Sunday Stash Challenge #5 - Easter in Bloom

Good afternoon & welcome to Sunday Stash Challenge #5!

I have a little bit of Easter inspiration for you this week. I found this photo in the Pottery Barn online catalog yesterday searching for "Baskets". I've been playing around with a tutorial on basket weaving from paper this weekend and have finally managed to fine tune it for my own hands so I was in an Easter basket kind of mood. Anyway, I wish I had the space for all these types of holiday decorations because this arrangement really appeals to me. Oh well!


Like I said, this arrangement really appeals to me and I'm not sure if it's because of the soft pastel pinks, greens and yellows, or if it's those classic white bunnies and basket. In any case, I had a hard time pinning down just one card idea, so this week I did two. I used the same set - Garden Greetings - for both and also kept the cardstock colors to Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White but changed up my yellows a bit. Here's the first card:


The card base of this one is Whisper White
and is 5-1/4 inches square finished. I really like that size for space when I want to add a lot of elements. My background sort of mimics the embroidered napkins in the photo or, at least that's what I was shooting for. I layered the card on a layer of So Saffron and then on a layer of Pink Pirouette. TIP: To save cardstock- when you double layer like this, cut the center out of the first layer (So Saffron in this case) and use it for layering somewhere else. I used that square to layer under the center layered square piece. The center layered square is 4 layers: So Saffron on the bottom, Pink Pirouette next, the edges of Whisper White scallop squares and a final top layer of certainly celery. Each layer is roughly 1/4 inch smaller than the previous. The woven basket piece at the top is made from several 1/2 inch strips of Whisper White and is adhered over the top of the center square. The flowers are all stamped, cut out and double layered among themselves except for the small yellow flower on the Cute & Curly tag. This is stamped with Pretty in Pink then punched with the Curly Label Punch. I layered it on a piece of Pink Pirouette and hand cut it 1/8 inch larger all the way around. I adhered all the flowers and the tag with dimensionals and finished the whole thing off with a little So Saffron twill ribbon.


Stamps: Garden Greetings, Fancy Flexible Phrases, Cute & Curly

Paper: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Ink: Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Basic Gray

Accessories: Corner Rounder, square scallop punch, curly label punch, so saffron twill ribbon, dimensionals, bling


My second card emphasizes the pink a lot more than the white. The card is Certainly Celery and finished is 5-1/4 inches square like the other one. On this I layered four Pink Pirouette squares. I cut the initial piece 5 inches square and then divided it into quarters. Two of which I ran through my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. The other two are stamped with Pixie Pink. Once the four squares are stuck down I punched a strip of Whisper White using my Lacy Days of Summer punch (Fiskars) and adhered that across the middle of the card just below the center line. My Cuttlebug got a little use on this card: The little spray of leaves behind the flowers is the Little Leaves Sizzlet die and the layered tag is made with two sizes of Nestabilities Lables One dies. The center Whisper White piece is stamped with Certainly Celery and punched with my Curly Label Punch. Note: I sponged both Nestabilities pieces with Pixie Pink and Yoyo Yellow before removing them from the die to get the lighter edge. The "Easter Blessings" greeting is from Fancy Flexible Phrases and it's stamped in Basic Gray. To finish it all off I added some bling, colored the centers of the pink background flowers with a white gel pen (kinda hard to see in the photo sorry!) and a Pink Pirouette stripe ribbon bow.

Stamps: Garden Greetings, Fancy Flexible Phrases, Cute & Curly
Paper: Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink: Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, YoYo Yellow, Basic Gray
Accessories: Little Leaves Sizzlet die, Lacy Days of Summer border punch (Fiskars), curly label punch,Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One dies, bling, dimensionals, pink pirouette stripe ribbon, Swiss Dotted Cuttlebug Folder

Happy Easter Everyone and Blessings to you,


How do I play along?: Just upload a project using this week's photo as inspiration to your online blog or gallery. Then leave a link to your project in the Mr. Linky form at the bottom of this post. If you're linking to a blog, please be sure to link directly to the specific post where we can view your project, and not just to your blog. That way everyone who wants to look can get straight to your card. If you upload to online galleries, please also use tag/keyword SUSC05.

Deadline: The Mr. Linky form will close at 8PM CT on Sunday, April 12th, so all entries need to be in before then.



Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge. The Mr. Linky dialog is now closed. If you are submitting an entry after the closing date, please leave a link to your post in a comment.

Labels: , , ,