Joyful Stars April Blog Hop

As I made this card for the April Joyful Stars Blog Hop, we were having one nasty April shower.  

Our family has a different type of shower in the forecast ... a baby shower.  My niece, Ronin, is doing some hopping of her own because she is so excited to be getting a girl cousin.

The most recent issue of Quick Cards featured an Easel Swing Card.  Since I had never tried my hand at this type of card, I thought I'd give it a go and make a baby card for the shower.  It looked simple enough.  All I had to do was convert it from a square card to an A2 card.  Well, two and a half hours later,  I pronounced it finished...

card front, not folded entirely flat so you can see the center swing piece

inside of card which also is the base for the easel with framed sentiment popped

top half of inside of card

card in easel position

 I used 2 CTMH stamp sets, C1631 Birthday Princess and C1547 from the For Always Cardmaking Workshop.  Papers are from the Kaleidoscope pack and also a sheet of Pink Fundamental paper.  This little princess was colored with markers and pencils, and she has a touch of Prisma glitter on her skirt.  The sentiment frame is from the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  Bows are made with CTMH extra thick twine.  CTMH pink enamel gems embellish the base of the card.  

The crocheted pink blanket will accompany the card to the baby shower.  I love making baby blankets!

Now it's time to hop on over to see what Nancy Brown has made for this month's Blog Hop.  The hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter where you start, just continue from blog to blog until you're back where you started to make sure you see all the fabulous projects. 

If you get lost, you can visit Joyce's blog for a complete list. 

I am submitting this card to the following challenges:

Fresh Brewed Designs Challenge - Ribbon or Twine
Crafting with Dragonflies Challenge - baby card 
Fantasy Stampers Challenge #60 - new baby
Crafting with Friends Challenge #18 - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge #193 - Anything Goes
Sparkle n Sprinkle April Challenge - Anything Goes with glitter, flock or embossing powder