I’ve been getting a lot of use out of Fancy Pants Designs’ Park Bench paper collection. If you look at the cards I’ve done since May, you may notice I’ve used this collection’s patterned papers four times. The patterns are trendy, in popular colors and play well with other collections.

Here’s Park Bench card No. 5. I was itching to die-cut some clouds with my new Silhouette Portrait (which I’m happy to report is back to life with a replacement power adapter), and the quote on a Park Bench paper — “Wherever you go, no matter the weather, bring your own sunshine” from author Anthony D’Angelo — fit my idea. Plus, the words are set against a background of polka dots … who can resist polka dots?

I paired Park Bench’s citrine paper and gray striped paper with a light-blue polka dot paper from Basic Grey’s Hipster collection. The enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye’s The Sweetest Thing collection work great with the colors (I’ve teamed them up before). I also gave my clouds “silver linings” with metallic cardstock.

Here’s how to make it:

Make a card from a 6-by-12-inch piece of light-blue, textured cardstock. Adhere a 5 1/2-inch-square piece of citrine cardstock (I used one from the Park Bench collection by Fancy Pants Designs), centered, to the card’s front. Adhere a 6-by-1 1/2-inch piece of gray-and-off white, diagonally striped cardstock (Park Bench) horizontally to the card, 1 inch from the bottom.

Using adhesive and dimensional adhesive, affix several die-cuts of clouds in various sizes that feature gray diagonal stripes and light-blue, polka-dotted patterns (I created mine using my Silhouette Portrait, “6 Clouds” by Lori Whitlock, Park Bench’s striped paper, the reverse side of “Nifty” from Basic Grey’s Hipster collection and slightly larger cloud die-cuts in silver cardstock from The Metallic Stack by Die Cuts With a View) to the top half of the card’s front, in a random fashion with some overlapping.

Affix citrine and gray enamel dots of various sizes (I used ones from Bluebell “Smile” from The Sweetest Thing collection by Jen Allyson for My Mind’s Eye) on and underneath the clouds and on the striped paper. Affix clear and light-blue, raindrop-shaped rhinestones in different sizes (mine are from Little Yellow Bicycle) below the gray striped clouds.

Using dimensional adhesive, affix a sentiment or quote that’s printed on a 6-by-1 1/4-inch piece of black and off-white polka dot cardstock (mine’s from Park Bench), centered, over the striped paper. Tie a piece of light-blue ribbon around the card’s front, underneath the striped paper.