HAPPY EASTER!!

Hi everyone!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the whole family is completely chocolated out!!
Apologies for not blogging over the past week. My workroom has had the decorators in and it has been impossible to craft! It looks fantastic but I can't find anything!! The saying " a place for everything and everything in its place" doesn't work for me!! I will have to take a photo and show you.
I have been busy preparing for our open day at the end of April. Thought you might like to see a few cards I have put together using the bird cage sizzix die. This has been around for a while but I have never really used it in any of my designs.
Mens cards are a pain!! but have managed to create a card which could be used for a gentleman.

 

 

The paper is from MME and is just new in. Fantastic colour palette with teals, mustards and browns.

I cut the cage twice - once in mustard and once in mirri gold. The mustard cage is slightly shaped to give dimension and placed on top of the miiri slightly off from the top so that the mirri shows through

 

I threaded ribbon through the holes at the bottom of the cage and finished with a knot.
I chose the three main complementing colours as a border and used an EK Success border punch
to give definition. The greeting is from a popular sentiment stamp set by Hobby Art which I have used a lot - details at the end of this post.

The next card is using MME again - The Sweetest Thing - but this time nice and girly!

 

Apologies for wonky photo! - blame it on the sugar rush! - Again the cage has been cut twice.
The top cage is from Simply Lovely MME and the lower cage is from Bazzill Berrylicious.
I used the bottom corner of the patterned paper Sunshine and set it on an 8" card layered up with Berrylicious and Simply Lovely.


The ribbon  adds great colour and gems in the centre of the flowers and along the frame of the cage is adequate bling for effect.

I have used the same sentiment and stamped it in red.

The final design is using the Carta Bella. Just by using different patterned papers and themes you can use the same die and end up with a range of cards suitable for a wide selection of recipients.

 

I have used the cage as a window and added punched butterflies to give added dimension and a 'lightness' to the card

The bottom layer of the butterflies is black cardstock. The card is 8" and the decorative border punch is from EK Success.
Below are the details of the stamp set I have used on each of the cards £9.95.

Everything I have used in these designs are available. The patterned papers are 95p, Bazzill cardstock is 50p. Ribbons 45p - 65p.
Hope you are enjoying the long weekend and that the weather is behaving itself for you!

Happy crafting!