BBTB2 Welcome Challenge

We have a very exciting challenge for you at BBTB2 this week. Our fabulously talented Theresa is welcoming you all and inviting you to participate by using the word "Welcome" from any cartridge on your project. In case you aren't challenged enough, she'd love to see a Home Decor project, although that is NOT a requirement to enter the challenge. I have to admit I had a tough time this week. Lots of stuff going on (not the least of which is March Madness and my alma mater MSU is the #1 seed in the West Region this year, as well as the Big Ten champs! WooHoo!) I looked for a cartridge I'd never used and found "Welcome Spring" on Phrases. Seeing that tomorrow is the first day of Spring, I thought it was just perfect. I wanted to make a little door hanger and welded the shadow of that cut to the "snail" cut from Botanicals. Where's the snail? Well, he got sort of hidden with the welding, but I only really wanted the floral border anyway.

Because there is not a lot of detail on the Botanicals silhouettes, I used a Copic to add some shadowing to the leaves and after much head shaking, embossed them with Swiss Dots as well for a little texture. I moved the cut down on the screen in DS and cut it again in white so I could fussy cut the blossoms and pop them on top. I had the hardest time with colors and actually cut the shadow of the phrase 4 times (don't you HATE that?) before deciding on the plaid from Nana's Nursery. Ditto with the words and bird. To give a little more pop to the phrase I ended up gluing 2 of them slightly offset and highlighting them with adhesive beads. My DT sisters had much more success with this challenge than I did, so please pop by BBTB2 and go have a look and find out about our exciting SPONSOR for this week's challenge. As always, our challenge runs for 2 weeks, but this time our winner of the prize will be chosen by Random Org and the POW will be chosen by our hostess Theresa, as usual. You still have time to enter our Bunny/chick challenge as well, so hop to it and don't miss out.

I'm also entering this in the
Sparkles Forum Mother's Day or Spring challenge
Getting Cricky Green, White and One Other Color Challenge

Hoppy Easter

Although I didn't use Celebrate with a Flourish for my BBTB2 project this week, I did check out alot of the beautiful cuts and couldn't resist doing an Easter card using the sweet bunny and Easter sentiment. I started with an egg shaped card welded in Design Studio using Easter 2010. Then I just cut the layers. Added a bit of texture to the grass layer with Swiss Dots and cut that layer an additional time so I could pop the flowers. I'm thinkin' the Swiss Dots and the striped Egg will qualify for Papertake Weekly's Challenge which is Spots and Stripes. I glittered the bunny but running him through my Xyron face down to match the glittered striped in the DP on the egg. I'm hoping that's enough sparkle to enter this into the ABC Challenge "S" is for Sparkle. You know, some people complain that the adhesive from the Xyron either leaves sort of excess adhesive over the small cut out or leaves gaps on the die cut which isn't that big a deal for just gluing, but if you're glittering or flocking it's a prob. This won't happen if you use a stylis to trace around all of the cut edges (especially the small openings in letters and such) and then really rub the clear side to make sure it comes in contact with the adhesive to help pull it cleanly away and also helps the adhesive adhere firmly to the die cut. It takes a few more minutes, but really makes a difference.

You know I love the layers, and even more if they're popped, so of course, that's what I did. I'm not sure this is what the gals at Cupcake Craft Challenges had in mind but they gave us a pretty wide berth so I'm entering this in their Lots of Layers challenge as well. And speaking of POPPED layers, I'd sure love it if you'd visit Do More With Less and check out my Guest Designer tut and come join my challenge. Yvonne's Blog is packed with super inspiration and I'm giving away a great prize.

The inside sentiment is also from Celebrate with a Flourish. I added a few adhesive pearls to enhance it. Some were colored with my Copics to match. Obviously this is an Easter card so I'm entering it in the Sparkles Forum Challenge which is Easter and also the Whimsical Wednesdays April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge. See the flowers, Steph? I'll try to do better next time, but I didn't want to miss it. LOL