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.  

Make It Monday #255

Amy Sheffer's String Art Card

When I watched Papertrey Ink's 's Make it Monday #255 video this week, I fell in love with this card by Amy Sheffer who taught the technique. Somehow I had to find a way to make the technique my own. While looking for a certain color of sequins earlier, I passed up two spools of Silver and two spools of Gold DMC Metallic Thread... BINGO! I always love pink and gold and I knew this was what I was going to do for my challenge entry this week.

To start this card, I cut a Noted: A2 card base from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I masked off the scalloped edge then laid it in a shallow box and spattered Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor in Inca Gold on the front.  This card uses a #8 Silver Black Velvet Brush.  I set that aside to let it dry and went on to the String Art portion of the card.

I have 8 small medallion dies that I could swear came from Papertrey Ink, but I cannot find them on their website. I didn't realize at the time I received them that I would start a blog some months later and it would be important to know who made them.  I didn't used to keep track of that kind of thing.  If anyone recognizes these dies, please let me know what they are!  You have to use something that has holes in it or else make the holes for this technique that is also called Spirelli. It's really easy to do as Amy demonstrated for us and you can watch the video at Nichole Heady's Blog or at the Papertrey Ink YouTube Channel.  I had worked on something Spirelli years ago for a scrapbooking border set and used Iridescent Metallic Thread for that so I'm going to have to find that spool and put it with my others!

Once I had the medallions die cut, I used a Kabuki Brush to apply ink in Lovely Lady and Hibiscus Burst before doing the string art. I wanted some variation in the color of the blooms just as they would be in real life.  For the Spirelli art, my holes were big enough that a knot in the thread wouldn't have stopped it so I used a tiny piece of micro pore tape on the back side to hold the thread in place firmly so I could do the string art portion.  At the end of each flower, I tied it in a knot and taped it down with another tiny piece of micro pore tape. This held really well for me.

Using another Kabuki Brush (I have 5 - 1 each for the color families of Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue and Violet), I ink blended in Hawaiian Shores Ink ever so softly in the center of the front panel to give just a hint of a sky behind the flowers and then stamped the sentiment which is from Papertrey Ink's Friendly Flowers Stamp Set.  These Kabuki brushes give you a softness that is hard to achieve with an ink blending tool.

After that I cut 2 of the leafy stems from the Painted Petals Dies and another from a different set that I have.  Since I had gold spatter and gold metallic thread on my card, I wanted to cut the stems from gold cardstock as well to tie all of the elements together.  I adhered the flowers to the stems with a bit of Ranger Multi Medium Matte in one spot and then adhered the flower to the card front using Ranger Multi Medium Matte and Thin 3D Foam Squares.  A few sequins in Moonshine and Aquamarine finished this card.

This was such an easy card to create that I decided to make another one. This is a great one to send to my girlfriends to let them know I'm thinking of them and missing them since I don't live near any of them anymore.

For the flowers on the second card, I used Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal and Amethyst Allure Inks with Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Ink for the flowers and a Hawaiian Shores Card Base.  The background panel was cut from Stamper's Select White with the Sunshine Layers Die Set for WPLUS9 Design Studios. I used Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor in Tibet Gold for the spatter and Hawaiian Shores for the soft area of "sky" behind the flowers.  Some Moonshine and Peacock Sequins finish it up.  The sentiment is one I often use from Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set.

I've mentioned this before, but it probably bears repeating that I use Gold Metallic Poster Board from Hobby Lobby.  It's much less expensive and I can use all I want without worrying about the cost. I buy it when it's on sale 2/$1.00 and cut it into manageable pieces when I get it home.

Thanks for stopping by to share a quick card today.  I hope you'll stop over at the Papertrey Ink Blog and watch the video.

An Altered Art Project

Yesterday I decided to try something new to me so I whipped out a piece of watercolor paper that I cut down to 8.5 x 11 inches which is four times the size I normally work on.  I wanted to try a few new things and make something I could frame and hang in my studio.  I didn't want to go any larger than that to begin with as I thought it might be a bit overwhelming.

