Wishing for Springtime

It's a balmy -20C and snowing today, a little improvement over yesterday's -30C!  I think we are all so sick of winter here, it has been a long and cold one this season.  I find myself thinking of Spring a lot these days, hopefully we eventually see it!  I have a greenhouse window in my kitchen, I think I might have to do the same thing as I did last year, filling it with spring flowers and plants, so I don't have to look at the snow!

Speaking of Spring, this Sizzix French Farmhouse Egg & Wire Basket die is a good one to use for all those Easter cards.  Although my colours here aren't quite as light and cheerful as they could be for a Spring card, this basket could be used so many different ways.  Instead of eggs, it could also be filled with flowers or foliage.

I used Kaisercraft's paper collection, Hidden Treasures for my card.  The basket was cut out with a thin  chipboard; this one is thin enough that you can also use it with all the thin metal dies and it has a nice smooth finish to it.  If I know I'm going to apply different mediums to my die cut, and I don't want to or can't use thick chipboard, I like to use this as it gives a more stable base.  I embossed the basket with Lindy's embossing powder, pressing a rubber stamp into the basket while it was still hot. To highlight the embossed basket, I used a touch of Inca Gold on the raised areas. The doilies were cut out from Sizzix's Scrappy Cat Doily/heart set and the one egg was embossed with a Vintaj Textured Impression folder and painted.  My flowers were hand cut from my patterned paper.

Hope you are enjoying better and warmer weather, wherever you are!  Lucky you!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jan