Easter 2013 Cards

Last night I finished Easter cards for my nieces so they (and a little gift) could be delivered before the holiday. Here are the cards that I came up with for 2013:

I tried a new-to-me technique to color in the stamped image. I used old (and I mean old - from my childhood) "plain" colored pencils (not watercolor), odorless mineral spirits and tortillons (some people call them stumps) to color in the stamped image. The stamp set I used is Eggcellent Stamps by Jillibean Soup.

Here are additional photos of the cards (as always, just click on am image to see a larger version):

Materials used: generic white card base from my stash, DCWV green cardstock, CTMH Dotty For You, CTMH Colonial White Cardstock, CTMH Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pads (Archival Black and Sweet Leaf), Doodlebug grey washi tape.

My kitten, Dotty (or is it Dottie, I have not decided yet), thought she needed to help me snap some photos this morning. It seems fitting that she helped since the dotted paper is from the Dotty For You promotion that CTMH had during National Scrapbooking Month in 2012. Her foot looks huge here, but she is a petite mischievous lady.

Materials used: generic white card base from my stash, DCWV green cardstock, CTMH Dotty For You, CTMH Colonial White Cardstock, CTMH Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pads (Archival Black and Sweet Leaf), Jillibean Soup Baker's Twine (Olive; funny, my niece's cat is named Olive).

On this card I also used a colored pencil on the grass to fill it in a bit more. I does not show well in the photo, but I liked the softer feel it gave. I found that the odorless mineral spirits did not make the dye-based Sweet Leaf ink bleed, but my image had been stamped for about 48 hours before I started coloring. Perhaps that made a difference?

If you are curious about one of the cards I made last year, I created a Sliding Pop-Up Element Card based on a post by Scrappy Canuck. As I said last year if you have not visited her blog, you really should. There are several tips and tricks and tutorials there.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post today. Please come back on April 1 for some exciting news (hint, there is a chance to win something).