Always Bring Your Own Sunshine

I really need my own sunshine today. This is what we woke up to this morning:

 Fog!

OK now on to the reason for this post. I have three cards to share with you today! Hero Arts has their April Challenges up and I used their sketches for my cards even though I'm not participating in the challenge. You need to use HA stamps but I had some new stamps that were calling me and unfortunately they are not HA stamps. There is still time to enter as the challenge is for the whole month so I might participate later. Here is the link so you can enter if you would like: http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/april-2012-contest-details/

Here are the three sketches I used:

My first card "Always Bring Your Own Sunshine":

This card makes me happy! The pp is  and brown cs is from Creative Memories. The stamps are from Verve's "Feel the Sun" set.

The sentiment and flower are stamped in black ink onto Neenah white paper.

I used watercolor pencils on the flower and spritzed it with Perfect Pearls. For the flowers center I used bronze seed beads and used Glossy Accents to adhere them. Let me tell you those beads aren't going anywhere. Glossy Accents is like cement. It also dries fast depending on how thick you put it on.

"Life is Beautiful" is my second card:

 The paper is from DCWV except for the green cs that has been embossed with Swiss Dots embossing folder that is Creative Memories and the tag is Neenah white paper.

First after punching the tag with CM tag maker I used a mask called Mini Damask from The Crafters Workshop and misted it with Bahama Blue Glimmer Mist. Next I inked the whole tag with Wild Honey distress ink, stamped the bird, which is from Unity Stamp Co. in black ink. Then inked the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain  distress ink and added the ribbon. I felt kind of artsy making the tag and had fun making it.

And now for my final card of the day "Grow your Wings":

The card is a 5.5x5.5 square. It seemed to work better for this sketch then the A2 size which I usually make my cards with.

For the butterfly image I inked the Neenah white paper with Victorian Velvet distress ink then spritzed it with Perfect Pearls. When it was dry I stamped the butterfly which is another Unity stamp in black ink and die cut a circle with my cuttlebug and Spellbinder circle die. The stamp was a bit too big but I like how it goes off the edges.

The white scalloped border is made with cs from DCWV, Simply Chartreuse  ribbon is from PaperTrey Ink and the black rick rack is from my stash.

Well now it's back to reality. Laundry and dishes :(

Enjoy your day.