Simon Says "Anything Goes" July 1 - 2016

I love the weeks on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is "Anything Goes" because it means I can create anything my heart desires and it qualifies for the challenge.  I have several things sitting on my desk right now that I've been trying to get to, so this weekend will be a great time to play and upload to their Challenge Blog.

I've been wanting to play with this stamp set, Background Basics - Sheet Music for a while. Dawn McVey created a card during the last Papertrey Release in June and I've been wanting to play with it since then. So yesterday I sat down and created a couple of backgrounds to use for some cards I was putting together.

I stamped the Sheet Music onto a piece of watercolor paper with Versamark and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. Next I did some ink blending using Lavender Moon Ink with a Mini Ink Blending Tool on that panel and set it aside to dry so that I would be able to stamp and heat emboss my greeting after it was dry.  While I waited for that, I created the blooms and leaves using the technique that I developed called Watercolor Detail Stamping where I emboss the outline layer then add a detail layer to "watercolor" those images. I'm actually stamping that 2nd layer into the outline image of Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set by lightly misting my paper with water and then stamping that layer in.  I used Lavender Moon Ink for these and New Leaf for the leaves.  This simply moves the water a bit for that hand watercolored look.  I confess, I need to be a lot better about leaving more white space when I am watercolring.  This technique makes it easy to do.

Once the flowers had dried I die cut them with the Altenew Beautiful Day Coordinating Dies then returned to my background panel so that I coulds stamp the Sentiment from the Papertrey Inspired: Grace Stamp Set.  I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Beautiful Day is my 2nd most favorite stamp set and my very favorite of the sets I have from Altenew.  You can find this at Simon Says Stamp or Altenew.



My card base is made from Stamper's Select White and the Noted: A2 Dies. The largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Regtangle Die is nearly the perfect size to fit on top of the stitched outline on the note card.  I just realign the paper back into the die (lining up the stitches too) and cut about 1/8th of an inch off from one end to make it fit perfectly.  I love it when I can mix several products across different manufacturers.  That makes it a win-win for everyon, but especially for me.

I love being able to make these horizontal note cards with this die but I am very much hoping for the release of a top folding vertical card die as a companion piece to this one.  I think my cardmaking world would be complete with that.

I have several other things on my desk this morning that I am planning to use this weekend so I hope you'll come back soon to check them out.  Meanwhile, I will be posting this over at the Simon Wednesday Challenge Blog.Thanks very much for stopping by today!