There's Nothing Like a Flower.... or a kitten!

Hello friends!   Don't you just love spring?  As the cold days fade away, everything begins it's cycle of new life!  The grass is getting green, flowers are blooming, birds are busily building nests and the song birds are singing away!  I just love these kind of days!  

Perhaps a little of that inspired my card today using the new April release from Our Daily Bread Designs.  My images (from the Lovely Flower set) are stamped with VersaMark on five vanilla card stock panels, which were cut with the Fancy Fan Die, and then I heat embossed the images with gold.  I arranged the fan and adhered it to a background made from die cutting a vanilla` panel with the Lattice Background Die. I matted that on to a top folded vanilla A2 card.  I created the rose using the new Rose Dies, and the Rose Leaves Dies.    I sponged pink on the edges and soft yellow in the center of my rose petals and used my large ball embossing stylus to create the petal shapes.  I curled them around my piercing tool and glued them together to create my rose.  I added some little crystal flakes  to give a little shimmer to my petals.  I sponged some green on to my leaves and the flourish from the Fancy Foliage Die set, and tucked in a tiny gold cord bow.  I love the softness of how this came out.  I was trying for a Victorian looking fan and the rose just had to go with it.  I left it without a sentiment for now as I'm not sure yet how I will use this.  It is very versatile and could be used for many occasions I think.

So that's it for me today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I have been having fun playing with my new kitten.  Sadly, we lost Ricky, our almost 14 year old cat on Jan. 31 to cancer,  and I have missed him so much!  We found a litter of Ragdoll kittens and I was totally hooked!  Here is my new little kitty.  We were told he was a she, and named her Annie, but when I took him to the vet, I found out otherwise!  I think we will name him Andy, but still not sure!  He is adorable, very loving, but very mischievious and a real rascal with a ton of personality!  What boy's names do you think of when you see this sweet face?

Or perhaps this one... which shows a bit of his personality... he's about to pounce!

Or this one... in his favorite sleeping place

Leave me a comment with your suggestion for a boy's name!  I can't wait to see your ideas!

Blessings,

Welcome to the April ODBD Release!

Hello friends!  Welcome to the April Our Daily Bread Designs release!  If you have not seen the entire release you can do so HERE.   Once again... spring is in the air and the team has designed some amazing creations!  As always, Kelley is giving away prizes for this release:

Three randomly selected winners will each receive a $25 Gift Code to the ODBD Website  just for commenting on the Design Team cards!  You have until April 2, 2017 at 9:00 p.m. EDT to leave your comments on the Designers Blogs for a chance to win!  The Winners will be posted on the ODBD Blog on April 3rd so be sure to check back there to see if you won!

For my first card above, I used the new Lovely Flowers for my sentiment, and I used the fabulous new released dies: Lattice Background, Roses, Rose Leaves, and the past released dies: Fancy Foliage and Vintage Labels.

I simply folded a top fold A2 card, die cut the lattice background from the same white card stock, die cut the Vintage Label from pink card stock and sponged with worn lipstick distress ink.  I stamped the sentiment and die cut the panel with a smaller Vintage Label and popped each layer up on the lattice background.  To make my floral spray, I die cut several of each size petals from the Roses Die set, sponged with worn lipstick, spritzed with water, and scrunched up.  I left them to dry all scrunched up.  Once dry, I opened them and using my large ball embossing tool and a mat, I worked the petals until they cupped a bit and then I layered them up by size.  I made the bud by turning several of the smallest petals around my straight piercing tool to create a circular shape.  I glued each petal over the last, overlapping just a bit.   I cut a bit off the bottom and glued the bud to the inside of the rose.  I made one little blossom the same way but only used a few petals.  I die cut several leaves from the Rose Leaves die set and a flourish from the Fancy Foliage die set. I felt the flowers needed center stage so I left off any further embellishments. 

For this next card (below) I used the new Lovely Flowers, Fancy Fan, Roses, Rose Leaves, Lattice Background, as well as the past released Happy Birthday Script die.

For this card I stamped the floral designs with Real Red and die cut the panels with the gorgeous new Fancy Fan die.  This die is so intricate and can be used several ways.  It can be used to create a stand alone fan,  or to add a fan to a card, and it can also be used to create borders and even the images and sentiments can be cut with the die in such a way that there is a fancy label type cut around them.  Watch the DT this month for more ideas!!!

Anyway... this card is a center step card.  I used real red behind the lattice background die, and then die cut 4 floral images and 2 sentiments from the Lovely Flowers set and put them together to form a fan.  I popped up the fan over the lattice on foam dimensionals. 

To create the rose this time, I did not spritz with water or scrunch up.  Instead, I just worked the fibers over really well with my large ball stylus.  It took a lot to shape these flowers because this card stock is very heavy, but the look I think is very pretty.  I did cut my petals apart to create this rose, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out looking like a rose.  I sponged the edges with fired brick distress ink, used my piercing tool to curl the edges of the petals down a bit, and I die cut 3 of the leaves and sponged them lightly as well.  I adhered this rose with hot glue since it is large and needed to be secure.

Here is another view of the easel card.  I added the happy birthday script die cut and added a white panel inside for my message.

To recap, here are the NEW products I used today: 

Here are the links to the rest of the Design Team.  Be sure to leave a comment on each blog so you don't miss a chance to win one of the prizes!

Dawn * Cathy * Grace * Lisa * Angie * Kathy 

* Sandee * Robin * Sabrina * Julie 

 * Diana * Chris * Lori * Helen

Thanks so very much for stopping by!

Blessings,