Dilly Beans Friday Challenge - Easter

Good morning all my wonderful and thoughtful bloggy friends,

How much I love you all - old friends and new friends, alike.  I have been overwhelmed by your kind words and honest replies to my posts lately.  Bless you all.  I still want to write a follow-up post, but have been very happily busy actually crafting a little more lately so that comes first for now.  I haven't forgotten I need to draw a blog candy winner for the St. Patty's day hop as well.  Sorry for my tardiness!  To my friend, Leanne, I have not forgotten about you either and to several of my friends, I have cards to get out to you as well.  It's all here on my mind, I just haven't had the cooperation with my body yet, but I'll get there and want you all to know I never forget the kindness you have all shown me in so many different ways, be it cards and gifts or comments and emails.  I appreciate it all. :)

First off I just have to say thank you to Megan for her sheer awesomeness and amazing talent that inspires me to no end!  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to join your team for the month of April and possibly more. ;)  And thank you for being so incredibly sweet and understanding when it comes to my Fibro.

Today I am super excited as it's my first Friday Guest Design spot for the lovely Megan and the talented gals at Dilly Beans Designers & Friday Challenge Blog.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, Megan had said I could do up to four projects for each challenge and believe it or not, I have actually accomplished that task (at least for this first challenge, still working on the others)! ;0)  My first two projects for the Easter Challenge are some of Dilly Beans' (DB) cute country style images.  The second two projects are some of the darling people images that are available in the STORE.  Okay, well one is actually not quite a person, it's a zombie bunny, but she has a personality all her own. ;0)

Let's get on to the projects, shall we?  Don't forget to click on the pics to see them in a larger format for better details.  Project details are listed below each individual project.

 Project 1 - Outside of card

 Project 1 - Outside Closeup

Project 1 - Inside of Card

For Project 1 I used the Posie Bunny digi stamp from DB, colored with Copics.  I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  I just decided to kind of play around with them and see what I could do.  I made the bow a peachy color with some lovely peony colored polka dots and I am just loving the way the floral bouquet turned out.  I had so much fun with this image!  I purchased a lot of my Copics from Fluorishes, LLC.  They have great sets of three or four Copics that won't cost you an arm and a leg, and it's a wonderful way to build your collection!  

The card itself, is cardstock from Recollections and the printed papers are from my stash.  I used a random basket rubber/wood stamp that I had on hand and stamped the image onto patterned paper, which I also used for the background of the inside of this card. I then fussy cut around the basket and also the inside of the basket.  I wanted the bunny to show through, so I cut out a window in the purple cardstock as well. Then I popped up the basket with some pop dots. I used a clear Easter egg stamp (all over) to make the background on the front of the card.  I stamped it, using a rainbow pad from Joann's.  The "Happy Easter" scroll stamp is one I found in the $1 bin at Michael's, inked with Stampin' Up Basic Black.  Perfect for many projects! I then added a bow to the basket from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  I always love buying my ribbon from them.  Fabulous company with great prices!  

For my second project, I decided to make a card that went with Project 1, so I used many of the same elements.  Again, please click the images to get a better idea of the details/colors.  The background of this card is actually a minty green from Recollections.

 Project 2 - Outside of Card

 Project 2 - Inside of Card, Left Side

 Project 2 - Inside of Card, Right Side

Project 2 - Inside of Card

For Project 2 I decided to use the "Hatching Chicky" from DB stamps.  I printed it out on white cardstock and OMGosh I was soooooo amazed at the line thickness and quality of these (all DB) images when I printed them!  I used my Copics again to color the egg and the chicky and used several different colors in the same family for both the egg and the chick, with a touch of gray for some shadowing.  This is a perfect image for Easter, as well as for many other occasions if you want to use it for one of those "Hey Chick" or "Popping up to See You" type of cards.

For this one, I used a green patterned paper from my stash to stamp the basket on and then I outlined it with my black Zig pen (did the same for Project 1) just to make it look a little sharper.  I fussy cut the basket and the window again with a craft knife (mine's from Doodlebug) and it surprisingly wasn't nearly as difficult or time-consuming as I thought it would be!  I popped up the basket again and then I added some orange Offray ribbon for the bow to finish it off.

Again, I stamped the background of the front of the card with that same clear egg stamp and I used two different shades of Martha Stewart ink.  Love the way it looks in person.  Sorry the pics don't quite do it justice.  I also inked around the edges of the card with the MS ink as well.

For the inside of the card I wanted to create my own sentiment so I used some darling stickers from Bo Bunny.  Can look up the exact sheet if you would like. ;0)  Behind the chicky I used a gorgeous paper from Stampin' Up because I just really wanted the yellow chicky head to stand out.  I love the combo of those colors together.  I inked my edges and then added the same Michael's stamp and the Dilly Beans Hatching Chicky image.

