Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Hello friends! I hope you had a great weekend! We visited a Christmas market at an old manor, where my Mom and I recently discovered that her grandfather was a foreman. The simple house that they lived in is still preserved almost as it was, and my grandfather was born in that very house. It was quite something to visit for the first time. My grandfather told us stories about that place, but my Mom thought the manor house and farm was situated somewhere else and that it had been destroyed. While in fact, it is preserved and fairly close by. We also visited the church where we think he was Christened. 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Star challenge. Perfect for the season! Don't miss the gorgeous project by our December guest designer Autumn Clark, with her blog SewPaperPaint.

I made a wall-hanging with lots and lots of stars in different sizes. It's about 6 x 6 inches and will probably end up as a gift this Christmas. I love both real stars and to use stars in projects, and they work equally well any time of the year. This particular panel is meant to be Christmas themed, but if you make the background in shades of blue, it can work any time of the year. I used the Star Bright die by Tim Holtz and the pretty Starry Night background stamp by Darkroom Door.

Start by die cutting the two stars from Champagne metallic paper. I have used this paper a lot lately, since it is such a lovely soft shade of gold.

Fold along the score lines and use a bone folder.

Sand the folds carefully.

Ink by smearing brown Distress Ink directly on the stars, and wipe it off from the metallic areas. If you want the stars to be even more distressed, sand more.

White emboss the Starry Night stamp on cream paper and ink with brown shades of Distress Ink.

Splatter with water and let dry.

I wanted a shadow effect and used a stamp positioner, even though I wasn't aiming for perfect placement. Stamp with Frayed Burlap. Wipe the ink off from the embossed stars.

Distress and ink the edges and mount on burlap and on Little Sizzles Mat Board. Die cut stars with the Tim Holtz Stars set from old dictionary paper, ink and glue to the panel. Here you can see the effect of the stars, ink, splatters and shadow stars.

I picked sentiments among Tim's clipping stickers.

The stars are quite dimensional, as you can see here.

I hope you will join us this week in our Stars 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 Diecember Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to take part in the blog hop to celebrate the Simon Says Stamp Diecember release. You should have arrived here from the very creative Karin Åkesdotter.

The Diecember release is huge and full of fantastic and versatile dies. There is also a free gift with every order (until supplies last), if you use the code THKU894, you get the Bold Thanks die. This promotion will expire on 12/8 at 11:59 pm EST. 

I made two projects, an art journal page and a card, both are tutorials. As usual, the techniques work great for a whole range of different projects. 

I love the big Lined You die and knew I wanted to make it the focal point of an art journal page. The word would also make a lot of impact on a card, especially since it is such a large die. I paired it up with a sentiment die and the beautiful Detailed Leaf Cluster die. The page was done on a cotton-rag page in my Dina Wakley journal. I used different types of papers to get an interesting effect: the rough watercolor paper in the background, gloss cardstock, and metallic paper.

These are the Diecember products that I used for my projects: Lined You, Detailed Leaf Cluster, The Best Is Yet To Come, and the Shimmer Snowflake.

Start by inking a piece of gloss cardstock with Distress Inks, aiming for an ombre effect.

Die cut the fabulous Lined You from the inked paper.

Die cut the base piece from cream cardstock.

Ink with Distress Inks and an ink-blending tool.

Stamp with the You Matter background stamp and Khaki ink.

Ink another piece of glossy cardstock.

Die cut the Best Is Yet To Come sentiment from the brown ombre piece and die cut the matte from gloss paper. Ink the latter with Cracked Pistachio.

For the background, I used the SSS Lined Circles stencil and inked through it with Distress Ink.

Mist with water to give the inks a watercolor appearance.

When dry, ink with Ground Espresso through the Circle Dots stencil.

Die cut the Detailed Leaf Cluster from cream paper and ink with Distress Ink.

Die cut the branch from Champagne Metallic Kraft Stock, and glue the inked leaves on top, offsetting a little. The soft gold of the Champagne cardstock is really pretty.

I cut two sentiment from the SSS Sentiment Strips 4.

Glue a piece of cheese cloth to the background and then the Lined You. Isn't it such a cool die? I love it.

I don't know if you can see the effect of the gloss cardstock here. I like to add gloss paper to projects now and then, and dye inks, such as Distress Inks, look so vibrant on top of gloss paper. If you haven't tried it, I hope you will.

This sentiment is all gloss cardstock.

My second project is a winter or Christmas card. As you can see on this photo, the snow that we got last week has melted away. It is a pity since the world is so much brighter during the winter when there is snow. I used the beautiful and detailed Shimmer Snowflake die for this card. I made a shaker card with mica flakes, but you can also use small beads, glitter or sequins. Or a mix of several of these.

Start by die cutting the frame from the front of a piece of folded watercolor paper. The die cut the detailed part from the shape that you get.

With your finger, smear a little Distress Micro Glaze around the edges of the snowflake and around the edges of the card.

Smooch Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and press the papers into the ink. The Micro Glaze will resist the ink.

Later, I changed my mind about the colored snowflake and die cut it from SSS Glimmery Cardstock instead.

Glue a piece of acetate behind the snowflake window. Adhere foam tape on the inside of the card and sprinkle a generous amount of Distress Mica Flakes. Then adhere a second piece of acetate on top to seal the shaker.

Here you can see the cool look of the mica.

Die cut Stitched Flakes from a piece of watercolor paper, inked with the same inks as the cardbase.

Glue the snowflakes and some Winter Flurries sequins here and there.

Glue the shimmery snowflake to the back of the shaker.

Here you can see the effect of the Micro Glaze, I love the random resist look that it creates.

The sentiment comes from the SSS Comfort & Joy set, and was stamped with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink.

These snowflake sequins are cool, since some of the have an irredescent look, and the color shifts from white to pink.

I used a piece of Mummy Cloth by Tim Holtz and some lace trim.

The stitched details on the die also become more visible because of the Micro Glaze, since the glace doesn't go into the debossed areas (i.e. the stitches).

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and of course there are prizes to be won too. SSS is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop and all you need to do is comment. Winners will be posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday 11 December.

This is the last stop of the hop. If you have missed any of the inspiration you can find all the links below:

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Debby Hughes

Laura Bassen

Nichol Spohr

Suzy Plantamura

Amanda Korotkova

Heather Hoffman

Vicky Papaioannou

Cheiron Brandon

Preeti Chandran

Karin Åkesdotter

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

This is day 2 of the blog hop, and for more inspiration, don't miss the first blog hop that was on Monday. For even more Diecember inspiration, check out the SSS Diecember Gallery. You can also  link your own projects made with the release and there are galleries for all SSS releases, and for the card kits too.

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

Happy Christmas 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.