I started with a Simon Says Stamp Harlequin Stencil which is no longer available but there are some others out there.  I love Harlequin Diamonds, so I positioned my stencil on my watercolor base layer using a bit of micropore tape to secure it and used Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste with a Viva Decor Palette Knife to fill in the stencil.  Once I had it filled with a bit of texture, I quickly removed it and set it aside to dry for 10 minutes or so while I washed off my stencil and palette knife. Texture or embossing paste will harden on your tools, so don't wait to clean up until you are finished.  I keep Dawn Dish Soap and a scrub brush in the bathroom that is next to my studio for easy access.  It's also handy to have there in case you need to wash any of your photo polymer stamps to help restore the stickiness.

Next I cut out several of the Simon Says Stamp Clustered Leaves from Watercolor Card Stock and began inking those up using the Direct To Paper Method with Simon Says Stamp Beanstalk Green Ink.  Next, I added in some Garden Green ink to get both the lighter and darker shades.  Using my Finetec Mica Pigment Metallic Watercolors, I made lots of splatters on the leaves with the Arabic Gold color. That is the most yellow of the set and makes me think immediately of 18 Karat Gold which is quite a bit brighter than 14 Karat Gold.  I used to work in a jewelry store -- can you tell?  I have a couple of flat boxes that I have the flaps cut off of to make a shallow box for me to do any color sprays or that kind of thing in.  I found I was getting too much splatter on my desk just doing it kind of over my trash can, *wink*.  I set that box aside and went back to my base layer now that the texture paste was dry.

Using a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool I started randomly inking up my background with Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue Ink.  I was concentrating that color near the center of the image to convey a blue sky in the background. Simon Says Stamp Thistle Ink was then added in somewhat selectively to sort of give the illusion of flowers out a window against the blue sky.  I actually don't really know if I achieved this result, but this was the impression I was trying to give by using the Harlequin Diamonds which always make me think of Tudor style windows.  Then came the Arabic Gold spatters on the background canvas.

While that was drying, I grabbed some color mists that I had made using reinkers along with several sizes and styles of Prima Flowers.  I had purchased a white assortment several years ago called Botanical Mix that came in a tall acrylic container with several sizes and styles. I didn't know if I would ever use them all, but I nearly have by now. Using my other flat box I sprayed several of the flowers and set them aside to dry.  Once they were dry from the color sprays I carried the box to my work area to splatter them Arabic Gold Watercolor as well. The idea behind the gold spatters is to convey sunshine sparkling over everything in the garden....

I looked through all of my brads for the flower centers as buttons just didn't seem to suit this project and selected the ones you see in the project.  I don't have any idea what brand these are and they are several years old - maybe as many as 10 years old.

I wanted the scene to seem like it was a sunny garden so I cut a mask from a scrap piece of card stock and inked it in with some Simon Says Stamp Lemon Chiffon Ink.  In the end, I actually painted the sun with Arabic Gold.  In the Finetec Paints, it completely covers anything else including the ink I had used in that spot.  You can even use them on dark card stock and it will cover.  

After that I sat down to arrange all of my elements on the background with how I thought I would be adhering them.  Once I had them how I wanted I used a piece of Press and Seal over the top to keep the arrangement in tact (mostly) so that I could reassemble it with my adhesive.  I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte, placing it on the stems and at the base of any leaves that seemed like they might be at risk for getting torn off.

I just kept working from upper left to lower right until I had my arrangement how I liked it.  For the final touches I added the butterflies made from vellum and eggplant colored card stock with a couple of glue dots and a skinny strip of 3D Foam tape under the body.  I cut the Simon Says Stamp Create Die 5 times and glued them one on top of the other for a very thick and substantial element then adhered that to the canvas using 3D foam tape.

I'll be entering this project over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is "Stencil It". I hope you enjoyed my "Out of the Box" project today and thanks for stopping by.