It's nearly chocoholiday!

I had a look at the calendar today. Not just a glance, I mean a proper look and I made an effort to engage my brain at the same time. This was a big effort for me, admittedly, but I came to the rather scary realisation that Chocolholiday (in some circles also known as Bunnyday, Chich-o-holiday or even Easter) is just around the corner. As in, a few weeks away! After Christmas it felt like it would be an eternity until Easter (aka the next break from work), and now it's almost upon us. I have spoiled myself by taking a day of annual leave each side of Easter making it a leisurely six day break with a three day work week on each side. I can't wait! I will spend the time in my craft room, chocolate bunnies at my side.

Of course chocoholiday means some chocoholiday cards are in order. Today's card was born inside my head while stuck in traffic yet again. Getting off the hospital site in 5 pm traffic is such a nightmare. And there are plans for new buildings (including relocation of another hospital to the site) with thousands of new jobs to appear on site over the years to come which will mean even more imaginary crafty time for me. Obviously the good thing of congestion traffic is that as long as I remember the current challenges that are out there, I can pre-design the cards in my head while stuck in traffic, and then it's a quick business of just putting them together once I'm actually in my craft room for real. Alternatively, I could take some stamps and markers in the car and sit there colouring away while waiting to move along. Oh well, for the safety of myself and others I may have to stick to imaginary crafting in the car. 

Anyhow, the inspiration for today's card was the Distress challenge over at Lawn Fawn, along with the inspiration image over at Curtain Call and the inspiration board over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. I am also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Animals, Creative Card Crew "Easter Critters", Artistic Inspirations Challenge "Anything goes with a twist of Easter" and Clear it Out challenge where the theme this week is Easter and stash item is pastel things (pastel distress inks, markers and cardstock).

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday inspiration board

I only have one proper Easter stamp set, and I have already used it for the last two years, so I wanted to change things up a bit so I went for non-Easter stamps. I made a mask for inking the egg using yellow, blue and pink distress ink. I love how the colours mix together to give greens and purples where the colours overlap. Then I stamped the bunny, birds and easter eggs and coloured them using watercolours and distress ink before fussy cutting them. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink and matted everything onto yellow card. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft Three Shades of Yellow 160 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past, Critters on the Savanna, Critters in the Arctic, Personal Impressions Easter 1

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress inks Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Salted Ocean, Tim Holtz Distress markers in Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn, Salted Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Pumice Stone