simon says stamp

Seasons Givings Blog Hop!

December 31, 2018

Hi there! Happy New Year! It’s difficult for me to believe that it’s already a completely new year… I’m one of those people who, when someone says 30 years ago, I think “Oh, 1970’s!” NOPE. Sigh… Anyway, I’m taking part in the annual Seasons Givings Blog Hop this year!! This blog hop (organized by Latisha Yoast) is just one way to show the fantastic blogging community how grateful we bloggers are for our readers. I am perpetually grateful for my blog readers and Instagram followers, for so many reasons. Your support enables me to keep doing what I love, your kind comments make my heart happy, and your friendship means so much to me. This blog hop is to thank you by giving YOU the gifts! Each stop on the hop has a giveaway for you. Stay tuned to the end to find out what my giveaway is! You should have arrived from the blog of the phenomenally talented Kelly Latevola, and your next stop is Ilina Crouse.

For my project today, I used one of the backgrounds that I’d painted from the most recent Daily Marker 30 Day Challenge! The colors are a bit non-traditional, but I think they are super fun for a winter floral card.

For my card today, I began by stamping and heat embossing the main floral image from the Simon Says Stamp Sketched Flowers stamp set onto some Arches cold press watercolor paper. I then taped it down to a cutting board and watercolored it in an unusual color scheme using my Daniel Smith watercolors. (I list the individual colors at the very bottom of the post.)

For the greeting, I used another Simon Says Stamp set: Thankful Leaves. There are some marvelous sentiments in that stamp set, and it also includes some beautiful foliage stamps, as well! I heat embossed the greeting on a strip of charcoal card stock using the same platinum embossing powder that I used to emboss the floral stamp. I added a slightly larger strip of glitter card stock behind the charcoal sentiment strip and popped it up on the card front with some foam adhesive.

The final touch was to add some Espresso jewels from Pretty Pink Posh to add some extra shiny sparkle and texture to my card front.

Now, for the fun giveaway information! I am giving away…

An Altenew Mega Hello die and a Honey Bee Stamps Hexagon Cover Plate: Stipple Layer die! All you have to do to enter to win these fantastic dies is: 1) Be a blog subscriber (let me know if you’re an old or new friend in your comment!) and 2) let me know what your favorite crafty gift was that you received this year! Leave your comment by 1/4/19 at midnight, and I will draw a winner on 1/5/19! Continental United States only, please. (Sorry, international friends!)

Well, that’s all for me today! Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of my “old friends” who leave such wonderful, uplifting comments on my blog and Instagram. I am so grateful for the fact that you take time out of your day to leave me a little comment and make me feel like a million bucks! Here’s to a wonderfully colorful and crafty 2019!!!

Here’s the whole hop list in case you get lost:

Lawn Fawn

Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Ink Blot Shop

Indigo Jade Art

Sunny Studio Stamps

Paper House Productions

Kraftin Kimmie Stamps

The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store

Newton’s Nook Designs

Mary-Ann Coulter Maldonado

Simon Says Stamp Die-Cember with Hero Arts!

December 3, 2018

Hi there! Have you seen all of the incredible new dies coming out for Simon Says Stamp’s Die-Cember releases? Absolutely incredible, right? Well, one of the new dies is this super cute Christmas Sweater Fancy Die designed by Hero Arts. I used it to make a card that would make Kevin McAllister’s mom proud! Let’s get started with the details.

I began by die cutting the Christmas Sweater Fancy Die from plain white card stock, then coloring it with Copic markers. This fancy die makes it easy to color each individual section because each of the sections is clearly marked with score lines and partial cuts.

For the background, I wanted something simple, but with a bit of texture, so I heat embossed the Graphic Snowflake Bold Prints stamp onto some white card stock using White Satin Pearl embossing powder. This tone-on-tone look provides just enough interest and a little shimmer to create an interesting background, but not so interesting that your eyes can’t focus on that fabulous, bright red and green sweater.

For the greeting, I stamped one of my favorite holiday sentiments from Off Beat Holiday Messages onto a strip of white card stock… it’s a quote from Home Alone, which is one of my most favorite holiday movies. Doesn’t get much more classic than MacCaulay Caulkin screaming his way down a hallway! I popped both of the die cuts up with some foam tape.

Well, that’s all for me today! I hope you’ll go check out the new Die-Cember release from Simon Says Stamp. So, SO many fun new items available to play with, including this fabulous new die from Hero Arts! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Honey Bee Stamps Stamptember Collaboration!

