Simon Says Stamp Happy Camper Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop to celebrate the new Happy Camper release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from the wonderful Barb Engler.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

The Happy Camper release is full of a great variety of new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins. You can find the entire Happy Camper release here.

The not-yet-released Simon Says Stamp exclusive Sunflower Dance 3x4 stamp set is automatically added to your cart that contains any purchase of Happy Camper products! This gift with purchase will expire 8/3 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last.

I made a tag for this blog hop, using the Simon Says Stamp Confetti Butterflies 3-D embossing folder. I like anything with butterflies and this is a gorgeous folder. There are also coordinating dies, but I didn't use them here. The tag was colored with watercolors and the sentiments come from the Simon Says Stamp LOL set, also from the Happy Camper release. 

Mist a tag cut from watercolor paper with water and then emboss in the Confetti Butterflies folder.

Paint the background with Daniel Smith Amazonite Genuine and Lunar Black, letting them blend into each other.

The butterflies were painted with Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold. I mixed two shades, one with more and one with less water. Start with the former and then drop the darker shade into the center of the butterfly. I also dropped a little Lunar Black into the center.

Continue until you have painted all the butterflies. Let dry.

Use Lunar Black to add a little bit of shading to the butterflies.

Ink the edges with Distress Ink Scorched Timber. 

Apply Ranger Moon Dust Stickles to the butterflies.

Color the embossed dots with a white gel pen.

Splatter Winsor & Newton Permanent White Gouache on the background.

Stamp the sentiments using Simon Says Stamp LOL with Pawsitively Saturated Sherbet ink.

Add Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Prism Gems here and there.

I covered the non-embossed part at the top of the tag with Tim Holtz Design Tape Trims.

The glitter and white splatters makes it look like the butterflies are sparkling.

Daniel Smith Lunar Black is a heavily granulating watercolor paint, which you can see on the texture in the center of the butterfly.

I added pompom ribbon and lace trim at the bottom of the tag, to hide the part that wasn't dry embossed.

You can use this coloring technique with lots of embossing folders.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop! There are of course prizes to be won too, and at each stop on the hop SSS is giving away a $25 coupon, randomly drawn from those who leave a comment. The winners will be posted post on the Simon Says Stamp store blog on 6 August.

Your next stop on the hop is my friend Karin Åkesdotter. Don't miss to the stunning project she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Nina-Marie Trapani

Suzy Plantamura

Cathy Zielske

Laura Bassen

Debby Hughes

Lisa Addesa

Emily Midgett

Heather Ruwe

Sandi MacIver

Tina Smith

Hanh Nguyen

Barb Engler

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Karin Åkesdotter

Rosemary Dennis

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Happy Camper gallery at Simon Says Stamp, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in the galleries too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration.

This is the second Happy Camper blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 1, which was yesterday.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Kid's Summer Vacation Challenge

Welcome to another of our annual Simon Says Stamp Kid's Summer Vacation Challenge where we host a special challenge dedicated to our young designers.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

The theme is Anything Goes

It is time for all you crafters to let your children loose in your crafty corners for a few hours. Adults are allowed to help just a little bit if necessary, but we really want the children to 'DO IT' themselves as much as possible.

This challenge is open to all children aged between 2 and 16 inclusive


We have not 1, not 2 but 3 surprise parcels of crafty goodies, hand picked by Simon. All winners are chosen at random, Good Luck to all!

My youngest made an underwater scene from clay. He is very interested in the sea and in sea animals.

The sand and the sunken airplane were created with clay, inside a plastic container. Leo added a Lego piece as corals and a some of his plastic sea animals. Only the Lego piece is glued to the sand. 

The airplane was painted with Ranger Distress Paint, making it look like it has been at the bottom of the sea for a long time.

The darker spots around the plane are small pieces of debris from the crash.

This challenge will remain open until 9am EST on 29th August. The winners will be drawn at random as soon as possible after the challenge closes.

THIS CHALLENGE IS FOR CHILDREN ONLY.

Please Note: creations submitted by anyone over the age of 16 will be deleted.

You can enter as many times as you like, just remember to add your link into the inlinkz system at the bottom of this post! If you have several entries on the same post add ?1. ?2, ?3 etc at the end of the url and they will be accepted into the system.

Please add the age of the child after their name. You can find more information here.

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Scalloped Edge Card

Hi crafters! Today I have a card to share made with the brand new Simon Says Stamp Happy Camper release. 

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Happy Camper was released today and is filled with a great mix of stamps, dies, stencils, inks and other products. You can find them all here. 

I made a scalloped card, with layers of scalloped papers and flowers in the center. I used left-over papers for the scalloped, dry embossed, inky and watercolored. From the Happy Camper release, I used: Chunky Scallop Circles, Fantasy Bouquet and LOL.

I started by looking for papers to use for the scalloped circles. These two were part of my experimenting with Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi Granulating Colors and Simon Says Stamp Dot Spiral embossing folder. 

I die cut the scalloped circles from the dry embossed papers above and the rest from various watercolored or inky papers. The Chunky Scallop Circles set contains eight circles. Make the cardbase by folding a piece of cardbase and place the cutting pads just inside the die at the top.

The Simon Says Stamp Fantasy Bouquet flowers were die cut from left-over collage papers. 

Ink the flowers with Distress Ink.

Layer the scalloped circles on the cardbase. Some of them were adhered with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape.

I used some foam tape also for the flowers. The petals were shaped a little before adhering them to the card. 

The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp LOL stamp set, also from the Happy Camper release.

Use papers with different textures for an interesting difference between the layers.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! I will be back again on Saturday with more Happy Camper inspiration.

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Floral Art Journal Page

Hello friends! Today I have an art journal page to share, with a summertime field of flowers. You can also turn it into a card instead.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

On one of my walks there is a gorgeous field of wildflowers and that field inspired this page. I wanted flowers in bright colors and with the addition of long grass. The page was done in my Stamperia Happiness Mixed Media Journal 8.5x4 in.

The background was done by smearing Distress Ink on an acrylic block, misting it with water and stamping on the background. Repeat for the lower half, leaving a thin white line.

When the background was dry, I stamped the page with various Tim Holtz Wildflowers and Mini Bouquet stamps. Ink with several Distress Inks, mist with water and stamp. Simon Says Stamp has recently released coordinating dies for both these stamp sets: Mini Bouquet and Wildflowers. You don't need them for this project, but they are great if you want to cut out these images.

Next, I added grass with the grass stamp from Tim's Spring Sprung set.

I used Simon Says Stamp Crackle Background to add a little texture to the page, focusing on the bottom area, where the soil would be.

I thought the page needed another layer and a bit more white and white embossed some of the flowers, placing them lower on the page.

The main sentiment comes from Tim's Perspective set. I also used Small Talk and Clippings Stickers.

The inks will blend on the stamp and on the page. 

Using embossing powder is often a good idea if you want to add an element on top of an already busy background.

Some white embossing powder got stuck on the crackles, which added a nice effect. I initially stamped the sentiment from Curiosity Shop on the background, but it was hard to read, so I restamped it on watercolor paper and cut out.

Thank you for visiting! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.