Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Days Release + New Illustration-Mother’s Day Dogwood!

Hi there! Simon Says Stamp is releasing a beautiful new collection of products tonight, called the Beautiful Days! This collection features so many beautiful, unique products that are perfect for creating springy cards, and I am thrilled that I have illustrated a stamp set included in this release, called Mother’s Day Dogwood! This stamp set features two large dogwood illustrations: one dogwood heart filled with sweet filler flowers and foliage, and one more simplistic illustration of a dogwood branch, as well as lots of sentiments to be used to build meaningful greetings for your Mother’s Day cards (or even non-Mother’s Day cards!). I have two projects to share with you today using my new Mother’s Day Dogwood stamp set and lots of beautiful colored cardstock, so let’s get started with the details!

Vivid colored cardstock is one of my favorite ways to make a huge impact on a card front. Figuring out how to add all of the different elements on my card while also keeping the intense color of the cardstock true (that is, not using white cardstock!) is like a puzzle for me. I love monochromatic cards, as you’ve seen if you have looked at my blog before, and my cards today feature monochromatic jewel-toned color scheme with bright pops of pink flowers and some pretty metallic accents!

For my first project, I paired the simple Mother’s Day Dogwood branch with my colored pencils and Hero Arts Adriatic cardstock. When coloring with pencils on colored cardstock, I like to use Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink. I think that, because this thick ink sits on top of the cardstock rather than sinking down into it, it melds nicely with the colored pencils, which also sit atop the cardstock, preventing unsightly lines from being visible beneath the colored pencils. When using super intense colored cardstock like this deep teal cardstock, I like to lay down a base layer of my lightest colored pencil, which in this case was a cool pale blush color. I covered the entirety of each petal with that pale blush, then went back and added my darker colors, blending them together with the same pale blush color. I die cut the finished colored piece with the coordinating dies.

To accent the pink flowers, I used a blending brush to blend Pinkfresh Studio Tidal Pond ink with the Simon Says Stamp Domed Arches Stencils and Masks. I love the boldness of the dark teal ink on the intense teal cardstock. After I’d blended the arch shape, I kept my stencil in place, then placed the Simon Says Stamp Tin Tile Stencil directly over the top of the cardstock and attached dome stencil, blending with the same Tidal Pond ink. This creates a super subtle monochromatic pattern within the arch shape. I removed the patterned stencil and, while the arch stencil was still in place, splattered some handmade rose gold metallic watercolor in the background. The pale rose gold juxtaposes beautifully with the vivid teal. I finally removed the arch stencil, leaving me with a lovely patterned background that is entirely one layer! So much dimension and interest when you layer multiple stencils together.

I trimmed down the stenciled panel so that it was slightly smaller than a standard A2, then mounted it on a full size A2 panel of the same Adriatic cardstock with some foam tape. I heat embossed one of the greetings from Mother’s Day Dogwood onto some more teal cardstock using rose gold embossing powder, which contrasts beautifully with the jewel-toned cardstock, then trimmed the sentiment out with sharp scissors. I popped up the die cut with more foam tape, then added a double layer of foam tape to the sentiment, which creates a triple layer of foam tape on this card… so much dimension! But I find that with monochromatic cards like this, dimension and varying heights are important elements in keeping things interesting.

My second card features some older products, but uses a couple of the sentiment builder stamps from my new Mother’s Day Dogwood stamps. I designed the sentiments so that they would work together or you could mix and match with sentiment dies, as I’ve done here. In some “free” time that I had a few weeks ago (a unicorn if ever there was one!), I decided to do some therapeutic watercoloring with the previously-released Lisianthus stamp set that I illustrated last year. I heat embossed the main image on some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper using more rose gold embossing powder. I used Karin Brushmarker Pro markers to watercolor some pretty pinks, hunter green, and plum to this large image. I added a dark green halo around the edge, as well, so that after die cutting, I could have a dark green cardstock background without worrying about that pesky white edge!

For the background, I trimmed down an A2 panel of Hero Arts Shamrock cardstock and stamped the Simon Says Stamp Arches Background using Pine ink. I used a blending brush to blend more Pine ink around the edge. I love the halo effect this creates! I splattered some more sparkling metallic rose gold watercolor on the background to add a bit more textural interest, but I love the subtly-patterned monochromatic look on this beautiful green cardstock!

I had originally painted this image on a 4″x6″ panel of cardstock, so the die cut was just a tiny bit too narrow to fill out the full A2 card front. To compensate for this, I die cut an A2 Thin Frames die from Simon Says Stamp using the gorgeous Rose Gold Metallic cardstock, also from Simon Says Stamp, and added my Lisianthus die cut to the back of it, creating a delicate, coordinating metallic frame around my large floral die cut.

For the greeting, I die cut the “thanks” from the Basic Trio dies, cutting it twice from plain white cardstock and once from white velvet cardstock to add some extra texture to the card front. I layered all of the die cut sentiment pieces together, creating a dimensional die cut greeting. Using some of the sentiment builder stamps included in the Mother’s Day Dogwood stamp set, I heat embossed “Mom” and “for all you do” on some scraps of Shamrock cardstock, again with the rose gold embossing powder. It stands out beautifully from the jewel-bright cardstock. I arranged them all on my card front, creating a custom sentiment for my colorful card. I love mixing and matching different products to create one cohesive project! The trick is to keep the colors cohesive so that each component looks intentional. Finally, I added a smattering of pink Rose Tinted Glasses gems for one last bit of sparkle and shine.

Well, that’s all for my projects for today! The release blog hop will be later this week, so be sure to be on the lookout for that. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!