September 18, 2018

Good evening! Tonight, the Honey Bee Stamps team is helping to debut the collaboration stamp set for this year’s Stamptember! We have an adorable set this year called Tie One On, full of balloons, confetti, and some fabulous sentiments, perfect for creating a celebratory card… even for those ever-challenging guys in your life! I wanted to add to my masculine card stash, so I pulled out some blue and aqua Copics, some vellum, and some clear embossing powder and got to work!

To start, I heat embossed several balloons from Tie One On on vellum using clear embossing powder. I wanted to create that floating, semi-translucent effect, and the vellum was perfect for helping achieve that look. One of my favorite features of vellum is that you can color on it using Copic markers; I chose to add color to the back of the embossed images, then fussy cut all the way around. The clear embossing was perfect for keeping the balloons nice and crisp to the edge without having the ethereal, floating balloons interrupted by a black line.

In order to hide my adhesive (because it will create unsightly splotches on the vellum), I had to get creative with my greeting. I stamped the greeting from Tie One On onto some strips of white card stock using black ink, arranged my balloons on my card front, then adhered my sentiment strips over the top of the balloons, making sure to adhere them to several balloons, thus allowing me to keep the balloon cluster in its intended shape. I flipped the cluster over, then added some foam adhesive behind the sentiment strips, effectively “hiding” it.

I added some curly little balloon strings with a fine point black marker, then dotted some confetti with the same black marker, concentrating the dots at the top of the card front. I also added some Crystal Glaze and glitter on a few of the balloons to add some sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today! The rest of the Honey Bee team and the fabulous designers from Simon Says Stamp have some amazing inspiration for you using this new collaboration set! Thanks so much for visiting, and have a marvelous evening!

Some news and a sneak peek.

June 22, 2018

Good morning! I have a special announcement today… I was lucky enough to create a few projects for the new Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine for a watercolor feature, and it also happens to be their 50th issue. What a spectacular milestone! I have a couple of sneak peeks to pique your interest 😉

The first sneak peek features some beautiful stamps from Simon Says Stamp watercolored with Daniel Smith watercolors (my favorite!).

The second piece featured in the magazine uses stamps and dies from Pinkfresh Studio combined with the beautiful Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors.

You can see both of these projects in their entirety in the new, 50th issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today!

Congratulations to Scrapbook and Cards Today on their fantastic milestone! Cheers to the next 50 issues!

Floral Card:

Scooter Card:

Spellbinders May 2018 Blog Hop + Giveaway!

May 16, 2018

Good morning! I am excited to be a part of the Spellbinders May Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Keeway’s blog. This month features several new designs from Becca Feeken and Debi Adams. I was given the opportunity to play with some adorable products from Debi Adams, and I have two completely different projects for you, so let’s get started!

For my first project, I wanted to use that absolutely darling little gift box to create some gift packaging for my kiddos’ preschool teachers. I started by die cutting the gift box pieces twice from heavy weight vellum, then used Scor-Tape to adhere the flaps together. These would be adorable for shower or wedding favors, in addition to just gift packaging!

I added a few watercolored flowers from Simon Says Stamp that I had watercolored with my Daniel Smith watercolors. I adhered those with Scor-Tape as well. I wrapped some pink twine around the box a few times, then added a tag that I’d created by stamping a greeting from an Altenew set onto a strip of pale pink card stock, then flagging then ends and punching a hole in the opposite end. Perfect size for a gift card an a Ghirardelli chocolate! 🙂

For my second project, I pulled a complete 180* and played with the adorable Shake It Up stamp and die combo. I started by stamping a random pattern using Soft Granite ink on white card stock base, adding in a few random dots with my Micron .01 pen. (I think they look like little flecks of salt and pepper! Ha!) I also stamped and die cut a little salt and pepper set using Copic friendly black ink.
After I had colored the salt and pepper shakers, (or as my little ones would say, Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper…. they went through a Blue’s Clues phase!) I added some more little black flecks to each container. I fussy cut the greeting, then popped everything up using dimensional foam adhesive. The final touch was to add a few jewels to add some sparkle! (You know I can’t have a card without some sparkle, right?!)

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now, for some giveaway information! Spellbinders is offering a $50 shopping spree on their blog; be sure to leave a comment there before May 20 at 11:59 pm! And the folks at Spellbinders have generously provided a $25 shopping spree for my own blog subscribers! All you have to do to be eligible to win is 1) be a blog subscriber and 2) comment on this post to let me know if you are a new or old subscriber! Leave your comment by Sunday, May 20 at 11:59 PM CST. I will choose a winner next Monday, May 21 and announce it here on the blog! (The winner will be responsible for shipping costs, duties and taxes.)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!