Signs of Spring!

I'm finally seeing some fun signs of spring in my yard. The daffodils (see first picture) started blooming this week and lots of perennials (such as bleeding hearts, second photo) are starting to pop up out of the ground. I've also done a ton of yardwork during the past week.
Weed pulling has been my biggest chore. If you live in an area like mine, where the ground is still pretty soft, now is a great time to pull weeds. They come out of the ground easily, and they probably haven't had the chance to flower yet. There are a few flowering in my yard, but most of them aren't that mature yet.
It's also a good time to cut bad old perennial foliage that has been left to dry all winter long. Trim them back now so you can enjoy the beauty of the new growth. Removing old plant debris reduces the chances of having disease or pest problems around your plants.
New growth is also popping up on a lot of shrubs. I really dislike the spireas in my yard, and have gotten rid of all but two, however I love the lime green leaves they are getting right now (see third photo). They are so bright, they almost look like flowers. Unfortunately, those leaves will soon grow and I'll be annoyed by the shrub's weedy look again. They just grow too doggone fast and clog up an otherwise pretty landscape very quickly. The two spireas in my yard keep my dog out of a planting area, so I'm keeping them even though I'm not in love with them.

Challenging challenges

I absolutely LOVE doing the challenges at SCS. They give me a great starting point for making a creative card! I've done a couple of them this week, and was really happy with the results on both of them.

For this card, the challenge was to make something out of punches. This was the perfect challenge for me since I've made it a personal challenge to try to make animals out of circle punches! I made this little doggy from two 1" circles. A whole circle was used for the doggie body, and pieces of another circle were used for the doggie's legs, tail, head, and ears. I was inspired to make a sad doggie by the blue and brown designer paper. The "feeling blue" tag was cut using my Cuttlebug. My new favorite toy!


This next card was made for the "sketch challenge" this week. The sketch challenge is probably my favorite one each week. Creative layouts are usually my biggest obstacle in making cards. The sketch challenge provides me with the layout idea, and then I can let the creative juices flow for the rest of it. This card has a lot of things going on, but I love how it turned out. My daffodils outside inspired the color scheme, and it just blossomed from there! The designer paper is Me and My Big Ideas, and the "cute" image is copyright Stampin' Up! I used pewter flower brads to attach the ribbon on the side, which has been distressed with ink and frayed at the ends. The swirly background was embossed using my Cuttlebug.

Here I am!

So, here I am jumping on the blog bandwagon. I've seen so many great blogs by other stampers, so I thought I'd combine my two favorite hobbies on my blog - stamping and gardening. You'll find project information and gardening ideas here.

Hope you enjoy reading it!