CAE Spring Encouragement Card - Card Concept #54 & PCCCS #192 etc

When I started card-making I was a newlywed in Texas, longing for a garden of my own each spring as the glorious Texas wildflowers burst from every roadside.  I can still picture the fields of lupine.

I grow lupine in my garden now, and remember--even though I'm a thousand miles away and in a much better place physically, emotionally and spiritually.  But the lupine was one of the things that helped me to get through, one of many "tender mercies" from our time there.
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Back then, without a garden (besides the few pots I could fit on our tiny porch), I crafted and colored flowers instead, to ease that botanical longing. 
Now that I have my own garden at last to pour my energy into for as many months out of the year as possible, I haven't spent nearly as much time as before on botanical art. 
But this year has been different. 
Because of my decreased mobility after the injury I am only barely getting by on the most necessary garden chores.  The boys are enthusiastic garden helpers and do all they can,

but the rest will have to wait until next spring.
Those fruit trees for the mini-orchard I'd planned, the front landscaping, the new vegetable crops to try and the canning garden, to put up as much as possible...all of that is on hold.

So once again, static art has had to fill in for the living, growing art outside.
 

Still, it's not all bad to be an observant bystander rather than the one with the grubby knees. 
Case in point:  Aren't these irises gorgeous? 
I'm afraid I cannot truly claim them; they are my neighbor's.
But I see them out my window each late-April morning and they are just too beautiful not to share...
or be inspired by. 

And speaking of inspiration, how about this from The Card Concept #54?
My take is somewhere between Clean & Layered and Freestyle Collage.

These colors coordinate perfectly with MFP #17 The Color Purple and the
 Catch the Bug color challenge for April as well:

Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch #192:

So here are some views of my Clean-and...shall we say, Eclectic? take on this theme: 

Go easy on me over the sketch challenge spatters, girls.  I never have quite gotten the hang of controlled-yet-random-looking spatters. 
Usually I leave all projects in THAT department to the boys, who are--I can assure you--complete experts.  I know you'll understand.

I also decided to stray just a bit from the PCCCS sketch and switch the
sentiment and label/image area around.

  

Materials Used on this Card:

Cardstock {Papertrey Ink}
Patterned paper {Ninth Street by The Paper Studio}
Stamps {Sentiment tag - Stampabilities; Modern Leaf - Papertrey Ink}

Ink {Winter Wisteria, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado - Papertrey Ink}
Glimmer Mist Gold {Tattered Angels}
Glossy Accents Clear {Ranger}
Colored Pencil {Remind me to return it to the boys' art caddy before they wake up}
3D Dragonfly {K&Company}
Corner Rounder Punch {EK Success} 

Thank you so much for visiting!

Before you go, hop over to my quilting and gardening blog, Gardener's Thread, 

to enter for a Tula Pink book giveaway!

That giveaway will remain open until I finish my Spring-weaver quilt. 

 

I'll be hosting my craftroom SPRING CLEANING GIVEAWAY here

tomorrow morning (light is not so good for photographing tonight, I'm afraid)

so do check back.

 

Be well,

--Kathryn