Spring Framed Bunny Art - Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Moments Release

Good morning! I'm back today with something different than a card, still using the BRAND NEW Beautiful Moments Release from Simon Says Stamp! I thought it would be fun to get out of the box, so to speak, and create something different and fun! I love how it turned out!!!

I started off by stamping the adorable images from Special Friend on watercolor paper, and coloring in with soft watercolors. I love the vintage storybook feel that these images give me! Once they dried, I die cut them all out and set aside. I pulled out a Ranger Mini Framed Panel and added some color and texture to it by using a Vintage Photo distress ink cube to swipe directly on the edges of the frame, and then spritzed well with Fossilized Amber spritz which has a lovely bit of sparkle to it. For the background, I used Ivory cardstock for the base, then layered over several pieces of Desert Storm cardstock with a torn edge. I then adhered it inside the framed panel, and then started tucking my images into the scene. I stamped a tiny bee and it's little trail onto the background, and added the sentiment at the top. I embellished with a few colors of the adorable new Easter Eggs embellishment mix, some sparkly Nuvo Blizzard glitter drops on parts of the scene, and then added accents here and there with a white gel pen! Here is a closer look at this fun framed piece of art:

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Sparkly Winter Tags - Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Tim Holtz exclusive

Hello! Today I've got some projects using some BRAND NEW products for STAMPtember at Simon Says Stamp, these ones designed by Tim Holtz! There are also some surprises that were just announced with these products - including a free class from Tim Holtz, and a class bundle with these sets and lots more. I received the products early, and had so much fun creating these tags to share with you today!

I created a total of 4 tags using the Festive Watercolor stamp and die set, paired with Festive Tags dies. I started off by stamping lots of the images from Festive Watercolor using a mix of Lumberjack Plaid, Rustic Wilderness, and Scorched Timber distress inks on watercolor paper. Some of them I lightly misted with water before stamping, some after stamping, and some I inked with more than one color. Once I had a whole bunch of them created, I die cut them with the coordinating dies, then it was time to add sparkle. I added some Glossy Accent blobs randomly to each piece, then smooshed them into a little pile of Mica Flakes several times, which spread the glossy accents, and adhered the mica flakes all at the same time! Great messy fun - haha! While those dried, I die cut my Festive Tags each once from watercolor paper and white cardstock. I love the embossed edge each of these dies gives - so incredibly fun! The white cardstock ones I used my Distress Embossing dabber on one side, then embossed with Princess Gold embossing powder. The watercolor ones I did some ink smooshing with Lumberjack Plaid and Rustic Wilderness inks for a watercolor background. I die cut the tag toppers from Ivory Glitter cardstock, stamped and die cut my sentiments from Festive Sentiments, and then assembled the layers, using foam adhesive for the words, and liquid glue for all the greenery pieces. Finished off with some Ivory Jute String at the top, and a few Dazzling Clear Gems for extra sparkle! Here is a closer look at all of these tags:

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!!!

Birch Tree Backgrounds - Simon Says Stamp DieCember Release

Hello! It's time to kick off the fun month of DieCember at Simon Says Stamp - a month devoted to celebrating die cutting. It is kicking off with a fun big DieCember Release. And.. the irony isn't lost on me that the first two cards I'm sharing tonight have NO die cutting on them! They do, however, use some of the BRAND NEW release, so there is that!

This first card I owe credit to my artistic daughter for the doodling added on the birch trees!

I'm sharing two cards today using the fun Birch Tree cling background stamp. This card is actually the second card I created, once I figured out how it worked - haha! I mixed up the part that stamped, thinking it was the trees that stamped, not the background. On this one, I clearly figured it out.

I lined the stamp up in my MISTI, then stamped it multiple times. I started by inking it up with Seafoam Pawsitively Saturated inks, then moved on to the next darkest color - Surf. I finished off with Ocean at the top. I just kept adding ink and stamping to get a bit of a gradiated image.

At that point, the birch trees looked a bit boring to me, so I used a fine line Sharpie to outline the trees. It still felt like it needed a little something - but my artistic skills are sorely lacking! So my daughter did the honors - and I think she did fabulous! I actually think I could look at this and re-create it with hers as a guide.

Of course we needed a snowy background - so I added some white splatters to mimic snow, and set that aside to dry.

While that dried, I worked on a sentiment. I used Joy to You and Yours - the stamp set from the December Card Kit. I stamped it with black Versafine ink, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. This is my favorite way to get a black heat embossed image - so much easier than messing with black embossing powder! And it gives great shine!

I fussy cut that image out, then mounted it on my background with foam adhesive for a touch of simple dimension!

And...second card, which is actually the first one I made. My plan was to create a striking sunset sky, then stamp the trees over the front in black to create a silhouette. Once I stamped it - I quickly realized my mistake. I almost tossed it - but, I spent a long time creating the background, and couldn't bring myself to waste it! So I decided it could be a night sky, with red Christmas lights reflecting on crisp white and snowy birch trees. Right?!?

For this one, I used Distress ink in Tattered Rose, Abandoned Coral, Lumberjack Red, and Aged Mahogany.

I stamped over with Versafine black ink, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Lots of the clear powder actually stuck to the distress ink, which gave some added texture on there for fun!

I added some white splatters for snow on this one, and then left it to dry overnight, since some of the splatters were over the shiny heat embossing, and I wanted to make sure they were nice and dry and wouldn't rub off before they were dry.

Sentiment was created with the same stamp set, and heat embossed the same way. I also fussy cut it out, and mounted with foam adhesive on the panel.

Hard to capture the texture and shine on this card - but here is a little closer look:

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!!!

Praying for Ukraine - Simon Says Stamp

Hello friends. Yesterday I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine - first one I've had in a long time, and it took a while for the worst to wear off. And as the day wore on and I watched the news, all I felt was heaviness. I'm sure many of you felt the same way - watching in horror the events unfolding in Eastern Europe, and feeling helpless. Many of us were thinking of our beautiful friend Yana Smakula - a very real person and face of someone living through these events. Her story HERE is such a small, real, and raw window into what it is like over there right now. I just can't even imagine. At all.

Between the migraine hangover, and the heaviness on my heart, praying for Yana and all of the Ukraine, as I finally was able to get to my craft desk, it seemed fitting to let those emotions flow out onto my cardmaking. First of all - the colors, obviously inspired by the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Then the heart and sentiments reflecting what I wish I could communicate to Yana and others. And finally, even the technique with this 3D embossing folder is something I learned from Yana recently, misting the paper with water on both sides before embossing to get a more detailed image (you can see her post about this HERE). This yellow panel is one I had tested out shortly after seeing her genius in action. I caught my eye in my pile of projects to be finished, and the rest just came together so perfectly for today.

As I often do, I was able to use leftovers from my first planned card for a second version. Oddly enough, I may even like the second version best. But I really almost feel like these go together as a set.

As I mentioned, that yellow panel was created with the Exotic Vines embossing folder. I die cut a window in it, and then added a panel behind on which I had blended Blueprint Sketch distress ink and added some white splatters. I added some white splatters to the yellow panel as well, then popped it up with foam adhesive, and I also added the detail die cut from Deco Heart die on white cardstock.

The piece I die cut out, I wanted to use for another card - you can get a slim white heart frame if you die cut the outer heart from Deco Heart, and then the inner from the center of it. I adhered that around the yellow heart to help it pop, then added it with foam on a blue background die cut with Stitched Rectangles die.

Sentiments for both cards were added with the new CZ Design Well Wishes stamp set. The first card I stamped it simply in black on a thin strip of white cardstock. 

The second card I heat embossed the main sentiment on the blue background, then stamped and trimmed the smaller sentiment down by hand into a banner shape.

I finished off both cards with a few Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

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!!!

Autumn Thanks - Pretty Pink Posh September Release Instagram Hop

Good morning! Today I'm celebrating the new September Release from Pretty Pink Posh by joining Day 2 of the Instagram Release Hop! You can head over to Instagram to join that hop, and enter to win today's giveaways, and you can find the new release HERE. I thought I would share more details here on my blog on my card - since it is always tough to put enough info in an Instagram post!  

I love all the fall goodness in this release - and couldn't resist putting together two cards with all the warm cozy colors of fall!

For this first card, I used the new Elegant Pumpkin die, layered over the frame portion from the coordinating dies for Fall Circles stamp set. I added a subtle background to my card base using the new Leaves Background stencil and some Antique Linen Distress ink.

I mounted the frame with foam adhesive on the background, added a sentiment using the new Woodland Thanks stamp set and Coordinating die, and a bit of sparkle with a few Metallic Gold jewels that were released previously. Love that the larger sentiment has a coordinating die, so you can pop it up with foam for dimension!

Next up, you know I couldn't resist a shaker card with some of the fun new clay embellishments! I used that same cardstock as the last card for my cardbase, and then used the new Leaf Frame die to create the shaker element.

I filled it with the new Autumn Days clay embellishment mix, and added a sentiment from the new Falling Leaves stamp set and Coordinating dies.

Which kind of card do you prefer? Lots of stenciled and die cut layers, or a fun shaker card?

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