24 Carat Easter

This is quite a long post, I'll forgive you if you just "look at the pretty pictures", lol.
Finally, I have a card to show today.... Mrs Mojo is still conspicuous in her absence but I did sit and play over the weekend and I've come up with a couple of cards - this one I started before I went to Malaysia!!  

It looks darker in the photo than IRL, I didn't take the picture until dusk and my options were "take it in the shade" or "take it in stippled light"... I went for "shade" :-)
The image is Dusty Rabbit from Just Inklined, and I think he looks like we do with our Easter eggs - he's certainly having a "24 Carat Easter", lol.  I got this image LAST Easter and never got around to using it, now I have so I'm entering Lisa's Waste Not Wednesdays challenge to use stash.  He's coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils.  
My Mums Craft Shop and Top Tip Tuesday want to see our Easter creations or things with Animals on... I've got both! Do You Stack Up wants to see our Friendly Critters, Crafts 4 Eternity has Bunnies and Chicks as its theme, Crafty Sentiments MONTHLY Challenge, The Secret Crafter and Craft Your Days Away have Easter themes and The Paper Shelter has Anything Goes with Easter in Mind, so I'm entering all those challenges.

I've used the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday, always a great source of sketches... this one was perfect for the larger than normal image panel, cut using my new Impress Ornate Frame dies.   I bought eight new sets, here, and they're pretty good; they cut really crisply and while not as sturdy as Nestabilities (they "warp" a little, but flatten out again) they're really good value.  Simon Says Challenge this time around is to use our Favourite Crafting Tool - I think my Cuttlebug is my favourite, if I discount my paper cutter, which I use on every card (you do tend to dismiss those "essentials", don't you?) 
The Crafty Pad has Just Die Delicious and Sweet Stampin' has Dies and Doodles; you can see my attempt at doodling around the edge of the mat behind the image panel.  To be honest, there's quite a difference in size between these two dies (largest and second largest) and it needed something to fill the space up a bit, so the doodling fit the bill well.  The sentiment is computer generated, with some Card Candi.
The inside of the card, as always, is finished using elements from the front.

I've used Martha Stewart's Garden Trellis punch as a border on the yellow cardstock, from American Crafts (as is the orange).  The metal floral trim on the front is a purchase from Malaysia (though it was harder to find "stuff" there than I thought it would be - my Mum always brings stuff back, she does well!!)

I've used papers from my Inque Boutique Kabana pad, luckily I bought two of them (actually they were stuck together and we couldn't get them apart without damaging them so I got a "deal" for buying the two!) as I find it very versatile. I distressed the edges of everything with Versamark Lime ink, I wish I hadn't, but once I started I was committed, as it changed the whole look from "clean" to "country",  sort of :-)
 The flower on the front is from my stash, with some Diamond Stickles to "lift" it, those on the inside were punched using Nellie Snellen Floral punch set (which does add some texture, but I go over the back of the petals with my ball tool to add more dimension, and a small flower punch from my LSS (embossed for dimension also).  The centres are Dew Drops from Robins Nest, Green Stickles in the centre of the small flowers.  The greenery is a Martha Stewart punch too, "Pine Branch". 

The Pink Elephant has Flowers as its challenge theme, so I'm entering there. 

Stamping With The Dragon, The Craft Place, Cards for Men and Cupcake Craft Challenges all have "Spring" challenges, so I'm entering there and Fairy Fun Fridays and Papertake Weekly both have Anything Goes challenges, so entering there too.

That's it for today's card, ended up being a much longer post than I intended, sorry about that :-)  I hope you had a 24 Carat Easter and don't find going "back to the grindstone" too hard.  

Until next time, don't forget to enter my Candies - links in my sidebar, Happy Crafting, Donna