Hello! Welcome to the last week of March! Here’s hoping we finally get some warmer weather in April.

Today brings the last of the weekly Paper Therapy Design Team challenges. Starting April 1, the Design Team challenges will move to a bi-weekly format. A new challenge will be posted every other Friday, alternating with the Paper Therapy Mix it Up challenges. That means a new challenge will be posted at Paper Therapy every Friday, but you will have two weeks to complete each challenge!  I’m looking forward to the new format and I hope my readers will be able to join in more of the challenges.

This week, our challenge is to make a card with a bug on it.  I couldn’t decide whether a butterfly counted as a “bug”, since they are so pretty and elegant!  So I made two cards – one with a butterfly and one with a bug.  Both cards will be shipped to Operation Write Home either today or tomorrow along with the other cards I’ve been making for OWH since Christmas.

The OWH Midweek Challenge last week was to create a card that a hero could send home to a child.  I decided to pair this cute ladybug stamp with some bright colors.  I’ve had this polka dot paper for a LONG time and it feels good to be putting it to use. The Midweek Challenge the week before was to use scallops, and you may be able to see some peeking out around the circle that the bug is on.  (I should have made that mat a bit larger.  Oh well.)

I keep reading that OWH still needs Mother’s Day cards, so I made a few extra to include in my shipment to them.  My second card is one of those.  It’s pretty clean and simple.  Just in case it doesn’t make it to the troops in time for them to send back home for Mother’s Day, I went with a non-holiday sentiment. I came upon this ribbon by a stroke of pure luck.  I recently received an order from Really Reasonable Ribbon and they had wrapped it around the plastic bag containing my things.  It just happened to coordinate excellently with this designer paper!  The butterfly is attached only at the middle, to give some dimension.

And now that I’ve gotten the bugs out of my system (LOL) I hope to have more cards to share with you in the next few weeks.  I hate that I haven’t been posting as much the last couple of weeks!

Here are the supply lists for today’s cards.

Ladybug card:
Stamps: Petite Phrases, Everyday Sayings (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up); polka dot paper (Creative Memories)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: markers (Copic); standard circle and big scalloped circle Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

Butterfly card:
Stamp: It’s Good to Be Queen (LAD)
Cardstock: Basics White (Papertrey Ink); Raspberry Tart designer paper (SU)
Ink: Rose Red (SU)
Other: Beautiful Butterflies die (SU); grosgrain ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon); half pearls (KaiserCraft)