Shine Bright Like A Diamond

I am popping in with a super fast post today!  I took several days off last week to get a few days in with my best girls (my daughter and best friend were both here) and also one of my brothers was here with his daughter, my niece Livvie (short for Olivia).  Liv is a senior in high school this year and an honor student who will be starting college next fall.  She is planning to be a lawyer.  It was so awesome to see her and my brother and we browsed through my Heritage Album and filled her in on as many family stories, traditions and so on as we could remember.  It was a lot of fun.

I wanted to get something made quickly today for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week in the theme of "Shine Bright Like A Diamond".  I tried to keep things as simple as possible for today's card.  I have so many ideas in my head right now that it is hard for me to stay on task and finish one before starting another.  I have bits and piece for at least a half dozen more sitting on my desk.

I started by doing some ink blending on a piece of watercolor paper using a Mini Ink Blending Tool and some Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue Ink.  If you use a light touch, you can give it just that hint of color which exudes more of a light source look rather than a definitive color.  You can enhance that look my adding a bit of shimmer mist to that panel and letting it dry. I love using this on my cards and when it was dry I cut it with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size. Next I stamped the Pine Branch from the Sunny Studios Holiday Style Stamp Set. I first inked the stamp in Versamark and then without cleaning off the stamp, added Pine Feather Ink then stamped it onto the watercolor panel. By doing it this way, you can add embossing powder over the top to intensify the color and provide iridescence.  I used WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder and heat set it. This ink is my favorite green for the holidays but I don't really have any other ink in a similar color.  Simon's has a new ink color called Evergreen that's on my wishlist. Next I cut the What The Doodle Ornament from gold glitter cardstock. I used a metal shim and didn't have any trouble but my glitter paper has a kind of vinyl backing on it which can sometimes give me trouble.  Luckily it didn't today.  I also cut the Simon Says Stamp Believe Die from the same glitter paper.  Using Ranger Multi Medium Matte, I attached the die cut to the branch and the die cut word below.  I also added some of the Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequin Mix which has them in the 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm size all in one package.  I don't usually have all the sizes so I'm glad that Simon Says Stamp offers these in a mix.

I mounted everything onto a top folding card base made from Pine Feather Cardstock and attached my panel using 1/4 inch Scor-Tape for a super strong hold. Finally, I added Stardust Stickles to all of the openings on the ornament for the ultimate in sparkle and shine.  It did take a little while to dry, but I feel like the end result was worth it.

This is it for me today but I hope you'll stop over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog to see all the great ideas and inspiration there.