Back to some stamping!

Ok, now that all the birthday hoopla is over for another year, it is time to get back to some stamping!  My summer mini pre-order arrived on Tuesday and I've been so darned busy I've barely been able to do more than look at it!  How frustrating!  Can't wait for the weekend so I can have some play time!  In the meantime, here is a card I designed for a new challenge blog called A La Card Monkey.  With a name like that, how could I not participate?!?  The challenge theme this week is Nature, so, for obvious reasons, I pulled out my fav stamp set from the current Occasions Mini:  Nature Walk.  See what you think...

Spring-inspired Easter Card for A La Card Monkey Challenge #50

Close-up of that cute li'l robin...I'm seeing more and more of these little fellows in my yard these days!

Inside of card...sentiment is from a retired set called Gifts of Spring.

I am SOOO ready for spring!  This winter has been horrible both weather-wise and illness wise.  Our family has been hit hard and often and we are all ready for the weather to warm up so we can get outside and get rid of these bugs for good!  Driving through our neighbourhood these days, one spots many a fat robin looking for bits of grass and twigs to build her nest.  One sure sign of spring!  When I read the challenge for this week, I immediately thought of this stamp set and, almost instantly envisioned this card!  Funny how sometimes one can sit forever waiting for inspiration to strike and others it is there before we are even aware of it!  In any case, here is what I did to create this card:

Starting with a baja breeze card base, I ran it through my Big Shot with my Framed Tulips embossing folder.  I then sponged the raised image and along with the edges of the card in soft suede.  I then inked my size D clear mount block with crumb cake, spritzed it lightly with water and then stamped it on a piece of very vanilla cardstock.  I then stamped several of the images from the Nature Walk set, taking care to stamp some full-strength and others stamped off once or twice to give depth and interest.  I distressed the edges using the tool in my cutter kit and then sponged the edges in baja breeze ink.  I then pulled out my distressing kit and sponged again using tea stain and mahogany ink.  The final touch was a spritz or two using my spritzer tool and crumb cake marker.  I wrapped a piece of crumb cake seambinding ribbon around the top of the stamped piece, securing either end with glue dots.  I created a bow by gathering another piece of seam binding in an antique brad (is there a project I don't use those on?!?) and then pierced it through the stamped piece, securing the brad at the back.  I then glued the whole thing to my card base using Tombow.  For the little robin, I stamped him in Staz On on watercolour paper and then coloured him in using my blender pen and poppy parade, crumb cake, soft suede and going grey (retired) ink.  I fussy-cut him out and adhered him to my card using dimensionals.  The sentiment, from the Level 2 hostess set in the Occasions mini called Something to Celebrate, was stamped at the bottom using the mahogany ink from the  distressing kit.
For the inside of the card I stamped the eggs in crumb cake.  I stamped the sentiment in soft suede on very vanilla and punched it out with my decorative label punch.  I added a bit of colour by stamping the flower image (stamped off two and three  times).  I lightly sponged the entire thing and then adhered it with dimensionals.
Gotta love it when a plan comes together.  (If you remember what TV show that line comes from leave a comment!)  Tomorrow I promise to have some sneak peek items from the upcoming mini for you!!