Egg + Carrot = Sunshine

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! I'm sure that's a reason enough to smile, but today I'm sharing another one: The fabulous Simon Says Stamp (SSS) have their exclusive and brand-new Reason to Smile release available for purchase NOW! Check it all out here!

The kind peeps of SSS treated me and sent me a couple of goodies from the release to play with. I've had so much fun with the Springtime Shapes dies and the Pattern Swatches stamp set. These products are available to purchase both separately or as a combo here. I decided to use both of these goodies together in a little unconventional way to show you just how you can stretch these yummy products.

Today's card shows you how an egg and carrot die can be transformed into a sunshine. Not only that, but a fun patterned sunshine thanks to the Pattern Swatches stamp set with Sunshine and Duckling SSS ink.

The sentiment is from SSS's Floral Bookmarking stamp set and I thought it was so fitting for the imagery. The heart is actually a small one from the SSS Stacked Hearts die. I've managed to squeeze a lot of SSS stash on this card LOL!

• The sky was created by blending blue Distress Inks onto white cardstock, flicking water onto it to 'bleach' it and then dabbing it with kitchen roll. I actually blending light blue Distress Ink on top of this to make the effect more subtle. 
• I decided to use two shades of yellow SSS ink and used the darker shade for the centre of the sun. This helps to draw the eye towards the centre, to the heart and then to follow the sentiment. 
• The sentiment stamp is right-aligned, but I didn't let that stop me using it for this central design. I simply stamped and heat-embossed each line of it separately. Easy! 
• You can stamp the pattern onto three carrots or sun rays in one go as the pattern swatch stamp is a larger square. It means you use less ink too - bonus!

I have another card using these two goodies to share with you tomorrow. I hope you can join me and in the meantime, why not take a peek at the full SSS Reason to Smile release here? It's amazing and I've got my eye on a few more items from the release that I think I need... ;)