Sunshine Cards / Country Landscape Memory Box Die

Do you picture a card in your head but when you sit down to make it, it just doesn't come out the way you pictured it? Most often that is the case with me but not this time. This design came out exactly the way I imagined it. I originally planned to make another starburst card like the two I made last month using yellow patterned paper to help resemble sunshine. The more I thought about it though, I decided to ink it and create my own rays of sunshine.

I had decisions to make though...what time of day for my sun rays...early morning...later in the day etc. Should I round my corners, keep them square, sun cut to fit the card or hanging off the edge etc. Soooo...I decided to make two cards using all the ideas instead of choosing.

This card has the darker rays, rounded corners and the sun coming off the edge.

The next card has squared corners, lighter color rays and the sun cut to fit the card. I think I like both equally!

Here's how I made both:

I took a scrap piece of white cardstock and cut the narrow strips to help make my rays. I then took some Elmer's Rubber Cement Glue and ran some glue on one side of the white strips...covering them completely. I love Elmer's Rubber Cement. It can be used for both a permanent glue and a repositonable tacky glue. It also does not wrinkle or warp your paper. Putting the strips aside to dry and become tacky I then cut the remainder of my pieces I needed to make my cards. The card base is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The mat that the sun rays are on is 4" x 5 1/4". My sun is cut from a Spellbinder die and measures 2 1/2" in diameter. The bottom piece used for cutting the landscape and stamping the word "Sunshine" measures 2 1/4"  x 4"before cutting the landscape. All pieces were cut from white cardstock.

My white strips were now dry and tacky and ready to postion on my 4" x 5 1/4" mat. Once I had them into postion I proceeded on to ink my rays. Using yellow pigment ink I inked the mat all over using a direct pad to paper method. I then took a stencil brush and stenciled Rose Coral pigment ink all over on top of the yellow. Still applying ink with a stencil brush I now took Apricot pigment ink and stenciled color from about the middle of the rays and out to the edges. Continuing on I then stenciled Old Rose pigment ink around the edges and then I blended all colors for a smooth transition of light to dark on the outer edges. All four colors of ink used are pigment inks by Colorbox. For the lightter rays I used less ink and more for the darker rays. Once inked I removed my white strips for masking to reveal my white stripes between the rays. For the sun I inked the circle all over with the yellow pigment ink and then blended in some Apricot pigment ink all over.

I then used the Country Landscape die by Memory Box to cut the landscape border on my 2 1/4" x 4" piece. I then stamped my "Sunshine" sentiment which is a clear dollar stamp that I picked up at JoAnn's. I then adhered my sun ray mat to my card base, pop dotted my sun into place and then pop dotted my landscape border on top of that for dimension.

It was a pretty simple and quick card to make. I have a ton more ideas that came to mind using the Country Landscape border while working on this card that I can't wait to try. Also thought this card would be cute with a silhouette of a rooster in front of the sun. Makes me think of the days when I was little and would visit my relatives on the farm.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!