TAC Savvy Projects for People on the Go

Finally Friday -The Joy of Easter Cards with Angela Kelley

Happy Friday, and Happy April Fools Day! April, can you believe!? I am so excited to see all the signs of Spring everywhere. Spring is my most favorite season, warm days, beautiful flowers blooming everywhere, everything turning green and fresh, and of course Easter! So today I am sharing a fun Easter themed card and project with you.

For my card I used the adorable set "Easter Bunny" T-3304, so fun and cute.  I am just loving that carrot border stamp!! The sentiment is from "Thinking of You" T-3128, my go to sentiment set. There is something for any occasion in that set. I wanted really bright, beautiful, spring colors for this card, so I went with the Mia's Cottage (R-2503) collection of papers. I also used Maggie Card stock Collection B-318, for the pink card stock, and Color Caboodles card stock V-359, hot pink card stock. When I put it all together I thought it was a little 'flat', so I added bright pink polka dots to the pink layer, with "Background Soup" T-3346 and palette claret ink.

Now how about a sweet and easy to make gift item for family or friends?! Peeps in a Jar. Or I have also heard them called Easter Bunny Smores. I found this recipe a long time ago (I can't remember where...sorry.) It is really quick and easy. Crush one sleeve gram crackers into crumbs with a rolling pin, pour crumbs into the bottom of a large canning jar and pack down with a spoon (wide mouth jars are much easier, ask me how I know!). Next layer about eight peeps around the side of the jar, being careful not tho squish them. I normally use the 'flat' bunny peeps in different colors. (For the jar pictured I changed it up and used the 'chick' peeps, they didn't work in the middle of the jar, so I had to change the order of the layers). After the peeps are in the jar add 1 1/4 cups of pastel colored M&M's, carefully filling the hole in the center of the peeps, and then covering them. Decorate the top of the jar with ribbon, fabric or paper. Add a tag with these baking instructions: 

Empty jar contents into a bowl. Snip the peeps into bits with kitchen scissors or a knife. Return peeps to the mixture and mix well. Melt 1/2 cup butter, add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour this over dry ingredients, mixing well. Pat into a greased 8 or 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Cool cut into bars. Or you can also serve them warm on ice cream.

This is a close up of the tag I made for this jar, instructinon for baking are on the other side. This cute little image is from "The Joy of Easter" R-2049, and inspired this whole project today!

I hope that you will make an Easter Card and join in the fun. Don't forget to add a link to your creation so we can all see, if you don't have a blog you can add your card to the TAC PCC gallery, and link it there!

Have a wonderful weekend, I hope Spring is on it's way to your neighborhood too, if not today, then very soon!

Visit me on my blog anytime, www.angelakelley.blogspot.com

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Guest Designer Michelle McDaniel and The Joy Of Easter

 

Hi blog readers, Michelle McDaniel here with the last post for the FABULOUS FEBRUARY promotion. A huge THANK YOU to Mischelle for asking me to be a part of this! Haven't the samples been AWESOME?! Such wonderful talent amongst us - and to share it with others...LOVE IT! I've gotten so many creative ideas and have even added some new stamp sets to my wish list! 

For my samples, I wasn't sure what stamp set I wanted to use. I mean, TAC has so many awesome sets it's very hard to choose! Since I was after Valentine's Day but before Easter I thought I'd use the fabulous Mabelle R.O. set The Joy of Easter.

Part of the reason I wanted this set is because of this little sheep. When someone is going through a difficult time what better thing to do then to bring a smile to their face and let them know you care! 

 
I added a few extra touches to the card to give it that extra special touch - sponged Rich Coca around all the pieces, bent a corner and added a brad, pierced holes and used my white gelly pen to add faux stitching, cut the image out and popped it using foam dots. The red pattern paper was cut using the Labels 4 Nestabilities die. I used my Copics to color in the sheep. The paper is from our Emma SWIC (double sided yum-o-licious!)

For my next card, I had to use the duck in the carrot car!

 
I mean how fun is that?!? For this card, I used my trusty 'ol pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color the image.

 
Here's a close up of the image. As you can see I added a little piercing in the corner - I thought there was just a little too much space on the image. I used my Stardust Clear Gelly Pen to add some shimmer to the ducks hat. The buttons on the card help tie in my other color as well as give a fun accent to the card.

Ok so IMO, I totally saved my BEST card for last. It SCREAMS cuteness!!

 
Am I right?! Come on I know you were like "ohhh isn't she adorable" :D Seriously LOVE this girl...she's holding the cutest little chick too. For this card, I took a little time a paper pieced the girls dress. I used the fabulous color palette of More Mimi (one of my FAVORITE lines).

 
Cutting the dress out around the hands and chick took a little TLC but it's well worth it. I find that when I go to paper piece something I stamp my image on my pattern paper and then run it through my Xyron BEFORE cutting it out. It adds a little extra stability to the paper. Plus when I'm done cutting I just peel and stick - no need to worry about apply adhesive! Oh and just in case you don't know this, definitely color the image BEFORE you apply your paper pieced part. TRUST ME, I know from experience - it's not as easy to get in those tight spaces after the fact :D

 
I wanted to add some flowers and in order to do this I punched out the brown flower and raided my jar for different ones. The small ivory flowers come with brads but they were silver and I really wanted to tie in the brown. So I ran a small piece of brown cardstock through my Xyron and then used my hand hole puncher to punch a few circles for my flower centers.

 
Here you can see all the paper layers. LOVE that More Mimi is double sided - so many beautiful patterns to choose from.

Thank you for stopping by today! I want to point out that this set, The Joy of Easter can be used for non-Easter cards. Look at my creations - they are perfect for those friends and family members that you want to send a little cheer to. So next time you are looking through the catalog, do a little thinking and try to find another use for those images. You'll be glad you did :D

Remember today is the last day to get The Joy of Easter (R2049) or any other stamp set featured on the blog this month at a discount! So you better hurry!

Feel free to stop by my blog, Creative Journey, to see more inspiration!

~Michelle

***There are links above so that you can purchase the product I have used from my secure shopping site, but PLEASE purchase from your ANGEL demonstrator if you have one! (Thank you, Heather for letting me copy your words.)

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