Christ is Risen! A Notecard Set

With all the turmoil and change in the world today, I can honestly admit that this Lent season wasn't as fully focused as previous years and/or should be.  I did get a chance to use my new-to-me The Greetery Caring Cross stamp and die set.  This set comes with a stencil for coloring the die cut cross after stamp layering the palm leaves with delicate blooms.  I think this set is so beautiful and I knew I wanted to combing it with my Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Faith stamp set.

The palm leaves are die cut using The Greetery and the Botanicuts Palm dies.

Sending wishes for your own Easter preparations.

A Much Delayed Easter Basket Share

Whopsie - I found these photos on my phone that I'd not bothered to post here.  I whipped up  these small little Easter "baskets" back in April, but forgot to share with you here.  I went through the scraps of patterned paper to find a set that match the color scheme of the fruit crates that I found at Hobby Lobby.  I then used the sentiment stamp from my Hero Arts stamp set along with some printing from the computer to make the sentiment flag.

A little hot glued flag poles, some chocolates and a teeny, tiny chickdee adorn the inside of the baskets.  The tiny flowers were leftover from my other projects (there's still more to use up!) and make the finished project sparkle.

Thank you for tolerating my need to share and document this project so very far after the holiday. I hope your week is going well.  Brandy and I are off today to the CK scrapbook convention in Mesa. There will be a fair amount of shopping and crafting and joyful time spent together.  I will hope to share photos of our endeavors to craft with you in the coming days!

He is Risen Indeed

Happy Easter!  Today is the day that we celebrate our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  Today is the day we honor Him for His sacrifice on the cross where He did what I couldn't do for myself.  Now that is reason to celebrate.

I had seen this sentiment stamp in a craft magazine over a year ago.  I couldn't justify the purchase at the time (budget, shipping costs, etc.).  Almost a year later, a sale pretty much wiped out the shipping costs and I decided to take the plunge.  I almost couldn't wait to create a card for Easter with it.  Here's the detail on this card:

Patterned paper is Stampin' Up's Attic Boutique.  The paper doesn't have an ounce of glitter on it- that pattern simply creates a brightness that tricks the eye.  I found it perfect on this card.

The green cardstock was cut using my Heartfelt Creations Raindrops on Roses die.  

The flowers were first stamped with my Heartfelt Creations Sun Kissed Fleur stamps and then cut using the matching die.  I used a yellow Close to My Heart stamp pad.  I shaped the flowers, sometimes choosing to shape the center and other times using a pearl accent.  

I left the inside blank to hand write a sentiment on the inside before sending them out to family.  Ultimately, I made five of these cards.  I hope that you are celebrating with family and friends this day.  We will start our day at sunrise with friends in a intimate backyard celebration looking back at the dawning of that first Easter morning.  

He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

                                                          Isaiah 53:3-5

Praying the healing that can only come through the Son of God for all of you this Easter morning.

Early Easter Craftiness

Pinterest abounds with Easter celebration ideas and decorations.  Last year, I sewed for Easter.  That craft may maintain status as my favorite Easter craft.  Cute and full of chocolate goodness, they were a hit for my niece and nephews.  This year, though not quite the height of crafty achieved last year, I've decided on another craft to give a small gift at Easter.

These eggs were made by pushing small chocolate, foil-wrapped Easter egg candies into water balloons. This can be the tricky part- the balloons are thin and so they tend to tear.  I typically pulled the lip of the un-inflated balloon around the candy.  When sufficiently surrounded by balloon, I then blow up the balloon to cause the egg to fall into the bottom.  I then repeat the process for the second chocolate egg only this time I tie off the balloon while inflated.

The string/thread is crochet thread of various colors.  Yes, I also have a stash of crochet thread.  I simply dip the thread in Mod-Podge and, while wet, I wrap it around the balloon in a random pattern leaving the tie of the balloon on the outside.  When sufficient thread is wrapped, I use an binder clip to suspend the egg by the balloon tie on a piece of thread tied to the top of my laundry basket.  I let them hang there to dry.

