Welcome Spring

Happy Sunday my friends, the last day of February already and Spring is definitely on the way, in fact, the weather has been almost Mediterranean in my neck of the woods and I've had quite a few first coffees of the day sitting outside the back door. I should have known that the minute I invested in a snowblower to make clearing the driveway and paths so much easier, the snow would disappear as fast as it arrived and this wonder of technology would be put to bed in the garage until next year. Tomorrow is officially the start of Spring, one of my favourite seasons and watching Mother Nature bring the garden to life again and the birds busy nest building is one of life's simple pleasures so I made two WELCOME cards using Simon Says CZ Designs Welcome die and Our Home stamp set from the Hello Beautiful release and All Seasons Trees from the Love You, Too release.

I coloured an A2 panel of Distress Watercolor card using the smooshing technique with Shabby Shutters and Speckled Egg Distress Oxide inks to create a soft background. I inked the medium size tree from All Seasons Trees with Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink, using masking paper to partially stamp the two trees to the right so that they didn't poke out from below the Welcome die-cut and the foliage with Peeled Paint Distress Archival ink. I coloured a scrap of Distress Watercolor card with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide using the new domed blending foam, die-cut using the CZ designs Welcome shadow die, fixed to the panel with Distress Collage Medium and added the word die, cut 3 times from Distress Watercolor card and layered to create dimension.I stamped the Spring sentiment from All Seasons Trees, inked with Versamark ink, on to a scrap of Idea-ology BlackOut KraftStock, sprinkled with Simon Says Detail White Embossing Powder, heat embossed, trimmed and fixed on the Welcome die-cut using Sizzix Foam Adhesive. To finish, I trimmed the panel down to 4" x 5.1/4", fixed to an A2 Distress Kraft HeavyStock card blank and added Sparkletz Lucky Charms.

On the second card, I trimmed Distress Watercolor card to 4" x 5.1/4" using Tim Holtz/Tonic Studios Deckle Edge Trimmer and coloured as before using the smooshing technique and a Custom Blend Ink pad (Antique Linen/Old Paper Distress Re-Inkers and Speckled Egg/Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Re-inkers). I stamped the smallest tree from All Seasons Trees, inked with Ground Espresso Distress Archival Ink. I die-cut CZ Design Welcome shadow from Simon Says Stamp Vellum twice and the Welcome word and Village house from kraft card and fixed in place with Distress Collage Medium. I stamped the sentiment from Simon Says Our Home, inked with Ground Espresso Distress Archival.

I had a change of heart and die-cut the welcome word again from the left over scrap of Fossilized Amber card from the previous card and added the teeny heart sequins from Sizzix Gold Beads and Sequins Tower. A little dot of Distress Collage Medium Matte and my trusty Squeezers or Reverse Action Tweezers to give them their Sunday name, from Tim Holtz/Sizzix Shaping Kit, got the job done in no time.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you all tomorrow to share my DT project for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Have fun with whatever you are creating.

Hugs Kath xxx