Create To Live March Challenge

Happy Spring Everybody! Spring is one of my favorite times of the year!
I love the chilly windy days, I love all the pretty flowers that are blooming, the trees with their fresh new leaves. The weather and the flowers make me giddy. I love to fly kites, too !
I was visiting some of my favorite sites and I came across Susan Weckesser's site http://mysweetearth.blogspot.com/2013/03/create-to-live-march-challenge.html; I loved the colors of a layout and saw the invitation for a challenge... yes, I know another challenge. You gotta check it out; how could I possibly resist those colors. Confession time, yes right up front, I confused the colors from Susan's Challenge and the colors from Ranger's Challenge ( I think I've got all colors from both... leave it to me.).
One of my favorite flowers in the whole world is  Ranunculus. I look forward to Spring every year because I love seeing them in people's gardens. They are so bright and so cheerful. So I chose Ranunculus for my tag. The theme for this challenge is Celebrate. Each Spring I reflect on  the "newness " of life , new beginnings, spring cleaning and my life!
I always associate  new life ( growth), flowers, butterflies and joy with Spring! So my tag reflects  all of these.
Using my distressing inks,  (mowed lawn, peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade, shaded lilac, concord grape, mustard seed, wild honey, and spiced marmalade) and dylusions cut grass ink I created the background for my tag using the blending tool for some areas, other areas I blotted the colors on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water and then blotted the tag drying in between layers. When I got the blend of colors I wanted I dried the tag and then misted it with heirloom gold perfect pearls mist. When the tag was dry I stamped it with my Stampendous Flower Field Stamp using black archival ink. I dried it with the heat tool and then colored my flowers using my distress markers (spun sugar, barn door, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, and peeled paint)... I'm having a great time watching this unfold before my eyes. Something interesting happened while I was doing this; my thoughts went to a picture of these flowers; as if I had seen them before; and I really can't recall having seen this picture, but I felt like a real artist ! ANYWAY , when the flowers dried I added lime green  stickles to the leaves, squeezing a small dab and smoothing it with my fingers ( I'm really wearing this artist hat  about now... I like that thought ... LOL).  Okay, so what am I celebrating... umm ...spring and life ... so I decided to use my life definition stamp at the top and randomly at the bottom ( I was a little heavy handed at the top, so it didn't quite have the effect I wanted) nevertheless the life stamp was added and I decided to use my butterfly punch to make butterflies, scoring them to giving wings some dimension. I had a left over banner so I stamped it with word "just celebrate". I found a butterfly, and life word stick in my stash and I colorized the ribbon ( and the butterflies) using a combination of wild honey, mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress stain... love the color it created !!! To finish off my tag I distressed the edges with vintage photo distressing ink and added bling to the butterflies. This Spring I'm Celebrating Life... my life as a Minister and the lives of all of those whose lives have touched  mine in such amazing ways these past months.  In the past six month ,
God has given me a "special" assignment as a prayer partner for children and babies who are fighting everyday for their lives; most of them were born prematurely with many birth defects/illnesses; others are cancer patients. As I read their stories about their fights and pray for them and their families, I have an even greater appreciation for life and what it means to LIVE ! I'm GRATEFUL for my life and my experiences and for the privilege of being able to offer support to these babies/children and their families ... I CELEBRATE who I am and who God has called me to be !