Flowers...and Happy Things...!

....I don't know about you, but whenever I see flowers growing, I always feel happy.  It usually means the weather is warm, the sun is shining and the flowers are nature's own natural beauty.   I also love when my garden really starts to grow and with our warm winter, this year everything is a bit ahead of schedule.  It's still much too early to plant any annuals, except pansies, and I'm happy that mine are down and growing nicely.   This photo is from a few years ago, and I'm hopefully mine will look this nice in another couple of weeks.

     The past couple of days, I have not been feeling so hot....kind of sore but mostly just super fatigued, which I should be more used to, but for some reason it was worse and I did not even have the energy to make many cards..something that is not me!!   I guess maybe I've been feeling a bit burnt out and also not overly thrilled with some of the cards I did make earlier in the week.    Today, I'm finally feeling more like myself and it's been a joy to be back in my craft room and actually making some fun new cards.

     I have certainly had some wonderful inspiration, as we ended out first week the "A Cut Above" Class, which has been the one really fun thing that I have had too look forward to.  It's been another amazing class and I'm so excited that we still have another couple of weeks!  Woohoo!!   This week our focus was all about die-cutting and I learned so many new tips and hints and was totally inspired using them in these first two cards, which I created today.

    When I started this card, I was inspired the by the word HAPPY, and that was the inspiration for today's new Paper a la mode Challenge over at The Outlawz.   I wanted to made a FUN card and that's exactly what I did and it was it created from a variety of die cuts and shapes!!

   My next card today, was also inspired by the Die Cut Class and also was created with several die-cuts and shapes.  A fun, yet easy card to create and one that makes me think SPRING!!   The best part about both of these cards and most of these shapes and die cuts were in my Stash.   I have a large bin, where I keep all my extra die-cuts and shapes and whenever I use my Silhouette or my vast assortment of dies, I find I almost always cut extra pieces and colors.  It was actually fun going through the shapes and seeing what I could make -- all pretty much from leftovers!!

     My next card is my favorite today and was created with Adirondack Alcohol Inks, Ranger Glossy Cardstock, and one of my favorite Hero Arts sets - Wildflower Garden.   The image was first stamped and heat embossed in black on Glossy Cardstock.   I then used a blender tool and a variety of vibrant alcohol inks to created this pretty background.    It's a technique I originally learned from Jennifer McGuire's vidoes and one I've done in technique classes at my LSS.   One the inks dried, I added some Stickles to the center of my flower for extra sparkle. I then cut it down to fit on my died cut and layered that onto a darker base.  My card base background was created with a Hero Arts - Flower Dot Pattern Background Stamp that I stamped in Soft Lilac Shadow Ink, to give it a more mono-tone look.

     
   And last, but not least I have one more card to share, that was I made earlier in the week  for this week's Twisted Thursday Challenge, which was a Wedding Theme.  I colored up this cute little digi from Bugaboo with my Copics and a variety of Glitter and 3D Crystal Accents.   I used a round circle die to cut out my colored image and layered it onto a white doily, which was layered on a red scalloped circle.  I then added a black background and put it all on a simply white card base.   A fun little card!!

  And that's it for me!!  I am hoping that I can go back to class and try and make a few more cards, based on the fun inspiration we were given each day!  Today we had a fun bonus video and the cards that the designers put together are all adorable.   If you LOVE the die cut or want to learn more about how you can use it in your crafting --- there is still plenty of time left in the class!  You can find all the details HERE and I can tell you, it's well worth every penny!!