May Flowers Tag

Hello friends! I hope you had a lovely Easter! We have had gorgeous weather and have done lots of nice outings. Spring flowers are coming out everywhere and the leaves of the trees will come next. The latter might be my favorite part of spring, because all of a sudden, you have these fantastic shades of green everywhere. Those shades of green also inspired today's project.

 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Going Around in Circles theme. Dots and circles are some of my favorite elements and I am looking forward to seeing all the contributions. Remember to check out the project by our April guest designer Sabrina Perna. 

I made a tag inspired by May Flower pins. May Flower pins have been sold in Sweden since 1907, and the proceeds go to children in need. Every year the flowers have new colors, and lots of people collect them. We used to sell them when I was in school, and paper flowers for a good cause is of course a favorite of mine. :) On the tag, this year's flower is the focal point, surrounded by shades of green and bits of golden yellow. 

I started out by smearing embossing paste on a tag, through Tim Holtz's Gradient Dot stencil.

When the paste is dry, paint with watered-down Distress Paints. Mist with more water if needed.

When the paint was dry, I misted the tag with Buttercup mica spray, and did the same to the mulberry paper skeleton leaf. It makes it look like the leaf has been sprinkled with gold.

Apply glue with a glue stick around the edges and press a sheet of vintage gold foil on top, rub to transfer the foil.

The title letters were die cut from SSS Glimmery Sunshine paper, using the Archie Jr Solid die set. The die set is from the newest Blossoms and Butterflies release, and I also used it in two different ways in this post.

The circle elements were die cut using a SSS set that I discovered is no longer available, but you can get the same effect by die cutting circles in different shapes with other dies. There are lots of circle designs among the Simon Says Stamp exclusive collections. I applied glue on two of the circles and rubbed with the gold foil. This mimicked the pearl in the center of the flower perfectly.

The other circles were colored with Distress Inks.

The glimmery yellow numbers and letters were matted on white die cuts, to make them stand out better. I also used a Clippings Sticker.

Around the circle, I added pearls and Acrylic Bubbles, through which you can see the leaf.

The title translates to 'May Flowers'. The best thing with alphabet dies is that you can write any thing you would like, and you never run out of letters.

Here you can see the effect of the foil. It looks like gold leaf.

This year's flower is green and cream with a yellow center.

The tag and the leaf are very shiny, and you might see that better here.

I hope you will join us this week in our Going Around in Circles challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

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.

Watercolor Peonies Tutorial

Hello everyone! I am happy to have a new tutorial on the Simon Says Stamp store blog. It went up yesterday, but because of Easter, I totally forgot to post about it here.

Here's a sneak peek of the project, which would make a great Mother's Day gift. I used the Simon Says Stamp Pretty Peonies background stamp, and watercolored it with Distress Inks. It is a real quick and easy technique and you can find all the steps on the Simon Says Stamp Store blog.

Thank you for visiting! I will be back soon with a Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge post.

Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

* 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.

Happy Easter

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a beautiful Easter, if you celebrate it. Here we have had lovely spring weather this whole weekend, and did lots of outings. We went to two areas to look at two different rare spring flowers, among other things. Because of the warm weather, the flowers are growing so fast, you can even see changes over night.

The boys and I also did some Easter crafts, such as these cute sparkly chickens. They were a part of a craft kit my mom sent us. I particularly like the idea of placing a flower as a hat on their heads, I'll remember that for future projects.

This was just a quick post to wish everyone Happy Easter. I will be back tomorrow with my Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge post.

Happy crafting and thank you for stopping by!

Anna-Karin

Inky Blossoms Tutorial

Hi friends! I hope your weekend was good. We went to the movies, decorated for Easter, and went to a local museum. A big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my SSS Blossoms and Butterflies release blog hop post. If you missed the blog hop, I hope you will have a look at all the inspiration, and there is still a chance to win prizes.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, we have a Beautiful Blooms theme. I am looking forward to seeing all the floral projects that will be posted. Adding flowers to projects is a favorite of many of us. Remember to check out the project by our April guest designer Sabrina Perna. 

I made a card this week, with a bouquet of inky, dimensional flowers. These flowers are quick and easy to make, and you can use any ink color that you have at home. For the background, I wanted something quite dark, so that the flowers would really stand out, and went with a dark tone-on-tone design with some grungy, metallic edges.

Start by die cutting flowers from mixed media paper, using Tim Holtz's Funky Floral Large die set.

The flowers were first inked using a Mini Round Blending tool, and then darker details were added with Detailed Blending Tools. This is a quick and easy way to add darker ink in some areas only.

Continue coloring the flowers and leaves, using any color you can think of.

Give the flowers dimension and life with the Sizzix Paper Sculpting Kit. Place the flowers on the foam mat, press and roll with the embossing tools. Bend and roll petals back and forth with the tweezers.

The background paper was first inked a pretty dark brown.

Then I stamped it with Tim's Fragments set, using Ground Espresso Archival Ink. I love the worn wall-paper look of these stamps.

Distress the edges with an edge distressor. Apply ink to the edges with an Emboss It Dabber and emboss with Ranger's Hammered Mixed Media powder. Don't touch the melted powder until it is completely cool.

Layer the flowers together and glue them to the background.

I added some dots to the center of the flowers.

I just love the shape of these leaves. To give the flowers a base, I layered some Design Tape and a piece of lace trim at the background, forming a table.

The Mixed Media powders give a really cool effect.

The sentiment was die cut and inked in an ombre fashion with Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon.