It can be tricky to determine whether your project is completely dry.  If it isn't completely dry, the thread egg will collapse and not retain it's shape. When in doubt, let it dry some more.  Once dry, I snip the balloon through the dried thread, trying to create a large enough hole in the balloon to ensure that the chocolate eggs fall out of the balloon.  The balloon can collapse around your chocolate egg making it hard to remove inside the egg.  You might need to move your scissors through several of the holes in the thread to do this successfully.  Once the balloon is fully separated from the thread, pull the balloon out through one of the larger holes.

These treats are for my niece and nephews again this year.  I'm wondering how clever they will be in trying to remove their chocolate eggs.  We'll see next weekend!

Happy Easter!

I ended up on a wild hare (pun intended) this weekend.  I saw this post over at the Moxie Fab World and ended up inspired Friday.  I really enjoy when Cath, the editor and blog host, combines pictures of lovely things from the internet with very inspiring poetry.  This is often a way that Cath will celebrate a holiday.  The links are to some of my favorites!

The cute little bunny bags captured my eye.  I've mentioned before that my niece and nephews on my side of the family are considerably younger than my children.  As such, Easter transitioned from being about chocolate, bunnies, and eggs to being about our risen Savior several years ago.  Our Easter craftiness is less about cute candy holders now.  Having young nieces and nephews has changed that again.  We still focus on the true meaning of Easter, but it is also nice to have something sweet to hand to them at Easter dinner.  This project posted by Gail over at ProbablyAcutally provided just the inspiration and direction that I needed.

A quick trip to Michaels that was only minimally successful completed by a drop in at Hobby Lobby to really have everything I needed.

I printed out a version of the pattern (located through the link in Gail's post).  My original version of the pattern did have two ears.  After I've cut out all of the bunnies for the bags, I simply trimmed off one of his ears to make a pattern for the inside of the ears.  Patterned felt is almost as much fun as patterned paper- only with slightly fewer options.



After I embroidered the faces on, I attempted to sew the ears on.  Not.fun.at.all!  The printing on the felt created a toughness to the felt that made poking holes difficult.  After the amount of time this one bunny took, and the fact that the hot glued on version looked just as good- we simplified our plan!

I made the nose and eyes with different colors of embroidery thread.  I also used different thread to sew the bags closed with a simple running stitch. 

I filled each  bag with a combination of jelly beans and robin eggs.  You can see some of the color through the white bunnies. I was able to put together seven of these cute little bags.  We're off to dinner at Granna's this afternoon where I'll distribute these to spread some Easter joy.

This quote from C.S Lewis was read at sunrise service this morning.  The marriage of chocolate and Easter...  I hope this finds you celebrating or having celebrated the best day of the year, Resurrection Sunday, where everything was made right again.

Andie

It's Friday, But Sunday Is a Comin'

On this Good Friday I thought to share my Easter creation for this year.  Inspiration has been brewing for a couple of years.  Several years ago our church showed the video below on Easter morning.  The message was spot on and moving.

Then, I happened across Market Street Stamps and their Here Comes the Sun stamp.  It was the perfect marriage of inspiration and tool.  I used my Close to My Heart  Buttercup ink to stamp the sunshine image.  The sentiment was printed with my HP printer and Word.  The inside top face had the prose from the video typed in.  The bottom face simply stated Sunday is a comin'.

For me, this is Easter.  It is always darkest before the dawn and that was true on the first Good Friday ever.  This message reminds me of the hope that I have in the finished work that Jesus completed on the cross.  It's worth celebrating as we mark this Good Friday.  Just when we think we can't take any more we should remember that it's only Friday, but Sunday's coming....


Enjoy!





I am going to enter this card in the March Monthly Challenge: Add a Little P.O.P over at the Inspiration Journal.

 Andie