Are handmade Easter cards on your list this year? Read on!

Handmade Easter cards are such a fun way to kick off spring and offer another opportunity to tell someone you are thinking of them. Today we are lucky to be sharing one of Kittie Caracciolo’s handmade Easter cards made using one of our fun new dies in her own line!

We never knew how much a Half Tree Die was needed but my GOODness how you’ve all been snatching it up! Having a detailed full trunk with just one side of the branches cut out means you can place this on either side of a card and have a lovely amount of space to fill in the center. We are SO glad Kittie came up with this idea!

You can see all of the details on Kittie’s post on her blog by going here but we wanted to share a couple of details we thought were super helpful.

First, Kittie doesn’t just cut her tree trunks out of dark brown card stock. She prefers to cut them out of a paler shade of what her final design will be – in this case, the light brown of kraft colored card stock. She then uses a wet baby wipe to apply darker ink! She says “The baby wipe dipped in brown ink makes it so much easier to apply the ink to the trunk and all the branches rather than trying to color them with a marker or painting with a brush.” She does caution that you need to let these pieces dry completely before attaching the leaves – you can speed this up with your heat tool if you just can’t wait.

Then Kittie makes a point of shaping her little leaves and blossoms for a deeply textural, realistic look. She does this by simply placing them face up on a molding pad or a piercing mat and uses either molding tools or a ball stylus or even the rounded end of a piercing tool or small paintbrush to press down in the centers to add a cupped shape. You can see what an amazing difference this makes!

And last, for those narrow spots that need some adhesive and to add just the tiniest touch of lift, Kittie has a GENIUS TIP: Apply strips of tape to a non-stick mat and roll them into “strings”. Apply these to these skinny spots and you will get some nice stickiness plus a hint of dimension. SMART!

Kittie shares TONS of details on her blog but if you cannot WAIT to get started, here are the things you are going to want to get out or add to your cart to make your own version of these handmade Easter cards:

5300D Nested Scallop with Holes [ RBB ]	5403D Half Tree Die [ RBB ]	5334-02D Tiny Leaves #2 Die [ RBB ]
Tabed Grass Set Die Cut 5152-03D [ RBB ]	Tiny Flower Buds Die Cut 5147-10D [ RBB ]	Flower Stems Die 5147-05D [ RBB ]
Bunnies Die 5142-01D [ RBB ]	3411 Kittie Says Spring time [ RBB ]	Color Fuse Set #3 [ RBB ]
Versafine Clair Nocturne Pad

Spring and handmade Easter cards are perfectly timed to both celebrate the holiday and get spring on our minds. Make a few to send to your friends and family and help wash winter away!