Distress Oxide Heart Background Set - Simon Says Stamp You Are Loved Release Hop

Hello! So happy today to be hopping along to celebrate the You Are Loved Release from Simon Says Stamp with giveaways at each stop along the hop! Info at the bottom of this post on the giveaway, as well as links to all the products I used on my cards today! Even thought this release happened the end of last month, with the busyness of Diecember and the holidays, there wasn't a chance to properly give this release the spotlight time it deserves, so that is why we are hopping now! There is also a fabulous freebie with any purchase - one of my favorite colors of Distress Oxide as it turns out - Festive Berries!

I had fun creating a whole bunch of cards using the beautiful Damask Background and some Distress Oxide inks. One of my favorite techniques with big background stamps like this is to lay them face up on my desk, ink them up with distress oxide ink, mist with water, then press a piece of watercolor paper on the top, smoothing it over with my fingers. When you lift off the watercolor paper, you have this lovely soft background effect - almost a bit like watercolors. And this image is PERFECT for it! I created several colors of backgrounds with this technique, then decided to double the number of cards I could make by die cutting a Wonky Heart out of the center of each of them and using both the positive and negative cuts!

For these first four cards I used the new Always and Forever stamp set to add sentiments. I stamped larger sentiments inside the hearts for the negative pieces mounted with foam over white cardbases. Then heat embossed some of the smaller more detailed sentiments on black cardstock for the positive die cut pieces, mounting the hearts with foam adhesive over the white cardbases. These first two used Fired Brick to stamp the background:

Same idea with these two - and these used Faded Jeans for the background color:

These next four cards use a softer color scheme, and I paired them up with sentiments from the October card kit stamp set, a die from Diecember, and a die from the release before that (Fun and Festive) that I hadn't had a chance to use yet! 

I thought the soft gray from the Hickory Smoke ink was perfect for a Sympathy card, so I used the lovely sentiment from Sketched Flowers for the center of the heart, then used the die cut You're Doing Awesome from Diecember for the card on the right. I die cut it from both black and white cardstock and layered them together slightly offset for a shadow effect.

Bundled Sage might be my favorite color of these all! I love the variation in color on these ones! I used the same Sketched Flowers stamp set for my sentiment in the center of the heart, and then used the You're So Kind Wafer Die from the Fun and Festive Release. I also die cut this one from both white and black cardstock, then inset all the letters for a solid sentiment.

I think this would be such a fun way to easily create a card set for a gift as well - don't you think? Which color combo is your favorite?!?!?

Also, my nephew was "helping" me take all these photos, and somehow I ended up with a lot more of this second set than the first one...not sure how! Haha! He kept helping me arrange them a little different so they looked better! :) And I mailed most of these off to Simon Says Stamp, so I didn't have them any longer to take any additional photos!

I also have this card that I shared last month that I created using goodies from the You Are Loved Release - you can click HERE or on the photo to see details on this card if you're interested!

There is also a special new addition to the Simon Says Stamp Store today - an adorable new set of Suzy's Watercolor Prints - I so love these for packing with my watercolors on the go! They are so much fun!

GIVEAWAY INFO:

Simon Says will be giving a $25 gift certificate to their online store at each stop along the hop - so make sure and leave a comment before you leave for a chance to win! Winners will be announced next Wednesday on the Simon Says Stamp Blog.

Here is the entire blog hop line up in case you get lost along the way:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Nichol Spohr

Nina-Marie Trapani

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Suzy Plantamura

Amy Rysavy

Lisa Addesa

Heather Hoffman (you are here)

Marge Yoon

Anna Kossakovskaya

Karin Åkesdotter

Bibi Cameron

Barb Engler

Anna-Karin Evaldsson

Product links are all below - including affiliate links where possible, which simply means if you use one of the links below that I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!!!