having fun with punches

Hi everyone!  I know it's been too long since I posted on my  blog, again!  But with so many projects going on around the house & spring cleaning underway also my time to craft & blog is limited these days.  But I do have some fun little mini cards & a few tags to share with you.  I love using flowers on my cards, especially for spring cards and I love all of the cool handmade flowers people are making these days, some of them take a little practice but many of them are very easy to do.  And if you still think you can't make handmade flowers yourself then I have some that I guarantee you can do.....quick & easy!!!
  I always save my paper scraps & have too many of them, so when I can I use them for little projects like these.  First I selected 3 different size circle punches & one of my favorite MS punches:  this cute little dragonfly.  I raided my box of scraps & punched & punched until I had a collection of pretty patterns to work with.  For the flowers I stacked the circles with a little foam tape in between each layer to give them some dimension.  I added a little button to some of the flowers also.

  For the dragonfly I punched 2 for each one and adhered the body section together & left the wings free so that I could score & bend them up to show the layer underneath, this looks good when you use 2 different colors/patterns for the layers.  Then I let a few of them land on my flowers just for fun!  I love how they looked all lined up on my desk waiting to take flight  : > 

   Now you have to admit these are about the easiest handmade flowers that you could ever create and most all of us have several sizes of basic circle punches in our supplies so next time you want to make your own embellishments.....piece of cake!  The dragonfly punch is too cute & I just love it but MS also has several butterfly punches that make adorable little additions to cards & projects.  So here's what I did with all of my fun decorations, more mini cards!  I have just had a ball making these tiny little (3" square) cards and I can't seem to stop!  LOL  I started with kraft cs (another thing I can't seem to stop using lately) and some more scraps from the stash box for the background papers.  I added my circle flowers, some hand cut leaves which I curl up a little for more dimension and grass made using Fiskars's cloud scissors and accented with a few stitches in a beautiful spring green.

   I picked up some pretty floss recently and want to start adding more handstitched accents to my cards but I also like to use it as I did on these for just a hint of color & a tiny bow.  It reminds me of the baker's twine that is very popular with crafters right now!  The stamped sentiment is from one of the little clear stamps sets by Hero that I've had for awhile.  I love this sweet little message, just right for spring  :>

   I also added some of my handmade goodies to a couple of tags for some fun, spring looks;  I may be using some of these on Easter goodies for my family & friends!  I also did one more little card to add to my collection, I just wasn't ready to stop  LOL

   I love the bright, fresh colors of spring.....I kept these cards & tags on my desk for days just enjoying looking at the cheery flowers, they just make me smile!  One more picture to share with you, it's something that makes Randy smile.....FOOD!  He loves my homemade mac & cheese and was so disappointed when he came home last week and I told him the big pan of mac & cheese I had just taken out of the oven was not for us but for a friend's family.  Soooooo, this one's for you baby!  gotta keep my guy happy LOL

   Yummmmm, it was good too!  It didn't last very long but there's plenty more where that came from.  So that's my post for today, I know it was kind of long but I hope you enjoyed it and when you get some time to play get out those punches and make some spring lovlies for yourself!  Have a great day & enjoy our beautiful weather while it lasts!  Thanks for looking & I'd love to hear any comments you might have,  delisa