Simon Says For a Special Lady/Girl

It has been a few weeks since I've had time to play over at the Simon Says Stamp Challenges but I jumped right on the Wednesday Challenge this morning.  I did one of my favorite things which is to mix and match my supplies; inks, stamp sets, dies, paper, etc.  I love to create without restrictions on which product I can use.  Thankfully, Simon's sells most brands.  I know they are featuring Penny Black products this week and I have a few of those to do yet before the week is up but for today, I just want to use this set from a new company called "The Stamp Market".  Last month was their first release and I just love this stamp and die bundle.

I started by stamping the greenery with Simon Says Stamp Beanstalk Green Ink. There are small stamps to stamp the buds in a separate layer. Then you can cut that layer with the die. I cut three in total so I could stack them up for a chipboard effect. Shading was added using a YG63 marker.  For the buds and bloom I chose Altenew's Ocean Waves Crisp Ink and added some shading with a BG01 Copic Marker.  I mounted one bloom directly to the top of the greenery then added another on top of that with Thin 3D Foam Squares for a bit more dimension. This has been so well thought out and I hope to see similar sets in the future. I detest masking at least as much as fussy cutting, so this kind of set is awesome for me.  I also stamped the smallest flower and stem on the left hand side of the envelope to match.  I have a specific person in mind to send this card to, so while I already had my supplies out (as Jennifer McGuire, Yana Smakula, Nichole Heady or a gazillion others would say) I went ahead and did a little stamping on the envelope.

This card is for a friend who definitely needs a boost of moral support right now so I loved adding the greeting from the Concord & 9th "Hello Lovely" Stamp Set and a few sequins to add just a touch of bling!

As a side note, I finally ordered a few of the Distress Oxide Inks after seeing Tim Holtz's CHA Demo and they will be here by the end of the week.  It's a little bit difficult to find them in stock anywhere right now.  I got 9 of the 12 that were released and found them at Scrapbook.com.  If you haven't seen them in action, be sure to search "Distress Oxide" at Jennifer McGuire's website. There's a link on the right hand side bar of my blog.  It's Wednesday, so for many of you the work week is half over. Have a great afternoon everyone. I hope you'll come back soon.  

Birthday Greetings for Anything Goes

Hello and HAPPY 2017!  My first post for the new year is a birthday card for the Anything Goes Challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.  I actually have quite a few birthdays in January and I've been wanting to use this Concord & 9th Stamp Set called "Hello Lovely".  You know how I love to watercolor and this bouquet is perfect for the technique.  Someone else has already done the work of putting the bouquet together so no masking is required and I can heat emboss the outline using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Metallic Embossing Powder which you also know I love.  *Ü*

I stamped 4 of this same card panel onto Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper and heat embossed them. I didn't need it this time but I often do this so I don't have to stop what I am doing to stamp another if I make a mistake. I like to watercolor on a clipboard because you have something to hold down the paper but you aren't having to tape off your project. I've also got a small cutting board with a handle that I can use, but I'm more comfortable with the clip board and they only cost 99¢ at your local dollar store. I have two of these and I use the other one for Copic Coloring.  It has a sheet protector with my Hex Chart in it to refer to if needed when I am coloring. Sandy Allnock created the Hex Chart and you can get one at her website here.  You get a colored one and an uncolored one to color in as you get Copic markers so you can see what you have and what you need.  

I've been dying to make this card using some of my purple Distress Markers.  For this card I used Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves, and a touch of Milled Lavender along with some Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar.  The leaves were water colored with Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn Distress Markers.

I cut a card base from Winter Wisteria Cardstock using the Papertrey Ink Noted: Vertical A2 Scalloped Note Card Die.  I cut the painted panel with Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die in the largest size, then realigned it to make it narrower and a better fit for the card base and attached it to the card base using my ATG Adhesive.

I didn't want to cover up the watercolor painting with a sentiment, so I die cut the Paper Clippings Birthday Details Banner from Stamper's Select Vellum and attached the Happy Birthday die cut to that.  The Happy Birthday Die is one from Penny Black and is no longer available but there are lots of others out there to choose from.  Once that was dry, I put some adhesive behind the letters on the vellum to attach it to the card front.

