Gift of Hope Easter Card 2

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday, here in the UK we enjoyed the hottest March day for 58 years! At lunch time hubby and I spent an hour in the garden repotting and planting the new plants we bought on Sunday when we visited our local garden centre. When we first moved into our house on 24th January 2004, hubby said he wanted to build a pond and incorporate a waterfall. He wanted various plants in the pool as well as some goldfish! He accomplished what he set out to do including digging the hole by himself – I think it was about 4 – 5 feet deep and about 8′ x 5′ although a very irregular shape.

This year he’s cleared out all the old water plants that were getting very tired and straggly and has planted several new ones. The pond is almost clear of plants which has given us the wonderful opportunity to see what life there is in the pond! Our two large goldfish are about 8-9″ long and there are three baby goldfish, i.e. one orange with a black tail, and two black ones one the same size as the orange one with the black tail and the second black one about half the size of the first black one. We also have a newt that has a black and white underbelly, and in one of the shrubs by the side of the pond we have a resident frog. The only thing we are missing are the beautiful blue dragonflies but hubby said they’ll be back when the reeds and irises have grown tall. We both get a lot of pleasure seeing all sorts of wildlife in our garden!

I made today’s card for one of my neighbours who regularly sends us an Easter Card. I have made an Easter card using the Gift Of Hope Stamp Set before and I do find it a bit of a challenge when there are only two images to play with. So it was a question of how many different ways can you use a “wreath” and a Church?

I took two top layers of Whisper White Cardstock (CS) and with the help of my Stamparatus stamped the wreath on each top layer – one with the bottom of the wreath facing towards the bottom of the vertical top layer, and the second one with the bottom of the wreath facing the left-hand side on the vertical top layer. Then I used the Church stamp and stamped one on a scrap of Whisper White CS so that I could fussy-cut it and the second Church on a larger piece of cardstock so I could stamp a sentiment underneath the Church and then die-cut the two together.

I coloured the two wreaths using my Stampin’ Blends as follows: leaves Light Mossy Meadow, yellow flowers Dark Daffodil Delight and lilac flowers Light Purple Posy. When it came to colouring the Church I remembered when I did my first Easter card with this stamp set, I thought the Church looked too dark and rather harsh – I’d used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink – and I softened it very slightly by painting over it using my Light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend. The difference by removing the white is quite amazing.

My Stamparatus helped me stamp the sentiment HE IS NOT HERE, FOR HE HAS RISEN MATTHEW 28:6 directly under the Church and straight. I die-cut the image using the no. 2 regular die from the Stitched Rectangle Dies and layered it onto a piece of Purple Posy CS which measures 2 7/8″ x 1 1/2″. Using Dimensionals, I adhered the image inside the wreath as low as it would go with the top standing tall above the wreath.

I finished off the front of the card by using the corner stamp from the retired Hold Onto Hope Stamp Set and adhered a Pastel Pearl on the corner of each. I used my Wink of Stella on the windows of the Church and also on the flowers. Inside the card I added a middle layer of Purple Posy CS and a top layer of Whisper White CS. I stamped the HE LIVES sentiment by hand in the centre of the top layer and adhered the fussy-cut painted Church in the bottom right hand corner. Finally, I stamped three out of four corners with the corner stamp using Purple Posy Ink.

Unfortunately, this stamp set is retiring but it’ll go in my pile of “Not for sale” stamp sets! That’s it from me today. I look forward to being back with you tomorrow and in the meantime, please take care and stay safe. Happy crafting!

JanB. xx

Products used for this project: please click on any of the links to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop. The Hostess Code for MARCH 2021 is R329BMNW Thank you. xx

Purple Posy A4 Cardstock [150887] £8.25	Basic White A4 Cardstock [159228] £9.00	Gift Of Hope Cling Stamp Set [154400] £18.00	Stitched Rectangles Dies [151820] £33.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Refill [133456] £4.75	Purple Posy Classic Stampin’ Pad [150084] £7.00	Purple Posy Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [154896] £8.50	Mossy Meadow Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [154890] £8.50	Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [154883] £8.50
Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [154882] £8.50	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] £7.50	Pastel Pearls [154571] £6.00	Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] £112.00	Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine [150673] £56.00
Stamparatus [148187] £46.00	Simply Shammy [147042] £7.50	Paper Trimmer [152392] £23.00	Paper Snips [103579] £9.25	Bone Folder [102300] £6.50
Grid Paper [130148] £11.75	Small Grid Paper [149621] £6.00	Silicone Craft Sheet [127853] £5.50	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] £3.75	Stampin’ Dimensionals [104430] £3.75
Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals [144108] £3.75

Cardstock Layer Sizes: A4

Card base 8¼” x 5¾” scored and folded at 4 1/8”

Middle layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5½”

Top layer: 2 pieces 3¾” x 5 3/8”

Cardstock Layer Sizes: Letter-size

Card base 8½” x 5½” scored and folded at 4¼”

Middle layer: 2 pieces 4” x 5¼”

Top layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5 1/8”