RAINBOW SMILE

Our world is quite a mess right now, isn't it? It seems no matter where you live in this world, it is quite terrifying. 

Rainbows are especially needed and seen often currently. My artist daughter creates a rainbow to hang in her windows each week during quarantine. Since the middle of March, that's a lot of rainbows. 

And, now with the terrible race problems that have reared their head once again -- actually, I do know that racism has never ever disappeared -- but they have come to the fore so strongly in recent weeks, since the terrible murder of George Floyd.

Anyway, with the plethora of troubles on Earth, a rainbow is always a welcome sign of hope and strength.

Back to papercrafting -- my solace -- when the May Paper Pumpkin kit, A Kit In Color, arrived and there were arch stamps to create a rainbow in the kit, I rejoiced. 

With only three arches available -- when there are seven arches in a complete rainbow -- I needed to make a decision on which colors to incorporate in my abbreviated rainbow for a card.

Once I had chosen my arch colors, I had a color palette to work with for the rest of the card. To do so, I dug through all my skinny little cardstock strips, that I just cannot seem to throw away, and chose a bunch that would work well with my color choice.

Starting with a 4" x 5 1/4" base of Whisper White, I glued my chosen strips to that. It was completely imperfect -- but somehow that seems to jive with the condition of the world right now -- so I went with it.

I die cut my rainbow with an old retired die from the Timeless Tags set. That came with a hole in the top, so I inserted an orange ribbon with a baker's twine bow. The Granny Apple Green tag on which this one is mounted is cut with one of the dies from the Stitched So Sweetly set (page 179 in the Annual Catalog). I absolutely love the shape of this die -- and the stitching adds so much love!

Although the smile die is not Stampin' Up!, I happened to have this in my stash, and the way it is formatted, it was easy to work in two coordinating colors in my sentiment.

To tell the truth, when I finished this card, I was somewhat dismayed at its brashness, its mishmash of colors, its too-muchness!, and "what a crazy card!" feel. The more I look at it though, the more it makes me smile with something bordering on happiness. So, in that, I consider it a success.

I hope I didn't offend any of you, my readers, with the brevity of my comments about what is going on in all of our lives nowadays. There is so much to be said and done. It is all so serious -- ALL of it. I do not minimize any aspect of anything. I am crying along with all of you. I just do not know the proper words to express my feelings in these matters.

Stay safe and well. Love to you all.

Rainbow

Smiles.