Monday 4 April 2011

Spring fever

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain



Spring is fab!  Out in the garden, things are blooming and adding lovely colours to everyday life.  As we only moved to this house at New Year, I didn't get the chance to put any bulbs in, but I was thrilled when green shoots started poking through the ground and was hoping that they would be daffodils, and they were!  The bright yellow colour is so cheerful and if I could just stop my 3 year old son beheading them and bringing them to me, the garden would be full of them!  Ah well, I'm sure he will grow out of it... and then my younger son will start lol

The challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers this week is to use mainly yellow and these 3 embellishments stitching, rhinestones and ribbon, so a springtime card was just the perfect idea to fit.  I used a Sweet Pea Stamp, Jennifer Nilsson's Daisy Flower Fairy which I coloured with a range of yellow and amber promarkers and gold star gelly roll pen to add sparkle to the wings of the fairy and the bee.  I added a couple of orange rhinestones as earrings and then I couldn't decide what to do with it.  I knew I had yellow cards and things, but I couldn't think what to do next.  After a bit of a head scratch, I remembered back to a conversation I had with Vix during our Promarkers in the Park session last week and recalled that she had mentioned about twisted easel cards.  I have never done one before, so I decided to have a play with some card and see if I could do it... then decided to go two steps further and turn it into a triple twisted easel card!  It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, but is soooo effective don't you think?

The three panels are backed with some backing paper I made myself using yellow card and my new favourite friend, my I-cling flower stamp, stamped and embossed with orange, then diecut with my trusty old friend, my deckled rectangle nestie.  The main image was trimmed with the second largest nestie and then matted to one of the bigger diecuts.  For the front panel I printed the sentiment 'Just for you' in orange using my printer, then embellished with paper flowers I had coloured to match and added some opaque amber rhinestones for the flower centres:

I then added some faux stitching around the images with a black sparkle gelly roll so the 'stitches' would be more subtle.

For the back panel, I used the Mark Twain quote shown at the top of this post (just in case you can't read it on the photo):


The foldy bits (god I'm technical) I covered the visible side of the fold with yellow gingham paper which I had printed off from a freebie site.  For the stops for each part, I used a large flower, adhered with a sticky pad and teased the petals up so that they provide a firm stop.  I embellished the main part of the card with some yellow ribbon from my stash and was thrilled to find it matched perfectly without my having to recolour it! Yay!

What's more, the whole card folds flat so it will go in an envelope, which is always handy in the case of a card ;-)

On that matter, I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

Quirky Crafts - Twisted Easel (Hope a triple twisted easel counts!)
Paper Sundaes - Spring Blossoms (I think it certainly has a few of those!)
Basic Grey Challenges - More than one fold (check! lol)
In A Sweet Pea Dream - Hello Spring (I'd say there is more than just an element of that!)
Sweet Pea Stampers - Pack a punch (ANOTHER Sweet Pea from me - anyone would think I was addicted lol)

21 comments:

  1. OMG this is just amazing! I've only just mastered twisted easels and now you've come up with this!!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a fabulous creations! It looks unbelievably complex, but really, really special.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Sarah
    I just love it!
    Your super talented! It looks amazing!
    Hugs M xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. what a fbaulous card - i love the sunshine yello and the fab design
    Stunning
    Lisa x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stunning card Sarah. Love the design and cute image.

    Donna x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brilliant project Sarah - I loe all the sunshine pouring out from it! Makes me smile!
    Hugs
    Ei
    x

    ReplyDelete
  7. what a stunner just love it clever design too
    gill x

    ReplyDelete
  8. such a great card, love the design you clever thing

    hugs
    Judie xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is fab!!! I love the design and the happy springtime feel about it :-) Love 'n' hugs, Mel xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow fab card - hope your got your case for your promarkers sorted - Nicky

    ReplyDelete
  11. OMG! Almost speechless. This is jut amazing. Not only is the shape unusual and so effective but the yellows you have chosen pop right off the page, proper gorgeous!

    Lin xx

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yes a triple easel card will fit the challenge brilliantly!(we've had a quad!) It's gorgeous!! Thank you so much for joining Quirky Crafts Challenge this time, please pop back this Friday (tomorrow) or Saturday to vote for your favourites and ask your blogging buddies to vote for you!
    ((Lyn))

    ReplyDelete
  13. oh wow this is fantastic, what a excellent idea and i love the yellow tones

    Good luck in the challenges, hugs Sarah-Louise My Blog

    Designing for:
    Crafty Purple Frog , Sweet Pea Stampers ,Bearly Mine Designs and Kenny K

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Sarah ADORE THIS. It is so cute and so vibrant. I agree aren't they just the most addictive stamps ever xxx Thanks so much for joining us at Sweet Pea Stampers hugs Pascale

    ReplyDelete
  15. What vibrant cards and loving the image!!!
    I must say I'm loving the twisted easel cards at the moment!! Thanks for joining us over at the SPS Love Chanelle xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sarah, this is certainly a bright and cheery card. You've done a fabulous job on your twisted tripe easel - well that's a bit of a mouthful. Thanks for taking part in the Sweet Pea Stampers Challenge this fortnight and best of luck. We hope to see you back again very soon. Best wishes, Kym, Sweet Pea Stampers Design Team xxx

    ReplyDelete
  17. what a pretty card...I love that image, she's so cute!! Thanks for joining us at Paper Sundaes this week.

    Fi

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow I think you've covered the more than one fold!!! Lol!!! Fab card! lovely bright colours!
    Thanks for joining us this week over at basic grey challenges!!
    hugs
    Jacqui P x

    ReplyDelete
  19. So clever! And it looks lovely and bright, that yellow shade is glorious. CoB

    ReplyDelete
  20. Sarah this is such a gorgeous card. Love the bright yellow and the happy flowers and the shape of it is so striking.

    Love Mandy xxx

    ReplyDelete
  21. Stunning creation Sarah, I have seen a tempate to do this but I wouldn't have tried it on my own you are very clever.

    ReplyDelete