It makes me smile ...

A big  welcome to all of my new followers and hello to all that have been following for a while.  I hope that you are all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend in spite of the rain that has descended on the UK.  The up side of bad weather is that I can craft without a guilty conscience of not doing the gardening!

So I've been getting messy with paint and trying some new techniques - some worked and some didn't!  I'll be sharing the results with you all over the next few days - the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

This card I created in response to this week's challenge at "Less is More"

"Makes me smile!

It's simply that... something that makes you smile.

 It could be something cute, pretty, humorous, or merely a technique which satisfies you and makes you pleased with your finished article.

SO... lots of scope, but we'd like you to tell us the reason for your choice!"

My family and friends make me happy when I'm with them or thinking of them. To share time with them is very important to me - without this I know there is nothing that would make me smile!   So because of my family and friends there are many things that make me smile - the thought of making someone else smile when I send them a card for no apparent reason, a card just to say "hello, you are  in my thoughts".  

So the challenge set me thinking - what sort of card could I design that would also make me smile.  I decided that the colours of the rainbow combined with flowers would be a good place to start.  Rainbows bring a smile to my face because the sun has to be shining for the rainbow to appear and just who doesn't love to see beautiful flowers!

I created the hexagons by first making a rainbow on a piece of watercolour card using distress inks and loads of water.  I then took a stencil and some gesso to create the flowers (a small masterboard).  It looked like this:

I was pleased with the finished look but knew that I was going to cut it up to create a card so using a hexagon die that is what I did and the rest, as they say, is history!

In addition to the challenge at "Less is More" that inspired my card I will also enter it into challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More where Anything Goes; and Lets Craft and Create: where the criteria is to use Dies and Punches.

Enjoy!