Sunshine and Stars

I got caught up on this month's Viva la Verve sketches over the weekend.  Here are my cards for the first two sketches for April.

For last week's sketch, I resisted my urge to use a doily for the sketch's large circle element and instead made it into a sun, courtesy of some orange gingham patterned paper and a pinking edged circle die.  The sun piece is adhered to a piece of distressed-looking paper with a multicolored circle pattern.

I adhered a golden yellow strip, wrapped with some blue baker's twine, over the sun, then added the sentiment on top.  Verve's Sunshine Plain Jane stamp is stamped in orange ink on a white oval.  I used foam tape to set the oval in place on the cardfront.

Materials Used:
Sunshine Plain Jane (Verve Stamps); Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Vivid Butterscotch ink (Clearsnap); Orange Zest patterned paper (Papertrey Ink); It's Your Day-Hodgepodge designer paper (Fancy Pants); oval, circle, and pinking circle dies (Spellbinders); baker's twine (The Twinery); foam tape

And, here's my card for this week's sketch.  I paired one of the sentiments from the Super Dad set with a woodgrain patterned paper for this clean and simple masculine design.

I pulled colors from the woodgrain paper to use for the sentiment.  The text is stamped in gray and the stars above and below it are stamped in teal.  I inked the panel's edges with some distress inks for a weathered look to match the paper.  The image is matted on light blue cardstock, then set directly on the patterned paper panel.  I accented it with a pair of large silver star shaped brads.

Materials Used:
Super Dad stamp set (Verve Stamps); Sahara Sand and Soft Sky cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Memento Gray Flannel and Teal Zeal inks (Tsukineko); Pumice Stone and Antique Linen distress inks (Ranger); Miss Caroline-Dilly Dally 6x6 paper pad (My Mind's Eye); silver star brads (Michaels)