Here you can see the dimension of the flowers better.

I hope you will join us this week in our Beautiful Blooms challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

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.

SSS Blossoms and Butterflies Blog Hop

Hi friends! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp blog hop in celebration of the new Blossoms and Butterflies release. It is is a gorgeous spring day here in Sweden and the new release is perfect for spring and summer crafting. You should have arrived here from the very creative Ankita Gupta.

The Blossoms and Butterflies collection contains a wide range of versatile dies, stamps, stencils, watercolor cards and sequins. You can see the whole collection here.

There is also a free gift for you. If you use the code BLSM999, when you make an order, you will get a free jar of Unicorn Dust Glitter (while supplies last!) with any purchase. The code will expire Sunday, 4/14 at 11:59 pm EDT.

I made two projects, a mixed media panel and a card, and both are tutorials. As usual the techniques can be used on many types of projects.

I loved the Bouquet of Roses stencil so much that I wanted it to be the center piece on a wall-hanger. It's a Mother's Day gift to my Mom. The panel is about 6 x 6.5 in. It might look complicated to make, but it is easy, and just requires a bit of patience to let paints and pastes dry in between layers. Let start.

These are the products from Blossoms and Butterflies that I used on my projects: Archie Jr Solid, Poppy Frame, Comfort & Prayers stamp set and Bouquet of Roses stencil.

I started with a piece of mat board and coated it with gesso. The edges were rounded with my Corner Chomper.

When the gesso is dry, add Opaque Crackle Paste, especially around the edges. Vary the thickness to get both small and large cracks (the thicker the paste, the larger the cracks). Leave to dry.

When the paste was dry, I glued the panel to a second slightly larger panel, which was recycled from old packaging. Leave to dry under heavy books.

Apply texture paste with a palette knife through the stencil.

When the paste was dry, I painted it with watered-down Distress Paints, starting with Antique Linen. Mist with more water to get the shades to blend, and to get the darker brown to sink into the cracks. You can use quite a lot of water. Leave to dry.

Place the stencil back over the design and sponge with white paint. This gives a lighter base for the painting of the flowers.

Paint the flowers and leaves with Distress Paints and Dina Wakley's Blushing pink. Add a second layer if needed.

Stamp the background here and there with the SSS You Matter background stamp, for more texture.

If you want to, add a shadow with a Black Soot Marker along some of the edges of the flowers. I imagined the light to come from the top left of the panel. You can smear the black out a bit with a Q-tip dipped in water. 

Dry brush metallic Rosy paint over the roses, and here and there on the background. This gives a lovely subtle metallic sheen to the panel.

Apply a glue stick randomly here and there and rub a vintage gold foil sheet on top. This gives a worn gilded effect.

 

I love alpha dies and the ones in the Archie Jr Solid set are fantastic. Such a great font and size, perfect for cardmaking, but also for other types of projects. I die cut them from brown and gold, layering to offset the gold slightly.

White emboss butterflies from the Comfort & Prayers set on vellum and cut out.

Bend out the wings of the butterflies slightly and glue them only along the body, using Matte Medium, which doesn't show at all.

Here you can see the lovely texture created with the crackle, paint, stamping and metallic bits.

This rose design is so pretty and I love the bits of gold. Up close, some of the shadow lines look a bit harsh, but that makes them stand out a better from a distance.

The gold adds a nice shadow to the letters. I glued a piece of lace to the base and tied some twine around it. The sentiments come from Tim Holtz's Clippings stickers.

You can easily change the colors for a different look, and if you don't want all the grunge and distressing, just skip those steps.

White embossing on vellum is a favorite technique of mine. It looks great on its own, but if you want to, you can also color the vellum on the back.

The second project that I made is a card, using the wonderful Poppy Frame, together with the Archie Jr Alpha dies. I wanted the poppies to be the focal point and left everything else in shades of white.

Start by die cutting the Poppy Frame from watercolor paper.

Color the grass with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and turn to watercolor with water and a paint brush. I used both Scribble Sticks and Scribble Sticks 2.

Color a piece of watercolor paper with Scribble Sticks and use water to turn them into watercolor.

Die cut the poppies from the red paper.

If needed add some more shading to the petals.

For the background, I just cut a piece of watercolor paper and colored it with Distress Inks.

Glue the red pieces into the poppies.

I kept the alpha dies intact for now, not separating them, so that I can use the for background elements. Die cut from a white piece of card. 

For the layers, I used a white folded cardstock, two pieces of SSS Glimmery White Diamond cardstock, and the alpha panel. Distress some of the edges.

I used part of a sentiment stamp from the Comfort and Prayers set. The poppy panel was attached with foam tape.

You can also color the outlines black, but I liked the lighter look of the white. Check out the lovely detailed frame of the Poppy Frame.

Using various shades of white gives dimension and interest without taking the focus away from the poppy panel.

There are of course prizes to be won, 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 Wednesday, the 17th of April.

Your next stop on the hop is Gayatri Murali. Don't miss the inspiration you will be sure to find there.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Debby Hughes

Laura Bassen

Amanda Korotkova

Yoonsun Hur

Bibi Cameron

Barb Engler

Ankita Gupta

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Gayatri Murali

For more Blossoms and Butterflies inspiration, remember to check out the Blossoms and Butterflies gallery at SSS, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in in the gallery too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration. Part one of the Blossoms and Butterflies blog hop was yesterday, so don't miss all the inspiration there.

Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope you will have a lovely weekend!

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.