This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! I am so excited to share some inspiration using the brand new Festive Fun release from Simon Says Stamp. I am extra thrilled to have designed two new stamp sets included in the release: Old Fashioned Christmas and Poinsettia Swag. Old Fashioned Christmas is a set on which I have been ruminating for quite a while; my husband is a bourbon guy (in fact, he’s headed to a bourbon trip this weekend with his buddies for their 40th birthdays!), and so when I was trying to design a Father’s Day card for him, I was disappointed to discover that I had nothing bourbon-themed. I am (slowly) growing more fond of “punny” sentiments, and the sentiments that I included with the Old Fashioned Christmas set are cute while still being elegant and a bit more mature. This was my first non-floral illustration, and I am so thrilled at how it came out!
The Old Fashioned Christmas set features a generously-sized whiskey decanter, along with a decorative bow and two scrumptious-looking cocktails. My redhead’s favorite drink is an old-fashioned, and I’ve had to get better at making them for him. We usually use bourbon, a couple drops of bitters, Woodford Reserve Old Fashioned Cocktail Syrup (if you love old fashioned cocktails, you need to try this), with some Luxardo cherries and a piece of candied orange peel, muddled together. The candied fruit takes the bitter edge off of the bourbon (double oaked Woodford Reserve is his favorite for cocktails), and they are a delicious little treat at the end of the cocktail when all of the flavors have melded together!
For my first projects using the images from Old Fashioned Christmas, I decided to create a festive card and pillow gift box for a cocktail-loving friend. Let’s get started with the details on my projects!
*I have linked all of the products used at the bottom of the post using affiliate links for your convenience. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
Coloring is one of my most favorite things to do; a stress reliever on difficult days, something in which I can lose myself and be totally consumed on getting the shading just right. The images from Old Fashioned Christmas are very generously sized, making them great fun to color with your choice of medium. I focused mostly on OLO markers with my first several projects, but I can’t wait to do some watercoloring! I stamped the images multiple times on some Hammermill white cardstock using Altenew’s Permanent Mist Gray ink, which is great for no-line alcohol marker coloring. I used my colorless blending marker copiously when coloring the glass, creating lots of shine and attempting transparency with each image. I used a “glazing” technique on the cocktail accompaniments to make them look as though they were submerged in the cocktails, using the lightest marker from the cocktail to cover the areas submerged in the liquid after coloring them with their base layer of color, so that they would take on some of the same undertones as the cocktail!
After I had colored all of the images from Old Fashioned Christmas using OLO markers, I used the coordinating dies to die cut each image. I also heat embossed a greeting from Old Fashioned Christmas using Platinum Sparkle embossing powder, then die cut it with the coordinating die. Don’t you just love sentiment die cuts, as well? So clean and polished-looking. Any bourbon lover would absolutely love to receive a card with this sentiment on it, I think!
You know that I can’t not have flowers on my projects, so I used my Holiday Blossoms stamp set that was released last Christmas to add some botanical adornments to the A7 card front, stamping the poinsettia bouquet in the corners of the white card front using the same Permanent Mist Gray ink to create a very subtle pattern in the background. I used some champagne glitter cardstock to die cut the A7 Nesting Frame dies, adhering two to the patterned background with liquid adhesive and creating a “ground” for my little cocktail hour. I adhered the die cut and colored images to the background using a mixture of liquid and foam adhesive, doubling the foam adhesive for the sentiment to give it a bit more height from the rest of the die cuts. Finally, I added a few Peachy Pawsitively Dazzling Gems, which worked beautifully with the orange tones in the cocktails and the whiskey in the decanter.
For my second project, I used the cocktail from Old Fashioned Christmas in the shorter highball glass to adorn a Pillow Box die cut. I used the same no-line coloring technique listed above, adding some dimples to the candied orange and highlights to the glass with my white gel pen. Before folding the Pillow Box die cut, I stamped the magnolia image from Holiday Blossoms onto one side using the new Cookie Pawsitively Saturated Ink, matching the warm peachy-brown tones in the cocktail. I embossed a greeting from Old Fashioned Christmas using Iridescent Copper embossing powder, then die cut the sentiment using the coordinating die and added it to the front of the pillow box. Finally, I wrapped some shiny copper twine around the pillow box, tucking the tail beneath the cocktail and the bow behind the sentiment die cut. Wouldn’t this be a great way to give a gift card to your favorite spirits retailer for Christmas?
Well, that’s all for my projects today! I hope you’ll check out the new Festive Fun release from Simon Says Stamp; there truly are some absolutely wonderful new goodies that will bring much joy and fun to your holiday crafty time. I focused a lot of attention on the two sets that I illustrated, but the entire release is absolutely scrumptious. Thanks so much for stopping by, and don’t forget to come back later this week for tons more inspiration on the two-day blog hop celebrating the Festive Fun release! Have a marvelous day!
Leave a Reply