Sweet Sunflower Gift Set Using New Simon Says Stamp Sweet Wishes Release!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! Have you checked out the Sweet Wishes Release from Simon Says Stamp yet? It is full of beautiful products perfect for tons of seasonal crafting, including your fall crafting! Now, I am of the generation that was fairly obsessed with sunflowers. Something happened during the early 90’s that meant that sunflowers were everywhere, and my mom even redecorated my room with a sunflower theme for my 8th or 9th birthday. I had sunflower border wallpaper, a woven sunflower throw, even a sunflower lampshade! I’ve always loved sunflowers, with their cheerful yellow petals contrasted with the deep black-brown centers. When I saw the new Autumn Sunflower die set, I immediately went to town creating some fun projects that are a little outside of my normal wheelhouse, including a sweet canvas bag decorated with some (very old) wool felt. Let’s get started with the details!

*I have linked all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

Because I have been making so very many cards over the last year or so, I have recently found myself wanting to expand my crafty interests. I have always loved being crafty in a variety of ways, from baking and cake decorating to jewelry making and scrapbooking, and so when I came across some old rolls of felt, I knew that I wanted to put them to use to make something a bit more lasting than a simple greeting card that can easily be tossed away. I paired the new Autumn Sunflower die with some marvelous foliage dies from the Simon Says Stamp catalog to create these lovely autumnal arrangements made of both paper and felt!

To start my paper project, I began by die cutting the new Autumn Sunflower die set, as well as the Tuscan Olive Branch die and the Grand Corner Leaves die from plain white cardstock. I then used OLO markers to add some muted autumnal colors, using a variety of warm greens that closely matched my muted herb green cardstock, using the muted greens to help that lovely pastel yellow sunflower pop!

Before arranging my flower and foliage on my A7 card front, I first used a blending brush to blend some Kale Pawsitively Saturated Ink on the center of my herb green card front. I also splattered the background with some beautiful shimmering glitter watercolors, adding both texture and shine behind the floral arrangement. I used both foam adhesive squares and liquid adhesive to add the colored die cuts, then heat embossed a greeting from the new Sketched Leaves stamp set using Platinum Glitter embossing powder. I die cut the greeting with its’ coordinating die, popped it up with a double layer of foam adhesive to make it extra visible, then added a double twine bow and some new Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle. (Don’t sleep on those new neutral Pawsitively Dazzling Gems. They’re spectacular and work with so many different color palettes!)

For my second project, I used the exact same dies (the Autumn Sunflower dies, the Tuscan Olive Branch dies, and the Grand Corner Leaves dies) as on the card, this time cutting the images in some felt that I have had in my stash for forever. I used some gold embroidery thread to stitch the two layers of the flower center together, also adding some seed beads from my stash to add extra interest and shine to the flower. This was the first time I’ve ever really worked with fabric, and I am absolutely delighted with how it came out!

After I had die cut all of the components for the floral spray, I used Beacon fabric glue to add the images in a little floral spray on the corner of a plain canvas bag. The glue worked beautifully to add these felted images, and the ease of this process has my wheels turning for more projects along a similar vein. So many fun possibilities for projects that are more substantial and lasting than a card!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I have so much more inspiration to share with you using the new Sweet Wishes Release from Simon Says Stamp, including two videos, so be sure to check back again soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!