April's Special Days

This month has been chock full of special days.  Easter, Earth Day, Administrative Professionals Day, and several birthdays some of which I haven't posted yet.

Let's start with some thank you's for gifts I got for my birthday last month.  I've been trying to both use what may have been "laying around" my workspace and some new things that I haven't yet tried.  

This first card uses an embossed background from Spellbinders that I had not yet opened as well as the die cut leaves.  The flower and circle were remnants from previous projects.  I did the inked embossing folder technique on the circle with the houndstooth embossing folder.

For this next card it was a matter of using a couple of new stamp.  The hedgehog is a Penny Black stamp that I had won on ebay and the sentiment comes from one of the SU Salebration sets that I had not yet inked.

Can you tell that I had a bunch of these Marina Mist butterflies on hand?

My future daughter-in-law celebrated her birthday this month and her favorite color is green.  I love this daisy die and am I still planning to use it forever even though it's retiring soon.  The light green pieces were again embossed - I know it's barely visible.  I had used one of the framelits dies and cut it in half.  The background was stamped with VersaMark ink using a stamp from one of the hostess sets (sorry, I'm not near my stamp cave at the moment so I can't look it up). I added one of the new Summer Smooches brads for the flower center.

My friend Sabrina has an April birthday.  This card went to her and I'm ashamed to admit that it got posted late.  The stamp was a new one as was the viney die.  I cut out the "window" opening on this and there was a lot of fussy cutting for the bird and the flowers, but I really like the 3-D effect it has.  The flower centers were made by chopping up the So Saffron cs very fine and adding them to the flowers.  I color this little bird to resemble the little robins that visit Sabrina in Ireland.  

I finally got out my new sewing machine and put it to use to make this bag.  The fabric squares were cut with the scallop square die and layered with batting.  I had found this "pack" of fat quarters with the birds and knew I had wanted to do something with them together.  I have a similar bag that I got at a stamping event and I use it to store all my adhesives in at my work station.

I also sent her one of my bottle cap pin cushions.......  These aren't SU fabrics but some that I picked up at a  quilt shop recently.  I got adventurous with the floss accent on the felt.  The strands of floss were in a bag that I had picked up at the White Elephant sale last year and were tied together - I think someone had been making bracelets with the floss - anyway, they looked so nice together that I just kept twisting them into a rope and stitched it down with a single strand of floss.  

I tucked it inside this little box which was made using the new bitty purse die altered to make a box.  Again I used one of the Summer Smooches brads on the little daisy.  The fabric bag and it's goodies were wrapped in another patterned fabric from that bundle - you can see it in the background. 

Yes, a busy month, but a very creative one too!  Two more days till May!