I hope you enjoyed my card for today.  I have a few more to make and I think I will be creating some more using this same stamp set. Please come back again.  I have another blog post going live tomorrow morning and I will be joining the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge team as the Designer in the Spotlight for January.  I am so excited and I hope you'll be sure to stop over there and see all the projects!

Hello Lovely

I am jumping on here today with a quick post! This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is Trio-Tastic.  You have to do something (anything) in threes. I've been really busy this week and with it being Thanksgiving, I'm really trying to get a few things accomplished. So far, I'm not having too much luck. I've been so into making Christmas cards that I have been longing to create something in some fresh "sunshine-y" colors.

I watercolored this beautiful image from the Concord & 9th Hello Lovely Stamp Set in Red and Blue the other day, but I really wanted to create one in these beautiful coral tones.  I'm strongly considering changing my favorite color to coral instead of pink.  I love this shade that Papertrey calls Berry Sorbet.  

This entire arrangement has been drawn for you so there is no masking required. Some people really like masking but I'm not one of them. I love heat embossing, but it's very hard to mask and heat emboss.  I've had success a few times, but not much because masks are sticky, so the embossing powder wants to stick where the mask was covering your image before.  It's a lot of hassle to get an embossed image that is clean so when I find one like this that the entire bouquet has been done for me - well, that's a winner in my book!  I don't mind taking time to watercolor, but masking?  Forget it!

Recently, I've been using a few props in my photos to add some interest but I think I am only going to be doing that for some holidays and special occasions in the future rather than trying to do it all the time. It's getting to be more about the props than about the focus of the blog or the photos and it's taking so much time to get the lighting right etc. that it's leaving me less time to create.  Since this isn't a photography blog but rather a paper crafting one, I think I'm going back to basics.  In fact, just knowing that and deciding it, makes me a lot happier.

This is a really simple card.  I stamped the image onto Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper with Versamark and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  To watercolor it, I used a "trio" of colors - Mowed Lawn Distress Marker, with Light Carmine and Pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. The random gold splatters you see there are part of the stamp.  Once I had all the water coloring done and it was dry, I went over each of the blooms with my Wink of Stella Glitter Pen.  The blooms are just luminous in real life. I cut the panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and set it aside while I stamped my sentiment.

The sentiment comes from the Sugar Pea Designs Kindness Matters Stamp Set.  I cut one of the smaller Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles from the same watercolor paper to stamp it on. Again, I used Versamark with the Simon Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Once that was done, I mounted both to a top folding A2 card base made from Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet Cardstock.  A few Gold Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished this Clean & Simple card off.

Thanks for stopping by today and if you'd like to leave a comment, I very much appreciate and enjoy reading them.

Simon Flickr Challenge & Concord & 9th Challenge

I've been making so many Christmas cards that it's left me longing to watercolor so when I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge was for coloring, in any method, so I used the new Concord & 9th Stamp Set  called  Hello, Lovely which means I am also entering this into the Concord & 9th Challenge. This is a big, beautiful floral arrangement that you can color in your choice of mediums.  All the arranging is done for you. The first card I made with this stamp I used Spring colors but for the second one, I wanted to do something in more Christmas-y colors.

I started with a panel of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.  After treating it with my powder tool, I stamped it in Versamark and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder--still my favorite gold!

I used a combination of Distress Markers (Festive Berries) and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers in Persian Blue, Olive, & Deep Green with a water brush. The entire panel was spritzed with shimmer mist once the watercolor had dried. 

I stamped the sentiment from the Sugar Pea Designs Kindness Matters Stamp Set onto the same watercolor paper and used the same embossing powder.  

Next I die cut the sentiment and the watercolored panel using dies from the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die Set then assembled my card onto a top folding card base made from Bazzill Whirlypop Cardstock using my ATG gun.  This was a super simple card for these challenges.  It took a little bit of time to watercolor, but I really enjoy doing that.  

So that's it for a quick post this morning.  I'm hoping to take the rest of the day off!  Thank you so much for stopping by today!