Stamptember Has Arrived + New Illustrations!

Hi there! Have you heard? Stamptember has arrived over at Simon Says Stamp, and it promises to be a month of pure fun with tons of exciting releases all month long. If you’re not familiar with Stamptember, it’s Simon Says Stamp’s birthday month, and they celebrate all month long with huge Simon Says Stamp product releases, as well as super fun, limited-edition collaboration stamp sets from the wonderful companies that we know and love! I am super stinking excited that two of my own illustrations have been used for tonight’s release: Floral Frames and Butterfly Ranunculus! I have two projects using these new sets to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first project features my new Floral Frames illustration. I have always loved combining thin, delicate frames with bold florals, and these images in this set are perfect for highlighting a poignant greeting, of which there are a ton included in the set! I began by stamping the framed anemone image from Floral Frames onto some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper using Hero Arts Contour Ink. I then used my Sennelier watercolors to add some lovely plum and jade no-line watercoloring. I used a very thin black pen to add the stamens to the center of the anemone after the watercolor had dried.

For the greeting, I stamped one of the sentiments included in the Floral Frames set, again using Hero Arts Contour Ink. I then used some handmade metallic plum watercolor, a very small brush with a sharp point, and a steady hand to watercolor the sentiment and the frame itself. I love how it looks like I hand painted the greeting myself! The shimmer in the metallic plum watercolor is such a lovely complement to the plummy anemone and pink berries.

For the card base, I ran an A2 panel of Hero Arts Plum cardstock through my die cut machine using the Exotic Vines Embossing Folder from Simon Says Stamp. I lightly brushed the Pinkfresh Studio Regal Kiss inkpad over the raised areas to help add even more interest and texture to the background, then used a blending brush to lightly blend around the edges of the embossed panel. I popped up the watercolored die cut using foam adhesive. I thought that the card needed another shiny, metallic element, so I added a few sprigs cut using the Simon Says Stamp Privet Branch die, cut from some coordinating Purple Rain iridescent foil cardstock. I popped on a few gems for one last touch of shine and texture!

My second card features my other illustration released tonight: Butterfly Ranunculus! I adore the graceful movement of the butterfly ranunculus flower, and they come in tons of different shapes and sizes. I normally gravitate more towards pinks and purples, but I thought that for this project I would venture into the warmer area with some brick red, peach, yellow, and copper. I stamped images from Butterfly Ranunculus onto some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper using Hero Arts Contour Ink, and again used my Sennelier watercolors to add color to the images, keeping things a bit more muted with some buttery yellow, peach, and brick red watercoloring. I included several different sprigs and foliage options with this set, so it makes building a bouquet super fun!

For the background, I ran an A2 panel of Apricot cardstock through my machine using the Simon Says Stamp Alstroemeria Embossing Folder. I thought that the graceful movement of this background suited the movement of the ranunculus flowers beautifully! I splattered some copper metallic watercolors on the embossed background for a little extra interest.

I arranged the bouquet on my embossed card front, adding a few coppery sprigs of the same Privet Branch die, cut from Altenew Brushed Copper cardstock. I adhered the bouquet using both liquid and foam adhesive for lots of dimension, then added a greeting. I tried to included a few multi-purpose-but-still-heartfelt greetings in the Butterfly Ranunculus set, and this is my favorite one! I embossed it onto some vellum using copper embossing powder, then fussy cut it with some sharp scissors and added it to the card front using some tiny dots of adhesive. A few buttery yellow iridescent gems were the final piece to the puzzle.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I have a few more projects that I’m saving for later this week, but I hope you’ll check out the entire new release HERE. It’s fabulous and chock full of a ton of different products and styles to suit every person! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Happy Stamptember!