Good morning! It’s the weekend… hooray! It’s an extra wonderful weekend, because the new Simon Says Stamp Dear Friend release is live, and we are hopping along to inspire you with the fabulous new products! You should have arrived here from Lisa Addesa, and your next stop is Tina Smith.
I am super proud of the fact that I have two new illustrations included in this Dear Friend release: Peony Background and Blissful Bouquet! (I have shared some inspiration using Peony Background HERE.) I love a good bouquet stamp, because how easy is it to stamp and go without having to worry about masking or die cutting each individual piece, but I also love the versatility and freedom of a good bouquet builder. I designed the Blissful Bouquet set to create lush, fluffy bouquets, with uniquely-shaped foliage, sprigs of “filler” flowers, and two large centerpiece blooms- a peony and a dahlia. I have a pair of projects to share with you using this new stamp set, so let’s get started with the details!
I love challenging myself with no-line coloring, but sometimes no-line coloring can be made even more challenging if the images are extremely small. I made sure to size the images in this set so that no-line coloring would be a bit easier! I die cut and stamped a ton of the images from Blissful Bouquet onto Hammermill cardstock (which is awesome for alcohol marker coloring!) using Hero Arts’s Contour Ink, my preferred ink for no-line coloring, then sat down with my Copic markers and went crazy coloring.
I very rarely use yellow or orange while creating, so after my homage to pink and purple on THESE cards, I thought I would switch things up and play with yellow and gray! I love the combination of yellow and gray; it’s so unique and modern, and can be great for masculine cards, but when paired with florals, it can be beautifully feminine, as well. The dahlia is such a sunny yellow; it practically glows!
Once I had finished coloring my images, I die cut a vellum circle using the circular Thin Frames Die from Simon Says Stamp. I ran the circle die cut through my die cut machine inside the Terrace Floral 3D Embossing Folder, which creates a beautifully subtle textured effect on the translucent vellum. I die cut a super pale gray circle frame and adhered it to the embossed vellum die cut, creating an area around which I could “ground” my floral images.
Next, I trimmed another panel of pale gray cardstock down to slightly smaller than A2 sized and mounted it on a full size white A2 card front, leaving a white border around the edge. I arranged the Blissful Bouquet floral die cuts around the embossed vellum circle and adhered them to the circle, then hid foam adhesive behind the solid die cuts so avoid marring the translucent vellum. I die cut a pale gray So Happy For You Both greeting and added it over the vellum circle, as well as a silver heat embossed “congratulations” from the Blissful Bouquet stamp set. The final touch was to add a few iridescent, pale gray pearls to add one last bit of shine and elegance, perfect for a wedding card!
My second card features a festive floral shaped balloon card created using the Blissful Bouquet and the Balloons dies from Simon Says Stamp! Who wouldn’t want a beautiful balloon decorated with flowers and a fluffy silk bow? I kept my no-line coloring an elegant, feminine palette of vivid mauve, jade green, and periwinkle blue. That big fluffy peony bloom makes my heart go pitter-patter. I used Copic markers for these images today, but I can’t wait to try no-line watercoloring with these pretty blooms!
I die cut the sentiment from a panel of coordinating mauve cardstock using the Scripty Happy Birthday die, cutting it twice from the same cool rose colored cardstock and layering the die cuts together to create a dimensional die cut. I also die cut the largest balloon of the Balloons die set from some iridescent white foil cardstock. I arranged the flowers in a swag around the base of the balloon, leaving the bottom bare so that I could tie a silk bow around where the balloon would be tied after filling it up. The iridescent coating on the white foil cardstock is difficult to capture in the photograph, but it picks up the colors of the flowers and foliage beautifully.
After I had added all of my die cuts to the front of the balloon, I created a shaped card by slightly offsetting that same largest balloon die on an A2 card base, allowing the edge of the balloon to overlap the folded side of the card. I adhered the full size, decorated balloon die cut to the card front, creating a festive, elegant, uniquely shaped birthday card!
My last card features the utterly adorable new Caring Thoughts stamp set! I am so smitten with the storybook illustration style of these critters, and the sweet little scenes make it super easy to stamp one or two stamps and have a scene ready to go! I stamped my darling bunny with the butterflies onto some Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper using Contour Ink, then used Karin Brushmarker Pro markers and a damp paintbrush to pick up the color from my glass mat. I prefer this method of picking up the scribbled color from the glass mat to putting the marker directly to the watercolor paper, because this allows me to control the vibrancy of the color a bit more. I can easily dilute the color on my mat, but it is much more difficult once the concentrated color hits the watercolor paper. I added a few black pen lines (the eyes, the whiskers, the details on the butterfly) that got a bit lost in the no-line watercoloring. I die cut the finished vignette using a fluted oval die from Spellbinders.
To accent my sweet purple butterflies, I decided to watercolor some coordinating purple flowers. I die cut the Blossom Vine dies from some more Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper, then used Karin Brushmarker Pro and my damp paintbrush to add vibrant lilac and bottle green to the die cuts.
I arranged the oval bunny die cut with the flowers on a white A2 card front using foam adhesive. For the greeting, I stamped the “hello” from the Caring Thoughts using Obsidian pigment ink, then clear embossed over the top of the stamped image to create a crisp black sentiment strip. I also trimmed down one of the greetings from the Reverse Bold Hello Sentiment Strips and adhered it beneath the “hello” with another double layer of foam adhesive. I love how the bunny looks like it’s nestled amongst a field of pretty purple blooms!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for some fun giveaway information:
We’re giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from the blog comment section. Winners will be announced on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday the 24th of May. The winner can email Simon Says Stamp to claim his/her prize.
Here’s the full hop list, in case you get lost:
Simon Says Stamp Blog <<YOU ARE HERE!
Emily Midgett <—– you are here!
Today is only Day 1 of this fabulous hop; be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp Blog for more inspiration from Day 2 tomorrow morning! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
