# 1 Nephew

I thought the Retrosketches Challenge and the Color My Heart Challenge went together perfectly.  I used the Cricut Cartridge Art Philosophy 5 in. outdoor denim-4 in. Indian corn blue-3 in. Honey Close to My Heart paper.  The "button" is Cricut  Artiste from CTMH Pacifica paper with a black #1 glued on it and a heavy coat of Liquid glass.  The ribbon is also CTMH Pacifica paper.  They word nephew is an old CTMH stamp Private Eye Tiny Caps in CTMH Pacifica ink. Since I only have one nephew, he is my #1 nephew.  He would be my #1 Nephew even if I had a dozen!  I will put a birthday sentiment on the inside and hope I get it sent to him on his birthday.

Follow your dreams

It is such a beautiful, happy spring day so for the Exploring Cricut Challenge I used the spring theme with red and yellow tulips.  The flowers are from the cartridges A Child's Year and Cindy Loo.  I added the bunny from the cartridge Easter for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge.  The birds are from the Cindy Loo cartridge and were put in for the Bitten By the Bug 2 Challenge. The grass is from the Easter cartridge and the tree from the Cindy Loo.  

The tree and the tulips were made by cutting one tree and the four tulips from green and one tree from brown and two tulips each from yellow and red.  I cut the green leaves from the green tree and glued them on the brown tree.  Tulips were made by cutting heads from the red and yellow and gluing them to the green stems and leaves.  Follow your dreams was stamped by using the Close To My Heart stamp Follow Your Dreams with CTMH Outdoor Denim stamp pad ink.  The birds, bunny and blooms have been covered with CTMH liquid glass.

Mama Bunny and Son

What a wonderful season!  Easter cards are so much fun to make. For the Color My Heart Challenge I chose the Cricut cartridge Artbooking for the frame, Close to my Heart juniper paper and embossed it with the Cuttlebug  Dot folder.  I used the CTMH stamp set Egg Hunt and used CTMH pencils in Juniper, Sorbet and Creme Brulee.  I also used the neutral color grey for the bunnies. To make the bunnies and the egg to standout a little more, I covered them with liquid glass.  I get my CTMH products from Katie's Corner.

Gathering Eggs!

Happy Easter to everyone!  

For the Bitten by the Bug 2 Challenge I used the Cricut Easter cartridge for all cuts except the background and for that I used the Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy.  Don't you just love the Cricut and Close to My Heart Combinations?  I first learned about them at a Katie's Corner party.  I have the 3 they have made and hope they make more.

I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder Baby's Breath and rubbed over it with a CTMH Blush ink pad.  Used a pearl for the eye with CTMH blush pen coloring it.  Very small sequins were put on the basket with the Easter eggs covered with liquid glass.  I do hope you noticed the tiny bit of cotton for the bunny's tail.

New Life

Easter is the at the time of year when life begins anew.  Flowers begin blooming, baby birds are hatching, farm animals giving birth and butterflies emerging from their cocoons.  It is the resurrection of Christ giving new life for Christians.

My card for the Exploring Cricut Challenge represents this beginning.  I used lavender card stock for the cross with light blue for the decoration.  I used green and yellow cardstock for the flowers.  Both designs came from the Cricut Easter Cartridge.  I put rhinestones on the centers of the flowers and used the orange CTMH  pencil for the lines on the flowers.  I embellished the blossoms on the flowers and the decoration on the cross with liquid glass.  Happy Easter is CTMH Gypsy ink on Private Eye Tiny Caps.  By the way, this stamp set is older and no longer in the catalog.  The butterflies are rub-ons that I happened to find in my extras drawer.

All new products from CTMH come from Katie's Corner.

Easter Bunny

The snow is gone and it is starting to warm up in Indiana.  Soon the Easter Bunny will be visiting with colored eggs and candy.  I especially like the candy part!

For the Color My Heart Challenge I am using CTMH Lagoon paper and the cartridge Cricut Art Philosophy to make a frame.  I just made the shape in two different sizes, one size about a half an inch  smaller than the other.  I used the Mrs. Bunny stamp and the Easter basket stamp from the CTMH Egg Hunt stamp set.  I used a blend of Sunset and Smoothie CTMH pencils for the bunny's cap and apron.  The dress is Smoothie with flowers Sunset and eggs are Smoothie with Sunset decoration.  I used Buttercup for the basket and Sweet Leaf for the grass beneath the basket.  Black CTMH pencil for the shoes and Dessert Sand for the bunny.

I used the CTMH Embossing Folder,  Dot on the frame and brushed the tops with white Daisy ink pad. For the Happy Easter I used the CTMH Private Eye Tiny Caps and the Lagoon ink pad.  

When I first read all the colors to be used, I thought it would be difficult to include them all, but actually it was very easy.

An Easter egg

Coloring and decorating Easter eggs brings so many happy memories of times with my children and grandchildren, I felt that I just had to use an Easter egg card for the challenge at Heart 2 Heart.  The back ground of the card is made in Blush, corners in Sweet Leaf the base of the egg in Smokey Plum and the decoration on the egg in Hollyhock then coated with liquid glass.

All of these products were purchased from Close to My Heart at Katie's Corner.  The corners were embossed with the Cuttlebug embossing folder D'vine Swirl and the egg was made with the Cricut Easter cartridge.

A happy Easter to everyone.

Singing in the rain.

Indiana has had too many April showers and it is only the first part of April.  Most of the state is under a flood warning at this time.  I decided to make a card that shows a  happier side of April showers.  The silhouette of a little girl with an umbrella about to step in a puddle.  I am sure that she is singing as she skips along.  Mama Duck is right behind her quacking "look at my 3 adorable babies."

The silhouette is made in slate grey paper with a black patterned paper on the umbrella with the Cricut cartridge A Child's Year.  The ducks are made with white paper for mama and yellow paper for goslings from the Cricut cartridge Animal Kingdom.   CTMH colored pencils were used to color the feet and beaks.  The puddle and raindrops were made by blending CTMH Lagoon and Sky Markers, then the drops were dotted with CTMH liquid glass and the puddle covered the liquid glass and lightly sprinkled with glitter.  I feel that I may have overdone the raindrops, but as I made the card it was raining so hard that I couldn't see across the street!  The letters are from  two old sets of CTMH  stamps using the Lagoon ink pad.  This card is being entered in the BBTB2 Challenge.