Egg Hunt – by Connie Nichol

I love this time of year.  Spring is sprung and Easter is just around the corner.  The days are getting longer, there are baby calves being born on the farm just up the road from my house, new growth is starting to pop up in the yard.   It inspires me to get some of those old Easter photos scrapbooked.  Rather than trying to find just the right kind and colour of themed patterned paper or embellishments, which is kind of tough sometimes, I was inspired by a package of Core’dinations cardstock and a Spellbinders M-bossabilities embossing folder and border die to create a layout and matching card out of only cardstock and some Easter grass I recycled from last year’s baskets.    Simple, frugal but it turned out beautifully and you can vary the colours of the cardstock you use to match any Easter pictures that you have.

SUPPLIES: Core’dinations ColorCore cardstock, Spellbinders M-bossabilities and Edgeabilities, recycled easter grass and cookie cutter, Stampin’ Up! Big Shot die cut machine, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L foam squares and tape runner, Be Creative Sookwang tape.

The Core’dinations cardstock I used was this one, from the Tim Holtz and Ranger Distress Collection.  Love it.  The colours are super yummy, and if you are a Distress Ink collector like I am, you have matching ink for almost every piece of paper in this collection pad.

Here’s how:  using a cookie cutter, trace some  egg shapes onto Core’dinations cardstock and cut them out.  Cookie cutters  usually cost a buck or less and you will have them forever, for both scrapbooking and baking cookies.  A good investment!

Using a Spellbinders M-bossabilities embossing folder, emboss your cardstock egg and sand lightly to bring the pattern out.  Repeat with any colours you want.    If you haven’t seen the new Spellbinders embossing folders, check them out.  The patterns are simply gorgeous.  Best of all, there are two patterns on each folder (one on each side) and you can flip them around to get  double the options and double the value.  The folder I used for this project is called ‘Elegance’.

For something even fancier, I cut a few egg shapes out of plain white cardstock and embellished them with ‘glitter chevrons’.  The chevron or zig zag design is very popular right now and seemed very Eastery so I made some with some of the tools in my stash.

This is what you need – a sheet of Sookwang tape and a Spellbinders Edgeability Classic Ric Rac border die.  Run the die and a piece of Sookwang tape through your die-cutting machine (I use a Big Shot from Stampin’ Up!), and then offset the die by the width that you want your chevron design to be and repeat.  I used a couple of pieces of Scotch tape to keep the die in place after the first run.  You will end up with nice zig zag pieces of two sided adhesive tape like this.

Place these pieces of Sookwang tape onto your cardstock egg, peel off the backing and cover with glitter as desired.  I especially like Craft & Glitz glitter – they are a Canadian wholesaler of premium, ultra-fine glitter and have a pretty selection of colours available.

That Sookwang tape is marvelous stuff – and that’s how I adhered the Easter grass and eggs to my layout without any fuss or mess.  After I placed my photos where I wanted them, I laid a strip of Sookwang below them, and pressed on the Easter grass and the cardstock eggs.  Trim the grass with scissors so that it is not too thick and unruly.  Adhere your title, add some journalling and you are done!

Use the same techniques for an Easter card.

Prepare some cardstock eggs and put a piece of Sookwang tape at the bottom of a pre-folded card.

Press on some Easter grass and add eggs and a stamped sentiment.  The Happy Easter stamp and bird punch are both by Stampin’ Up!.  My kids thought that this was a pretty fancy card and took it to give to their day home babysitter along with an Easter Lily.  It was a great way to say thank you and spread a little spring cheer.

SUPPLIES: Core’dinations ColorCore cardstock, Stampin’ Up! stamp and punch, The Robin’s Nest Dew Drop, Spellbinders M-bossabilities embossing folder and Edgeabilities die cuts, recycled easter grass and cookie cutter, Clearsnap Fluid Chalk ink, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.

For more great ideas – follow Connie on her blog – CLICK HERE