aperture cards that a crafting friend kindly sent to me recently.

I thought of doing a few separate blog posts, but instead I'm going to stick to this one post, which will inevitably be a long one, but it will save any repeating.

There are still lots of challenges around atm that cover Easter and spring, so these are some that I'm linking all the cards shown:

Stampin' for the weekend 35
Our creative corner
Paper garden projects 3
Ann's creative nook 82
Magical crafts 11
Incy wincy 35
Stamp with fun 51
Everybody art 83
Jacksonbelle Tuesday 98
Cutie stampers 47
Frosted designs
Allsorts 44
Crazy 4 challenges 29
Lots to do 11
Secret crafter Saturday 75
Sweet stampin' 18
Wednesday stamper
Charisma cardz 12
C.R.A.F.T. 43
Hanna and friends 37
One powerful hour
Paperplay week 12

The following four batches of cards are suitable for Stampin' sisters in Christ 31: 'clean and simple', Lucy's 7: 'clean and simple' and There she goes 47: 'simplicity'.

So first, I'll show cards with a lily stamp:

The second one is good for Color throwdown 85: 'baja breeze, garden green, certainly celery' and also for the inspiration photo given for Little red wagon challenge 21 and the inspiration given for cupcake challenge 51 on Hope stamps eternal.

The next three cards use a stamped image of irises:


These particularly show feather blending with copics, which is one of my favourite techniques and is therefore being linked for Copic creations 24 and also Fab n funky 16: it's all in the technique'. The colours used are good for Sophisticat 27: 'recipe: mint green, lilac + other colour + flowers'.

Then, for the next four cards I used a large stamp in a couple of different ways, firstly just with memento rich cocoa stamping and secondly with the same stamping lightly coloured in places with copics.

These cards, particularly the first two, are suitable for Fiskarettes Monday challenge: chocolate/brown, Quixotic 18: 'monochromatic' and Susie's sassy 11: 'Sally's spring garden'.


The next card is similar to one I showed yesterday - using the same stamp, but this time cutting round it and using a large aperture card - this uses the colours called for in Stampin' B 51: 'purple, green and yellow', although I admit that the purple is minimal, but I love that little crocus. There are also little chicks on this card which I think qualify as 'furry friends' for Pile it on 11.

Lastly, I made three cards that didn't involve stamping. I used a PDA 'chicks' paper for two of them and a striped one for the other one. All the glitzy stickers were from Poundland, which are right for:

Pollycraft 36: 'sparkly things'
Creative cottage 3: 'sparkle'
Stampin' royalty 12: 'get glitter happy'
One stop craft 72: 'let it shine!'

They also have dimension for Cute card Thursday 105.


This one has a shaker on it for 365 cards day 20: 'let's make some noise' and also are pastel colours for Colour create 41, with the option of Easter/spring.

If you've got to the end here you must be as tired as I am now!

Some more prizes

I am so fortunate to win a couple more prizes.

I received two lovely stamps today for winning Birthday challenge 1 on Paper garden projects. You can see the mummu stamp here and the 'soaking up the joy' stamp here, both by Mo Manning. What a lovely prize -thank you.

I also received this gorgeous card from Melissa Craig who gave it to the name drawn (mine!) for challenge 34 on Tuesday morning sketches - what a delightful card - thank you, Melissa.

Nearly forgot WOYWW

Wednesdays come round so quickly and I nearly forgot that today is WOYWW. I don't know whether I'll get round to looking at others today - I'm trying to ignore the fact that my back is playing up big time, but I need to respect it and limit the time I spend on here.

Anyway, today I've made a card, some inchies (which have gone into the post, so you can't see them here - in a post below) and tootled around with a few other bits and pieces. You'll see a pile of cards that I've made over the last couple of weeks - they need inserts put in and then bagging and labelling, but, as it's something I don't like doing, I think they'll go back in the cupboard for another day (or two or more!). So, nothing exciting to see.

CBC prize

In the recent CBC birthday challenges I was a runner up and received a package of goodies today from Carolyn - ribbon, Maya Road gem flowers, brads, flowers, Buttons galore words and diamonte. Thanks to Sue for running the challenges and to Carolyn for the prize - much appreciated.

BF March inchies swap: spring

Why do I leave things to the last minute? I even made an Easter card this morning (post below) when I ought to have been getting on with my inchies for the BF swap to get them in the post, hoping that RM will excel themselves and delivery first class tomorrow.

Anyway, once I started them I enjoyed doing them, but they look a bit 'rough and ready' (one of my nan's favourite sayings!).

I used a little flower and butterfly stamp that almost fitted on an inch - it's an unknown stamp that I've had for ages - and I stamped on to some card that was packaging with some PM products a long time ago.

For a change, I used Sakura metallic and glitter pens to colour (not a copic in sight!). So, here are my six inchies that have just gone in the post:

and here is one of the inchies with Gez's universal measure:

I'm linking for:

Stampin' royalty 12: 'get glitter happy' (the glitter pens unfortunately don't show up too well here)
Simon says: 'Easter or spring and some glimmer'
Inky impressions 32: 'recycle it' - the background card as shown above
Creative inspirations 30: 'anything but a card'
Pals paper arts 35: 'anything but a card'
Flutter by Wednesday 102: 'open - I used a butterfly'

Easter cross aperture card

Not surprisingly, there are lots of challenges around atm to do with Easter and spring.

Having bought a Peronsal Impressions Easter stamp by Graham Pilkington yesterday, I was itching to use it.

The other day, a kind crafting friend sent me a lot of aperture cards, so I've used one for this card - the stamped image fitted in the aperture perfectly.

So these are the Easter/spring challenges covered:

Susie's sassy 10
Stampin' for the weekend 35
Our creative corner
Paper garen projects 3
Ann's creative nook 82
Magical crafts 11
Incy wincy 35
Stamp with fun 51
Everybody art 83
Jacksonbelle Tuesday 98
Twisted Thursday 48
Cutie stampers 47
Frosted designs
Allsorts 44
Crazy 4 challenges 29
Lots to do 11
Secret crafter Saturday 75
Sweet stampin' 18
Wednesday stamper
CCEE inspiration (the eggs)

As there are a couple of little chicks on here, this is also for Daring cardmakers 'tweetie pie' and Crafty creations 60: 'babies' can include the little chick just hatched from the egg; and I think the chicks would count as furry friends for Pile it on 11.

And, as it's an aperture card, it's good for Tanda teaser 138 'artful apertures'.

The colours are right for Rosie-dee 67: 'green, yellow and white'. The image was coloured with copics, with some colour blending - for Copic creations 24: 'favourite technique'.

Day 15 on 365 cards was an 'ad inspired', with a picture of eggs - there's an egg hatched on here, so I'm linking for that too.