Spring Has Sprung...

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It's a dreary, rainy day here, so I'm cozied up inside dreaming about Spring. I wanted to try this week's Friday Challenge. It's called Mix 'n Match, which means mixing up stamp sets and coming up with interesting ways in which to use them. I may have gotten carried away a bit, as I actually ended up using five different sets, including a font set!
For this card, I wanted the inside of the card to really pop, so I kept the outside relatively simple. I stamped a custom sentiment, "spring" in Whisper White Craft Ink on some Groovy Guava paper and masked it so that I could stamp some pretty blooms to create some subtle background paper. I used the same color scheme as the inside for some cohesion.
For the inside of the card, I decided to go with a pop-up scene to drive home the rest of my custom sentiment, "has Sprung."

I wanted a hint of a whimsical look and so I actually began with the furthest layer, the hills, which I created with circle border stamps from three different sets. I then cut out the circles and voila, I had some cute hills. To make them "flowering" hills, I stamped a pretty heart-shaped wreathe stamp several times and cut out pieces of it, colored them, and then layered them all along the edges. I like to take apart stamp images to suit my needs!


Next, I cut out a little yellow house, scoring lines to simulate clapboard, and then used the Modern Label Punch to create my windows and door. I added trees and a few bushes. Though I was tempted to make them apple trees and put berries on the bushes, I refrained, reminding myself that this was Spring, not Fall! I glued on the house, making sure that my green hill with the sweet sentiment "framed" the roof, which was created with a border punch.

The lake was fun to create. First I stamped my sentiment and clear embossed to make it stand out. Next, I free-cut a lake shape and then added some gravel from my old house that I've kept in a baggie since we moved.

Finally, I made the white picket fence by cutting strips of white cardstock and then lining them up. To create the fancy rounded trim, I simply traced a circle (I actually used the side of a spool of ribbon) at equal intervals and then cut with scissors. I needed bigger flowers than the hills' for correct perspective and so I was lucky to find some in a different stamp that looked similar, but were the right size. (These were in a vase on the original image.) After gluing everything together, I had a fun little springtime scene...now if only it will stop raining!
BEAN NOTES: JustRite Seeds of Kindness, My Garden, Plant a Little Love, Favorite Occasions, Times New Roman 95 pt Upper & Lowercase Font and Stampin' Up Good Neighbors Stamps; SU Old Olive, Certainly Celery, and Wild Wasabi Classic Dye Ink; SU Whisper White Craft Ink; Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush Perfect Match Ink; Versamark Clear Ink; SU Stampin' Write Markers; SU Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Groovy Guava, Certainly Celery, Old Olive Cardstock; Clear Embossing Powder (generic); SU Ribbon Bundle Grosgrain Ribbon; EK Success Border Punch; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder; Big Shot
HAPPY BEANS: Gravel