Whimsical Hares for Allsorts Challenge and March Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

Hello and welcome!

I am sharing not one but two cards today as it's the start of the new Allsorts challenge as well as reveal day at the Card Chain Challenge and I am able to combine them in one post this time without causing too much confusion.

First up, at Allsorts our theme this week is Any Real Animal with Brenda filling in as our host. We have a wonderful prize from Lavinia Stamps so hope you will join in the fun, your animals can be cute or not but just be sure to include a real animal (as opposed to mythical creatures) to be entered into the drawing!

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And here is my card using a new stamp set from Lavinia. I've had the Whimsical Hares on my wish list for some time and thought it's time to finally purchase the set. I think my dad will like these hares so I will send this card off to him. 

By the way, if you are in the US you can purchase Lavinia Stamps from Del Bello's Designs. If you shop through this link you should be able to get a $5 off coupon for your order as part of their referral program.

I used Lavinia Stamps: Whimsical Hares, Moon Pods, Lavender and Miniature Bee. They are all available at Del Bello's Designs. Of course if you are in the UK or rest of Europe you will know to get them directly at Lavinia Stamps.

Since it's an Easter card I tried to keep the colors on the lighter side and decided to stamp the hares in gray instead of black which I usually do with Lavinia animals and fairies. I'm not so sure though that I like the gray. But maybe it's because I used a Distress Oxide ink pad (Hickory Smoke) and I know those ink pads are not the best choice to use with Silhouette stamps. 

The background was done by using the negative of a circle die cut, inked with Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry Distress inks and a homemade hill mask. I used a Flourish Stencil for a little interest inside the circle. 

By the way, there are a few Amazon sellers offering Lavinia Stamps as well, if you like the ease of using Amazon .... although I don't think they are included in their "prime" service. They are sold by private sellers including Del Bello's designs.
 

"Happy Easter" sentiment is an oldie from Penny Black, also stamped with Hickory Smoke ink. I decided to add a little more stenciling around the sentiment and stamped the Lavinia miniature bee in the same corner. 

I'm linking this 1st card up here:

• C.R.A.F.T.  - Inspired by a Movie (Hop)  
• Cardz 4 Guyz - Spring // 
• Everybody-Art-Challenge - Spring 
• Make My Monday - Use a Stencil 
• The Four Seasons Challenge - Spring 
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters 
• 2 Sisters On The Blog - pastels 
• Bastel-Traum - Spring 
• Country View Crafts' Challenge - Spring  
• The Crafting Challenge - Easter 
• Krafty Chicks - AG 
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• The Male Room - Animals
• The Card Concept - see below (Inspired by the rabbits, think my card falls into the freestyle collage category, maybe...)

My second card is the card I made for the March Card Chain Challenge. This time my card went to Gundi in Germany. 

Once again we had some challenge options to choose from, there was a sketch, colors, themes, products/techniques. We can choose as many options as we like to but at least one and this time I went with the sketch and colors. At least I tried to with the colors.

Here is the sketch:

And this is my card:

These were the color options. I think I did pretty well although maybe I added too much purple...

The flowers I used are from Penny Black's set Sunny Wishes. 

 

I started out by die cutting some circles and using the "negative" as a sort of stencil I inked up the circles using a green Distress ink. Sorry but I didn't write down what ink color it was. Next I stamped the flowers directly onto the circles and first colored them all with my Faber Castell Pencils but the pink didn't turn out as I wanted it to (because there was green ink on the paper) so I decided to stamp the flowers again using Memento Tuxedo ink and this time I picked some Copic markers close to the pink in the color option given. I fussy cut the large flowers after coloring. 

I added some stenciling on the background using a  TCW Tiles stencil and Tea Dye Distress ink, then heat embossed the sentiment also using Tea Dye Distress ink with detail clear embossing powder. This beautiful sentiment is one from Stampin Up's retired set called Butterfly Basics.  I just love this sentiment and find the message of it full of hope and miracles. 

Before adhering to the base I inked the edges with Tea Dye ink then paper pierced. Glitter was added to the butterflies for a little bit of sparkle.

I have not yet received the card from my sender so wasn't able to photograph to share but it's on the way and I'm sure will be wonderful!

By the way, if you are a card maker and would like to join in this world wide card exchange, you can still sign up for the April challenge until April 6th. 

I'm linking this 2nd card up here:

1. Penny Black Saturday - Use PB stamps 
2. Sweet Stampin - Older stash (all stamps and tools I used are several years old) // 
3. Crafty Calendar - Anything but square 
4. Crafter's Cafe - Flowers  
5. Just Add Ink - Choose Two: Flowers, Papers, Pattern (I chose Flowers and Pattern - stenciled)

Thanks so much for visiting!

Link Parties:

• Encouraging Hearts and Home
• Thursday Favorite Things
• Little Things Thursday