Simon Says ... Anything Goes

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the theme is Anything Goes.  I always appreciate this type of challenge since it lets me create anything I want rather than trying to fit into a certain category.  I have so many ideas flitting around in my head right now that I'm actually having difficulty making them conform to specific criteria.  I want to be able to mix and match across different product lines which is how I came to create today's card.

In the October releases from Papertrey Ink and WPLUS9 Design Studio, there were new products featuring Holly. I happen to really love Holly and have a few other things with Holly as well.

In the last few days my friend, Yana, created a card utilizing Spellbinders Jolly Holly Die D-Lites. She used a tone on tone pattern paper, ran them through with the die cutting and embossing sandwiches, and then spritzed them with some Distress Mica Spray and let them dry.  I really loved the look of Yana's holly leaves, so I set about to create a similar look with things I already had.  I didn't have any suitable patterned paper so I ink blended a piece of watercolor paper in various shades of green (Pine Feather, Olive Twist and New Leaf from PTI and Lucky from SSS), misted it with enough water to get the color moving and set it aside to dry.

In the meantime, I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed the Holly Leaves and Berries from Botanical Blocks IV from Papertrey Ink. I used Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder and watercolored them using Pine Feather and Festive Berries.  Botanical Blocks IV was part of the October release. Once I had that finished and set aside to dry, I decided I wanted to try some of the Holly Leaves from the WPLUS9 stand-alone dies called "Woodland Basics". I went back to the ink blended piece and gave it some spritzes with Heidi Swapp Color Shine Spray in Gold Lamé and set that aside to dry again.

I had been trying to keep the entire set of Woodland Basics Dies together but I finally snipped the Holly Leaves (there are two of them) apart from the rest of the set and filed them down.  I use a diamond burr tip on my Dremmel Tool to grind down all the sharp points of my dies that have been snipped apart.  If there is a way for me to cut myself, I will find it, so I eliminate dies as one of those ways right off the get-go. The nice thing about a diamond burr vs. an aluminum dioxide tip is there are no sparks during grinding, which is always a plus. *Ü*

While I was waiting for the Color Shine Spray to dry, I cut out the Botanical Block and matted it on Gold Foiled Cardstock.  I adhered that to a top folding Pine Feather Card Base using my ATG. Then I cut several of the Holly Leaves to use as accents on my card. I tucked them in to the two corners using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. Since they stick out a little bit rather than laying completely flat I wanted to make sure I used a good strong adhesive.  I used the same adhesive for the Ruby Slipper Sequins from Cartwright's for the Holly Berries. When I was experimenting with the layout, I wasn't sure it was going to work but in the end I really like how it came out.  The extra Holly & Berries adds another layer of texture and dimension to my card.  I know I am going to try a few variations of this card in the next couple of days.

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit today!  I read and appreciate your kind and encouraging comments.