Iron Stamper - Saving the Best for Last?

Well, I'm not sure if it's the best of all the projects I made for the competition but it's pretty unique. Take a look  and judge for yourself.

I really wanted to make an Easter card but have no Easter stamp sets so I had to think outside the box. In yesterday's post I extolled the virtues of the simple card - giving something is better than spending so much time making a card than you end up not giving because you've missed the event! I still firmly believe that but to make this card I had to throw out that mentality and GO BIG! I will say that if you are going to go to this much effort with each and every card, you'd better be planning WELL in advance. Something I am not always so good at!

How I made this card: I started with a card base (regular size of 4-1/4" x 5-1/2") of Blushing Bride which I ran through my Big Shot using the Labels Collections Framelits Dies being careful to make sure the card still had a folded edge. I then ran a piece of Whisper White card stock through the Big Shot using the next smaller size Labels Framelits and inked the edges. To create the grass I first used my Woodgrain Background stamp on a piece of Lucky Limeade Textured card stock and then cut it out with the same size Framelit I just used for the Whisper White. I figured out where I wanted it to be on my card and trimmed it to size before using my snips to cut the "grass" fringe. I love these scissors for making super precise, super sharp cuts!

Next was the sun. Quite simply I used my 1-3/8" Circle punch and then cut random "rays" from the same piece of Daffodil Delight card stock. Once I'd adhered them I felt it needed some dimension so I used my Stampin' Write markers to add life to the sun. Next time I would do this step ahead of time because in the process I made a boo-boo on the white back ground. But, since there are no mistakes in paper crafting only "opportunities for embellishment" I stamped out a little bird from the (now gone forever - so sad!) Elementary Elegance stamp set, cut it out and covered up my mistake.

Then I tackled my basket. I will not bore you with the details of how to make this basket (maybe I'll save it for a class or something) but needless to say it was actually pretty easy. 1/4" strips of Chocolate Chip card stock, some patience and a good strong adhesive and Voila! The eggs were another challenge. I don't have an oval shaped punch (now on my wish list!) so I had to cut them free hand. I used my Circle Circus stamp set to create the back grounds and then just cut away. One is adhered directly to the back of the basket and the rest are popped up with Dimensionals. The stuffing is simply some Vellum paper which I ran trough my Crimper and then cut into 1/4" strips. 

I felt the basket needed one last embellishment so I took one of the medium sized Paper Daisies, lightly dipped it in my Blushing Bride ink and then scrunched it up a bit to make it smaller and more layered. To finish it I added one of the Large Pearls.

Phew! That was a lot of talk about a single card!!

This is the last post in my Iron Stamper series. I do hope you've enjoyed it. Do you like seeing a series of projects using the same group of products? Please leave me a comment and perhaps I'll do more of this in the future. Suggestions of product lines or stamp sets would be appreciated. Remember, all comments left on this series will enter you into the draw for a prize. I'll give you all a week to make comments and draw a winner on next Sunday (Easter Sunday!!)

For those of you who received my newsletter today I look forward to seeing you when you cash in your coupon! Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!