That's Life: Come Rain Or Come Shine...

Hello everyone....

Hope you've all had a good weekend and can you believe we're at the end of February already?!?! Where does the time go? But as always, the start of a new week brings a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week our theme is called WHATEVER THE WEATHER!

For my make, I chose to try and put a twist on the theme and was inspired by lyrics from one of my Dad's favourite songs by Billie Holiday called, Come Rain Or Come Shine. The beginning of this song says; "I'm gonna love you, like nobody's loved you...come rain or come shine" and that is how this project came to fruition, featuring two little bunnies, one caught in the rain and one ready for spring to come shine but both madly in love!

So here we go...it's time to show some love....

To begin with I created the backgrounds for these pieces, which includes an envelope and a miniature postcard.

BACKGROUNDS

For the backgrounds, I cut a panel of Distress Watercolour Card and spritzed the card with a light misting of water. I then applied my Distress Spray Stains in the following colours;

SPRAY STAINS: Speckled Egg, Frayed Burlap, Tumbled Glass, Old Paper

OXIDE SPRAYS: Speckled Egg, Tumbled Glass

Once I was happy with the mix of the colours, I allowed the card to dry, and then cut it into two smaller panels, approx 9.5 x 7cm in size.

I stamped the card in Black Soot Archival Ink, using Tim's Newsprint stamp set by Stampers Anonymous, inked the edges of each piece and then machine stitched a border around the outside.

I wanted to create a postage card frame around these panels, but I didn't have a postage card die that fit the size, so instead I used one of the dies from the Vault Edges Thinlits Die Set.

I cut a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock card and then used a pencil to draw the size of my inked card panel onto the cardstock. This gives a rough guide of where to place the dies to form the edges. With the die in position, I ran the card through the die cutting machine before repeating to create the four decorative edges for my card panel. You will need two of these panels for each piece.

Ink the edges of the postage stamp panels and then adhere the inked card onto each one. I have created one of my makes to be portrait and one to be landscape, so be careful when cutting the card panels that they read the right way.

To form my bases for each piece, I mounted the one panel onto a piece of Mountboard, painted blue and the other one, I mounted onto the front of an idea-ology coin envelope from the File Cards 2 pack. You can also use the Sizzix Collector die set but note that these are slightly smaller in size than the idea-ology ones!

On each of the pieces, I used a die cut circle that will sit behind the bunnies.

These are cut using the Sizzix Vintage Labels die by Tim Holtz. This die set is sadly retired but I'm sure many Tim Holtz addicts have this in their stash, but if not...just swap out with another circular die and build up the layers by die cutting different coloured card.

After inking the raised areas on the steel die with Fired Brick Archival Ink, I then ran this through my machine. I repeated this to create a second circle using Faded Jeans Archival Ink for the border.

I then cut a circle of polka dot paper from one of Tim's paper pads which I stuck in the centre of the label die cut. I then mounted each circle onto my bases.

BUNNIES

Both bunnies are created the same, just the addition of the glasses and the bows.

I began by cutting all the pieces for each bunny from Kraft cardstock, using the Vault Bunny + Chick Thinlits Die Set. With all my die cut pieces placed on my glass mat in front of me, I inked each individual piece using the following Distress Inks:

Frayed Burlap, Gathered Twigs, Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo

I inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then layered the pieces to create the bunnies. I finished each bunny by die cutting the eyes, nose and mouth from black card and then added tiny whiskers with a black pen.

On the Mr Bunny, I added a pair of glasses and a bow tie, again die cut using the die that is in the Bunny + Chick Die Set...

....and on Mrs Bunny, I added the bow which was cut from a leftover scrap that I had in my scrap box.

DIE CUT ACCESSORIES AND HEARTS

All of the die cut hearts are die cut from Mixed Media Heavystock card coloured with Lumberjack Plaid and Barn Door distress spray stains, and cut using the hearts from the LoveBirds die set. I added some white pen highlights to each heart.

Mr Bunny's umbrella and Mrs Bunny's kite are cut from card scraps that I keep in my "just in case they come in useful ~ never throw anything away" box, using dies from The Park die set.

CORRESPONDENCE STAMPS AND DIES

The final pieces are all stamped and die cut using the Simon Says Stamp Coordinating Dies for the Tim Holtz Correspondence Stamp Set by Stampers Anonymous. I chose to stamp these pieces in a combination of blue, red and black inks before die cutting them using the coordinating die set.

From my photos, you will be able to see which stamps I used for these pieces....

CREATING THE SCENES

Once I had all my pieces cut and ready, I can now build the scene on both pieces.

MRS BUNNY is attached with foam pads, slightly off centre on the die cut circular label, I positioned her to the right of the circle. I then placed the "postal card' die cut in her paws, so she appears to be holding it.

I added some more of the Correspondence die cuts to the top right hand corner.

I added some hearts and arranged these to fall all around her, and then I attached the kite.

MR BUNNY is sitting in the centre of a coin envelope.

I attached him with foam pads, and placed him to sit on one of the Correspondence die cuts, the Via Air Mail label.

On the star in the centre of the die cut, I placed a Metallic Droplet.

As with Mrs Bunny, he has the hearts all around him and I attached these with foam pads to add varying heights and different dimension to each heart.

I then added the little umbrella die cut in his paw, and the word LOVE, which is from an older Remnant Rub set that I have in my stash.

To complete the envelope, I added another Correspondence piece to the top right hand corner and a Labeled Remnant Rub in the top left hand corner.

Finally, I added the final stamped and die cut Correspondence pieces to the envelope flap...

I hope you love what I've made and the inspiration behind these projects...

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look! Also, if you have any questions, then please...just ask away!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....