Happy Easter

        Happy Easter to you! Recently, I received an Easter gift...my Stamparatus arrived! Yeah baby!!! So of course the first order of business is to play with my new toy and create an Easter card for this week's Global Design Project challenge. 

      When I first played with my Stamparatus, I wasn't used to not having the edges to put my paper against. And I discovered that stamping anywhere near the hinges did not work very well either, so I solved this problem by creating my own stamping guide.

     I just cut out a 7x7 piece from our grid paper, marked the inches and laminated the piece. I then cut out a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (since this is the size I always use for my cards) piece from one edge and stuck a piece of window sheet at the back. This then serves as my guide...I just have to put my cardstock on this opening I made and my paper won't move!

     To test out my 'guide' and my Stamparatus, I made a 2-for-1 card...stamping the same images on two different cardstocks with two different inks. For my cards I used Tangerine Tango cardstock with my images gold heat embossed, and Tangerine Tango ink pad on my Very Vanilla cardstock. I wanted a flourish background so I used my Falling Flowers and Flourishing Phrases stamp sets.

       I must say that using my 'guide' really helped me out in placing my paper exactly where it needs to be, so I think it passed the test! So on with my card...I wanted to do a spotlight technique, sort of. So I taped my two pieces of background together and cut out my rectangles and crosses. As I wanted the cross to be the focal point, I did a little switcheroo so that it stands out more.

       To put my cards together, I used another piece of Tangerine Tango and Very Vanilla cardstock and cut them up for my mats. Before sticking my center mat, I wrapped ribbon around the frame. For the vanilla card, I used the SAB ribbon in Calypso Coral with a gold ribbon on top of it. I then put the orange cross in the center using dimensionals. For embellishment I used Wink of Stella on all the flowers and leaves and scattered some gold glitter flakes. 

     For the Tangerine card, I used an old SAB ribbon with the same gold ribbon on top. For embellishment I colored the insides of the flowers and leaves with Cherry Cobbler reinker and my AquaPainter brush followed by my Wink of Stella once dry. I also scattered a few iridescent sequins for embellishment.  

       My sentiment is from Sweet Little Something stamp set, stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock which I then cut out using my Duet Banner Punch. I also cut out a piece of gold foil banner for layering, and then just covered my sentiment piece in Wink of Stella and added a few sequins. 

     And these are my finished 2-for-1 cards! Using my Stamparatus sure made creating these cards super easy...can't wait to play more with this tool! Thanks once again for stopping by and see you next time!