Sending a Little Sunshine

We're already a week into March and so far we've had an arctic front, snow, heavy frost,hail, wind, rain and more rain. After a weekend of gray skies, heavy rain and winds I'm trying to stay optimistic and hoping for some sunshine and dryer weather in the days to come. 

With the weather focus on mind I decided to use this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #FMS626 for my inspiration. Here's the sketch:

FMS#626

HERE'S MY CARD:

I chose to design a positive card with a "rain and sun theme" that could be used for a variety of occasions.  

Remembering that the sketch challenge rules say it's okay to replace the circles with another image, I went ahead and changed the half circles with clouds. My basic white stitched clouds were die cut using the medium cloud die in the Stampin' Up! Bright Skies bundle featured on page 51 of the Annual Catalogue.  

There's also a cheerful little sun that's part of the coordinating stamp set and it has dies that make it easy to cut out and add dimension.  I stamped the sun in Daffodil Delight and used the small stitched circle die to cut a center for the sun from Daffodil Delight card stock.

I chose the "Sunshine to Brighten Your Day" sentiment from the "Sending Smiles" (#158701) stamp set on page 26 of the Annual Catalogue, and embossed it on a strip of basic black cardstock with Versamark ink and White Embossing Powder. I cut out the sentiment strip with the larger of the two label dies in the coordinating "Sending" (#159271) die set. What fun!  I love all nine of the sentiments in this stamp set, and any one of them would have worked perfectly with this theme. 

The Smokey Slate card base for this card measures 4 1/4" x 11" and is scored at the 5 1/2"  center line. I added a layer of Basic White 5 3/8" x 4 1/8", a layer of Balmy Blue 5 1/4" x 4" and a layer of Rain or Shine designer series paper that measured 3 7/8" x 51/8".  This piece of DSP has a myriad of glossing raised raindrops that capture the light when the card is turned. 

For the inside of the card I cut a 5 1/4" X 4" basic white panel and adhered another die cut sun to the bottom right hand corner.  I left the rest blank for a personal message. 

So that's my card for today.  I appreciate your dropping by to visit, and hope if my card inspired you in any way that you'll leave me a comment.  I super enjoy doing card challenges as it's a way of stimulating my creativeness and this weeks FMS#626 was perfect for that.  

Why not try out this challenge yourself, there's still a bit of time to do it.  Cheers and have a good week!

HAPPY STAMPING
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin Up Demo since 2006
Click here to visit my 24/7 Online Webstore