Hoppy Easter!

Today was sunny and clear with blue skies and a high of 19 celcius. Woohoo!  Spring has FINALLY sprung! Besides the cherry blossoms in bloom and the birds chirping I love that spring brings with it Easter weekend. I love the Easter Story, the pastel colours, dyed eggs and of course chocolate. I remember as a child my mother dressing us in our new Easter outfits to wear to church and then for visiting family afterwards for our Easter dinner. My brothers would be in new white shirts and bowties and I would have a fancy dress with a crinoline underneath and a matching bonnet. My patent leather shoes would be shone with vaseline and my hair would  have long ringlets and ribbon. It was a special day This year my daughter is hosting and will keep a family tradition of having an Easter egg hunt. My grandchildren are young but once they find their first one it won't take them long to find more. And this grandma will have so much fun watching (and helping) them.  I know with the egg hunt they will have enough chocolate for their little tummies so like a good grandma I bought them each a storybook and spring outfit. But I felt guilty - grandma's are all about treats and spoiling right?  I knew I couldn't buy them a big chocolate bunny or egg  so I made them a little Easter basket that I can put little eggs and bunnies in. I used 'Sweet Sentiments' paper from Graphic 45 and kept them simple - after all it's what's inside that counts!

The design is from Clare Chargill of the G45 design team and the template can be found on their blog.  I put a pretty bow on my granddaughters and buttons on my two grandsons. I put a 'thickers' initial on each one and rubbed on some stickles to give it  a bit of sparkle, I put plain white tissue paper inside because with little ones everything goes in the mouth so I didn't think coloured 'grass' was a good idea for this year at least. Now to fill with goodies!  Oh the perks of being a grandma!! My mother lives 3000 miles away so unfortunately will not be joining us for Easter dinner. She'll enjoy her baked ham and scalloped potatoes with my brothers though. Her big thing is to get a card.She loves cards - and at 86 years old has every card she has ever received! Yes, she has garbage bags full of them and every once in a while she'll pull out a bag and read them. So I made her an Easter card. Again I used G45's Sweet Sentiment.

I layered papers and matted them with cardstock. On the bottom half I put a chipboard piece from the collection and punched out the centre circle. I adhered foam tape behind it to give it a wee bit of dimension.  I kept it simple by just adding string pearls and a bow. I have to admit that I had a small cluster of flowers to add but then remembered it had to be mailed. So to satisfy myself and the post office I instead added a small spray of pearls.  It's not completely flat and there's a little bit of bumps but I'm sure it'll be fine.

On the top I just added some stamps and a sentiment from the collection. I added paper and a mat to the inside with a handwritten note.

To really make her day my 2 yr. old grandson 'coloured' an Easter picture for her that we slipped inside.  I know my card will sit proudly on her mantle and that my grandsons picture will be displayed proudly on her fridge. Easter hunts and new spring outfits are fine but what  better way than this to bring Easter joy to a special great grandma. HAVE A HAPPY EASTER!

Precious!

In January my daughters good friend had a sweet baby girl. I wanted to make something special for her. I knew the mother liked making cards so decided to make a layout for her. My intentions were to frame it but right before I was to give it to her I got sick with a cold and cough. Needless to say it never got framed and I never got my baby cuddles in. But my daughter gave it to her and I kept my germs to myself. Everyone was happy and now that I feel better I thought I would share the layout with you.

I knew the mother did not like pink and I had already  made her a card with purple and green. Also the photo was so precious and soft looking so I wanted to keep the layout soft. I went thru my stash and found some Basic Grey 'Little Black Dress' paper that was perfect. It pays to go thru your old papers rather than grabbing the newest ones on top. Who knew!! I wanted to keep the layout simple so that the focus would be on the beautiful baby. I never distressed the edges except for some soft inking. I matted papers onto cardstock then again made 3 smaller mats for the photo itself. Of course it deserved to be front and centre.

On the bottom right corner I added a cluster of soft flowers - some Prima, some handmade and some misc.

Leaves, a butterfly and flower and pearl sprays were tucked in.

Before adding the flower cluster though I inked some paper doilies and adhered one above the cluster and another on the bottom left corner. I then punched a lacy scallop design on soft peach cardstock and ran some lace along the top of it. Some pretty swirly pearls and flowers finished it off.

There was no better title than 'precious'. Again my stash came in handy.

I dabbed white paint on a Blue Fern Studios chipboard word but couldn't decide where to put it. I had a Prima lace and pearl strip that I had been hoarding for 3 years. After-all, it was too pretty to use let alone cut! But I took a deep breath and cut it to fit underneath the Title then put them in the top corner.

It was now beautiful and perfect - just  like the beautiful and perfect baby girl!