Simon Says Stamp's ®STAMPtember & Inspired By

It's STAMPTEMBER® at Simon Says Stamp!  This is a month long celebration of Stamping and features collaborations with many of the other companies in the industry like Altenew, WPLUS9, Tim Holtz's Stampers Anonymous, Gina K, and lots more too numerous to list here.  Each day there is a new product collaboration announced.  All of the collaboration items are limited edition so if there's something you really want, you better not hesitate to get it or it will be sold out.  This card is for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Wedenesday Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp FLICKR Challenge plus the Inspired by... Challenge.

Several of the challenges have returned this week after a summer break including Inspired By All The Little Things. Darnell is well known from around Blogger and is helping Lesley to run the challenge this year while Lesley enjoys her new little girl.

I was waiting for the mail to arrive today because I knew I had a package out for delivery by the USPS. It was a happy mail day and I was very excited to get my STAMPtember® collaboration with Altenew called "Fabulous You". I was waiting for it to arrive after I saw the inspiration photo at Inspired By early this morning so I could use this set to make a card and enter a few challenges. Things didn't exactly go according to plan after that.  As I was studying how to stamp the main image in this set and looking at the various layers, my husband walked in and asked me a question.  When I turned back around to continue with reviewing everything, I could not find the stamp that I just had in my hand. I'll give you the prettier version of the story and tell you that after a lot of exasperation, grumbling some not so nice words and searching even the dogs' beds for the small stamp, I finally found it stuck to the dispenser of temporary adhesive I keep on my desk.  I use it on the back of my cardstock to keep it from moving around in the MISTI. I'm glad it ended okay and that I have it safely tucked away now.

For my card, I stamped the floral stem outline in Versamark and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  The blooms are just a single layer as are the leaves, but in four different stamps. Can you imagine if I had lost one of the very small leaf stamps?  Trust me, I was maniacal enough....  I lost the bigger one on the top right but it wouldn't have mattered what size it was. New, unused and unstained stamps are difficult to see anytime.  I don't really like that some ink colors stain my stamps but I can totally see how it could also be a positive thing after this incident.

I stamped the bloom layer in Hawaiian Shores Ink and the leaves in New Leaf. Once the ink was dry I misted the panel with some shimmer mist and die cut it using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in the largest size.  I cut a gold panel using the MFT Blueprints 15 die.  Next I made a top folding cardbase using Berry Sorbet Cardstock.  I cut one gold and two white Honey Bee Stamps Large Thanks words (without the shadow layer) and glued them together with the gold layer on top. I tried spray adhesive again but am just not sold on it and ended up having to redo it using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. For whatever reason the layers don't stick to each other. I don't know if it's the kind I have or what, but it just isn't working out for me. I have tried several times but I finally threw my can in the trash this evening since it is nearly empty. It was supposed to be a time saver but it hasn't worked out that way at all.

All in all, I'm surprised I got this card finished at all.  And it's early enough this morning that the dogs aren't out of bed yet which means I get to work in peace. There are so many new things to see over at Simon Says Stamp so be sure to check out what it still available in the collaboration items.  There are still 20 more days with a new release each day during the month.  Thank you for stopping by to see my product today and I hope you'll join in the many challenges there are!