You're My Rainbow (in the rain)

The current challenge at Our Daily Bread Design's blog is "Rain or Water." I was inspired by that theme to create this card to send to Operation Write Home.

For once, I used no sketch. I first die cut the clouds from white cardstock, and the raindrops from 3 different colors of blue, using this die set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I chose the "You're a Rainbow" stamp set from Hero Arts for the focal image and greeting. I stamped the rainbow on white cardstock with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and colored the rays with Inktense pencils. Then I fussy-cut the rays portion out--cutting off the stamped cloud--and set it aside.

I stamped the greeting on a piece of textured light grey cardstock. I then glued the rainbow next to it, and glued one of the die-cut clouds over the bottom of the rainbow. I glued the rest of the clouds down, letting the top two hang over the edge. I trimmed the overhanging portions, and started placing the raindrops.

I tried to get a fairly random placement for the raindrops, mixing the different shades and sizes over the grey panel. Once I had an arrangement I liked, I used my Pick Me Up tool to pick each up, one by one; then placed a small dot of glue where it should go; and finally replaced the raindrop on the glue to adhere it.

After I glued the raindrops, I went over the rainbow rays with my Wink of Stella clear glitter brush marker. I matted the grey panel onto a piece of yellow cardstock, cutting the yellow down to leave a 1/16" border. Then I matted that onto a piece of muted purple cardstock, again having a 1/16" border. I mounted that onto a standard A2 card base. Finally I went over the rainbow and each raindrop with Glossy Accents. And there it is--another card for one of our overseas military heroes to send home to someone!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs' "Rain or Water"
A Blog Named Hero's Challenge #41: "Build a Background"