The 3rd Project was created using the first image I fell in love with from Dilly Beans, the Zombie Bunny.  OMG, I just LOVE her so very much!!!  I am so incredibly happy with the way this one turned out and I hope you will all love her as much as I do.  :0)  This is so out of my normal realm of images that I use for my projects and this is just the beginning of this style.  I have many more that I'm working with from DB and I have finally decided that it's ok to create things I love, without having to have a specific person in mind to send them to.  It took me a while to grasp that concept! LOL  

I decided to keep this project super simple and just let the image shine.  I went over paper after paper and layout after layout and decided that simple was simply  the best. ;)  Again, click the pics for a large image!  The colors are soooo fun!

 Project 3 - Outside of Card

Project 3 - Closeup of Image

Alrighty, for this lovely little Zombie Bunny I just had the best time coloring her!  I used a lavender/grey tone for her face, with olive green eyelids.  I used yellow and orange shades on her hair and her jacket is pink with purple.  The carrot has two shades of orange and two or three shades of green.  Her background has two shades of green and I used the colorless blender to give it a fun effect.  I decided to leave the black/white border as is and I fussy cut around the whole image. 

I didn't want to do anything to detract from the image so I chose papers that bring out every color.  I was stoked to see that I had papers that, to me, were so perfect for this project.  The three strips are all from Stampin' Up. (SU)  I tell you, I just adore their paper lines!  Stop over and say hi to Jill and please tell her Amy Jo (Courchaine) sent you!!!  She is a wonderful consultant!

The background of the card is again, that same mint green cardstock from Recollections and the layer on top of that is another green print I had in my stash (note it is the same line as the yellow from the Posie Bunny card and the green from the Hatching Chicky card).  I decided I wanted to distress it a bit so I used my emery board and roughed it all up, as well as inking it with my Martha Stewart ink.  I inked the actual cardstock as well.  The strips of SU paper were inked with Rust SU ink.

The inside of this card is still in progress...  I need some help here.  I want to make up a quirky "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" type of poem/sentiment, but haven't quite figured it out yet.  Doesn't she look like a perfect Little Bunny Foo Foo?  I mean, she was a little demented right? ;0) LOL  Thing is, I couldn't decide if this darling Zombie Bunny should be Little Bunny Foo Foo or if the Amalia Easter Bunny in the next project would make a better Little Bunny Foo Foo.  I'm almost thinking the Amalia one is too sweet to be dubbed that title though.  Help me decide friends!  I would LOVE to get your input and then I'll show you the inside after WE decide. ;)  Check out this next project and let me know what you think!

Sorry friends, got in a flare before I could finish Project 4 and decided instead to use it for one of the upcoming Dilly Beans challenges.  Look forward to that post later this month!!!  Here are the details (a teaser for you) of the project as well as a picture of the image I will be using for this project that way you can help me decide still for the Little Bunny Foo Foo question. :0)

 For Project 4 I used the brand new Amalia Easter Bunny!  OMG, did I squeal when I saw her in the store!!!  I'm not kidding, I emailed Megan immediately and said I MUST have her! LOL  Oh, I just fell in love with her darling little bunny body and I hope you all will too.  I did this one in colored pencil and I am very happy with the simplicity of that.

Again, I decided to "match" her to the Zombie Bunny card and will likely use the same paper lines and general colors for her.  I colored her in colored pencils and by no means, do I have any idea when it comes to shading and highlighting, but I still love her just the same.  (Hence the need for some classes here.) ;0)  I decided I didn't want to fussy cut her as close as I have been doing the other images because I thought she would look lovely with just a small border around her so I cut her with my scissors and just eyeballed the distance.  I'm very pleased with this effect!

Alright friends, now it's your turn to link up your projects at Dilly Beans Challenge Blog for your chance to win some free digis!.  I thank you all so very much for stopping by today and please do leave your comments.  Don't forget the Little Bunny Foo Foo conundrum!  Also, even if you don't enter the challenge at Dilly Beans Challenge Blog, I would love for you to stop by there and check out the amazingly talented designers work and leave some love there too and become a follower if you like what you see.  Tell them I sent ya!  One thing you really don't want to miss is the Dilly Beans Store so you can purchase some of these awesome images.  Megan's store is huge!  She has so many images, I was truly stunned!  Can't wait to hear what you all think & please come back here and tell me what you purchase if you do make a purchase!  Maybe, oh just maybe a little tiny bribe here I will do... ;0) -- If you purchase something from Dilly Beans and come back here and leave me a comment telling me what you bought, I will choose one or two random winners to pick out a card I have made that they would like to have.  It doesn't have to be these, it can be any one from my blog postings (as long as I still have them - or I can make a duplicate if you find one you really want).  How does that sound?  :0)

Have fun shopping and creating, my Darlings!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Challenges I'm entering:

Zombie Bunny Card - Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls - Rotten Eggs for a Wicked Easter Challenge