Simon Says Anything Goes

Today I am joining in a few challenges.  I wanted to take one of my favorite background stamps and use it to make a Christmas Card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge. I'll also be linking up at the Muse: Christmas Visions Challenge Blog and the CAS on Friday Challenge Blog. The Muse Christmas Visions current challenge lasts until December 23rd, so I have lots of time to still join in there, and still a few days to join in the others.
I've done so many holiday cards in every sort of variety so I wanted to take an older (but not very old) non-Christmas Stamp and make it into a very Clean and Simple Christmas Card. I like both styles of card making - lots of layers or clean and simple and everything in between.  These are very simple.  I stamped three backgrounds in Versamark onto Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper using my MISTI and heat set them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

Next I used a variety of inks with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool to ink blend the background.  The red card is done in Gina K Designs Cherry Red, the Green is Simon Says Stamp Lucky, and the mocha colored card is done with Brilliance ink in Pearlescent Beige.  I then misted the Mocha and Green backgrounds with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Iridescent Gold.  For the Red background, I left it plain red.  I die cut these panels with the WPLUS9 Stitched Rectangle from the Gift Card Layers Dies.

I cut a couple of different banners and a label for the sentiments and stamped them in Versamark and heat set in the Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  "Merry & Bright" is from the Gina K Designs Merry & Bright Stamp TV Kit and the other sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Beautiful Berries: Winter Stamp Set.

I ran some gold foiled cardstock through my Xyron to make it have a sticky back and then die cut the Tim Holtz Woodland trees to have one behind each banner or label. These dies are very intricate and it was much easier to have a neat looking card by using the Xyron instead of my usual Multi Medium Matte.

I adhered those two panels to card bases made from Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Cardstock.

For the Red Card, I used a little bit of  the Pearlescent Beige Ink applied lightly to the bookplate label which gave it a more ivory appearance so I made a card base for that one from Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream Cardstock.  I attached all three sentiments using Scotch Foam Tape.  Since the rest of the cards were flat, I wanted that little touch of dimension.

These three cards went together super fast and the Gina K Designs Inks blended like a dream as did the others.  Since it was my first time using Gina K Inks in this way, I didn't know in advance how it was going to work out.  Again, I am so impressed with the Gina K Designs Inks. I made room in my cabinet to add several of those by moving my Distress Inks to another location in my studio.  I'll get a few at a time until I have the colors I want.

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today.  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience.

Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Lucky Ink Shop at: SSS
WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS	Gina K Designs Stamp TV Kit - Merry & Bright Shop at: GKD	Papertrey Ink Beautiful Berries: Winter Shop at: PTI	Papertrey Ink Keep it Simple Frames Shop at: PTI
Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS
Scotch 3M Faom Tape Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Mini Round Ink Blending Tool Shop at: SSS	Gina K Designs Cherry Red Ink Cube Shop at: GKD	Tim Holtz Woodlands Thinlits Shop at: SSS
Simon Says Stamp Rebecca Lace Background Stamp Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS