Hi there! It’s release night over at Simon Says Stamp; this month we’re introducing the Let’s Chill collection. It’s full of all of those things that are the embodiment of summer, from butterflies to kites to the beach! They also added some absolutely stunning new colors to the Paws-itively Saturated ink line. I chose to focus on some of the more botanical aspects of summer from this month’s release, so let’s get started with the details.

The new Butterfly Dreams set is absolutely spectacular. It features a variety of beautiful butterflies in various angles and sizes, paired with several poignant sentiments. I wanted to create an ethereal card, with lots of bright white and light colors-almost translucent. I began by heat embossing a couple of butterflies from Butterfly Dreams on some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper, as well as one of the pansy swags from my Just A Note Pansy set, both with white pearl embossing powder. I used Gansai Tambi watercolors to add some soft color to the images and create a very dreamlike, almost secret garden feel.

For the background, I die cut a Laurel Leaves cover plate die from some white cardstock. I used a blending brush and the new Heather Paws-itively Saturated ink to lightly blend a periwinkle halo around the edges of a white A2 card base. I adhered the Laurel Leaves cover plate die cut on the blended card base using some liquid adhesive. The subtle ink blending behind the detailed cover plate die cut helps to keep things light and airy, but still allows the details in the die cut to be visible!

I cut the watercolored pansy in half so that I could layer it at each corner of the card front. I stamped a greeting from Butterfly Dreams using the new Iris Pawsi-itively Saturated ink, then arranged all of the components on the card front using foam adhesive. I love the combination of the watercolored florals with the white leafy background; it looks like a dreamy garden to me. The beautiful butterflies are the icing on the cake!

My second project for today features the beautiful new Sketched Daisy Bloom Hot Foil Plate as the focal point. As soon as I saw this pretty daisy, I knew that I wanted to pair it with some of the older hot foil plates. I used my Glimmer machine to hot foil the Sketched Daisy Bloom, Dancing Butterflies, and Sketched Anemone foil plates on white cardstock using Moondust foil. I love this iridescent aqua foil! I die cut each of the images using the coordinating dies, which are very conveniently included with the hot foil plates.

I die cut the background using the Ringlet Plate from some white cardstock to create a subtly textured background. I trimmed a couple of strips of coordinating teal cardstock and butted them against a strip of plain white cardstock, which I adhered to the die cut background using liquid adhesive. I used the same cardstock to die cut a few iridescent aqua sprigs to add a bit of extra color to the bouquet.

I arranged all of the elements on my die cut card front using both liquid and foam adhesive, adding a quick and simple sentiment from the new CZ Design Chill Summer sentiment strips. The final touch was to add a few iridescent white pearls for one last element of shine!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope you’ll check out the entire Let’s Chill release-so many wonderful goodies to see! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Beautiful cards, and love the laurel leaves background!
Such a beautifully done card! Stunning!