a little smile makes everything better

how true this sentiment is - whether in giving a smile or receiving a smile - this simple act makes the world seem like a much friendlier place, and the day just that tad nicer!

card design was inspired by retrosketches #109

and also by the choice of colours in this week's Dynamic Duos #97, which are so great together

the sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts - A Little stamp set, which has such a beautiful frame on which the key words can be interchanged and switched around to fit the card

in fact, the whole card just makes me SMILE .... and I sure hope it does that for you too!

Post Note: and how cool it is to be selected as one of the 'Shout-Outs' for retrosketches #109

a beary birthday

a beary birthday, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

I love the incredibly cute range of Popcorn the Bear stamps from Crafter's Companion - why? because the stamps are big (around 4 to 5 inches), so they fill up a card perfectly and the size makes it so easy to color .....

This is the first of my Popcorn the Bear cards - the cute bear with balloons come from the Smile stamp set.

* the bear stamp was stamped twice on white cardstock, and then stamped again on a piece of white paper

* the stamped piece on the thinner white paper was then cut out, and used as a mask over the stamped piece on the cardstock

* the background was then stamped using Hero Arts - Newspaper Background wood-mounted stamp (one of my favourite background stamps)

* the whole image was then colored on the cardstock with the stamped newspaper-background

* only the balloons were colored on the second image stamped on the white cardstock - then cut out and affixed over the main image with foam tape

* edges of the white cardstock was then distressed and inked before affixing to the blue polka-dotted pattern paper (also inked around the edges) and then affixed to the orange card base

* birthday sentiment was stamped on orange cardstock, cut and affixed - final touch, a stripy ribbon in matching colors!

Smile

Smile, a photo by eatzycath on Flickr.

Another b'day card made for my 'co-sec kaki' friend.

Loved the paper background from Basic Grey's Plumeria Collection - and as you can see, with paper so pretty, one doesn't really need to embellish too much - just an embossed "smile" sentiment stamp from Impression Obsession (IO) and embossed 'girl on bicycle' stamp from Penny Black's A Little Bird Collection, with dabs of Liquid Pearl added to the flowers in her basket and her scarf, and some lovely rows of coordinating ribbons.