Freshly Made Sketches Christmas card

I haven't made any Christmas cards for a little while, so I whipped up four this weekend, using some old Bella Blvd papers in some lovely holiday pastels:

I've used the current Freshly Made Sketch:

As The Deer - Watercolor Weekend

Art Impressions recently released five new Bible Journaling stamp sets, and they make up into beautiful cards!  Today I'm using 5128 - As The Deer Set:

 Since I knew that I wanted to use my oval Spellbinder's die set, I started by marking it's shape in pencil on my watercolour paper, so that I knew where I wanted my images to be placed.  I coloured all of the images with my N57 Warm Grey marker, and other than the stones (where I pulled out the colour a bit for shading, with a damp #4 brush) - I didn't touch the lines, just painted within them.

 I used 947 Burnt Sienna for the deer and the tree, layering the colour to get the deeper tones.  Using the floral cluster from 5074 Bible Flower Set, and my 856 marker, I stamped clusters of flowers and dabbed them with a damp brush to intensify the colour.  I used the tiny leaf sprig from the set to add some foliage under the flowers and to the tree branches, using my 177 Dark Jade marker.  I also used the 177 with the large and small grasses from the 5073 Bible Foliage set, and then pulled the green colour out to fill in the green areas.  I darkened up their hooves and noses with the N57 Warm Grey, and then picked up 565 Deep Blue from my palette and painted in the flowing river.  I went back in and added a few ripple marks around the rocks, and added shadows under the deer.

This is another card that I think would make a wonderful Try-fold!  The stamp set also includes three lovely script sentiments, perfect for journaling.

80 Easter cards

We recently moved my Mother-in-law to a nursing home, and I got the bright idea that I'd like to make each of the residents an Easter card!  So while I haven't been posting much this month, I have been crafting.  I made them simple, bright and happy - using up all kinds of supplies that I've had in my room for a while (especially all those paper flowers!).  So here's what a small assortment of them look like:

 Anybody recognize some of those older Close To My Heart papers?  I made up to 10 of some of these - it all depended on what supplies were available.

 It felt great to use up some supplies, while hopefully putting a smile on someone's face.  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't done much of this in the past - so hopefully I can do another round of cards for Christmas.

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter - enjoy the time with friends & family :o)