Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge # 13 - April Showers

WOW!  April!  And tax season is almost over... the cacti are getting ready to bloom... and we're in the 80's and 90's here in southwest Arizona!  LOVE!!

Welcome to the April Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge!  This month we're all about the April Showers!

To me, April Showers means Spring which means flowers! Here's what I've made for you today:

I saw a card that Gina Krupsky made over on the Gina K Designs Facebook Group and it was gorgeous!  There was a video she made that was up on the Simon Says Stamp Blog and I actually took the time to watch it and knew right away I needed to give it a try.  Rather than trying to clumsily explain the process, I'll give you a link to her video here!  I decided to stamp and heat emboss a few different stamp sets before I went to a crop this weekend and brought my Distress Inks, Prisma Colored Pencils, and a few other items I thought I'd need.  One of the bases I stamped was this one using the beautiful Blossoming Buds stamp set from Paper Smooches.  LOVE these fun flowers!

I heat embossed my sentiment from the Birthday Bash stamp set onto a piece of die cut vellum and this adorable birdy from the My Peeps stamp set.  This is the only piece i cut out and popped up and then added a few music notes from the same set.

The bird was a last minute decision, so I used my Zig Clean Color markers to color her in using colors similar to the Distress Oxides and Prisma pencils I used on the background.  I also added a few music notes from the My Peeps set because she's singing... she's so happy 'cause it's Spring (like me)!

I'm playing along with the April Paper Smooches Challenge (see the inspiration photo below), the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes until the end of the day as well as the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Anything Goes with a Twist of Anything Goes!

I made a few mistakes (which I will not point out to you :) ) and I did a couple things a little different... I did add a little bit of pink acrylic paint to some of my flower petals.  originally my intent was to fit a color challenge which I ended up not entering...lol!  But I love the brightness it adds to the whole thing.   I also splattered some water droplets and then some Gold Color Shine onto the background... cause I could!  And I will definitely use this technique again because I love the way it looks!

Now, be sure to head on over to Donna and Susan's Blogs to see what they've created for you today!  And stop over at the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge Blog to play along!