Textured Crackle Background

Hi friends! I hope you are well and had a good weekend. This week our theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog is 'Add Texture. 

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.

Texture happens to be one of my favorite things and I like to find new ways in which to add it. Don't miss the great project by our May guest designer Ann Chuang aka Ann Chuang Crafts. 

I made a tag with a whole lot of texture, but it is easier and quicker to do than what it might look like. I have a thing for crackles, which goes way back to when I was doing a lot of decoupage in South Africa many years ago.

Stamp the Simon Says Stamp Reverse Crackle Background with embossing ink and emboss with cream powder. Flick some of the powder off before melting, for added texture.

Ink with two shades of brown Distress Ink. The embossing will resist the ink.

I die cut Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems 2 from scrap papers. Some of them were stamped with a text stamp from Simon Says Stamp Document It.

Four of the flowers were die cut from a piece of paper leftover from a wax paper resist technique that I did a couple of years ago. You can find a video tutorial for that technique here.

The label was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Mixed Labels and die cut with the coordinating die. The sentiment comes from Laugh In Flowers.

By die cutting the flowers from different papers, you get instant color and texture in one go. Mummy cloth or cheese cloth also adds instant texture.

And more flowers.

The background texture is very quick to do, but also very interesting and has a whole of texture.

I hope you will join us this week in our Add Texture theme. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

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

Thank you so much for visiting 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.

Simon Says Stamp Yay You

Hi and welcome to my blog! I am happy to take part in the blog hop to celebrate the new Yay You release by Simon Says Stamp. If you are following along in the hop you should have arrived here from Heather Ruwe.

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 Yay You release is full of wonderful new stamps, stencils, dies, inks and other products. You can find the whole release here. If you use the code BEAUTY you will get the Beautiful die set FREE with a purchase of $25 or more.This promotion will expire 5/15 at 11:59 pm EDT.

I made an art journal page.

My art journal page inspired by the explosion of bright spring shades of green everywhere. It is amazing how you can see the changes from day to day in a single tree or in the color of the grass. I called it the 'green shock', and this art journal page is about walking into the forest during this time of the year, being almost encapsulated in a sea of green. 

I used the great Domed Arches stencil set, which consists of five sizes dome stencils and masks. I started with the second largest - later I added the largest too since I realised there was space for it. Ink with Twisted Citron.

Next came Moved Lawn.

Next, Lucky Clover.

The darkest and smallest dome is Rustic Wilderness.

I added a the largest dome with Twisted Citron and then placed the mask over the inked parts. Stamp the Arches Background with embossing ink and cover with clear embossing powder.

I didn't line up the background stamp up perfectly, but that was okay anyway. Ink with shades of green and yellow.

Die cut the Basic Box Card Grass from heavystock paper.

Cut off the edges at the score line and ink with green inks.

Stamp with the Simon Says Stamp Halftone Background and green inks, for a bit of texture.

I white embossed sentiments from Birthday Wishes on vellum and used the new Micro Dot Sheets as adhesive. Place the vellum on the sheet and rub with the cover sheet. 

Adhere to the background. I also cut a few sentiment strips. I used birthday stamps and wedding themed strips on this page, but turned it into a different theme.

There are so many options with the Domed Arches stencils. You can layer them in different colors, or use just one size.

I never grow tired of the resist effect and look of clear or white embossing powder combined with dye ink.

Another sentiment strip and a tiny bit of glitter.

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 Wednesday the 18th of May. 

Your next stop on the hop is Mindy Eggen. Don't miss to see what she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Nina-Marie Trapani

Caly Person

Nichol Spohr

Cathy Zielske

Suzy Plantamura

Sidnie Des Jardins

Lisa Addesa

Keisha Charles

Heather Ruwe

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Mindy Eggen

Barb Engler

Cheiron Brandon

Yoonsun Hur

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


This is the first blog hop for the Yay You release, don't miss blog hop day number 2 tomorrow.

Thank you so much for visiting 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.

Alcohol Ink Background

Hi friends! I hope you had a good weekend! We have beautiful spring weather here and everything is turning green.

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.

This week we have a 'Alcohol - drink or ink' theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Don't miss the beautiful project by our May guest designer Ann Chuang aka Ann Chuang Crafts. 

I made a bright alcohol ink background on yupo paper and using two background stamps by Simon Says Stamp. These backgrounds are such fun to make. 

Start by applying alcohol ink to the yupo background with a felt applicator. I like to just lightly touch the surface after the first one or two layers, to create little dots, or bubbles. Do that with blending solution too until you are happy with the look.

Stamp the Simon Says Stamp Open Grid and Solid Grid backgrounds here and there using Alcohol lift-ink. Dabb off the ink to reveal the ghost images.

Die cut a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Glossy Cardstock and ink with Valencia alcohol ink. I changed my mind and used a the Simon Says Stamp Shoot for the Stars die, but forgot to take a new photo. Here you see the Just Because die.

I didn't want to cover too much of the background up and only added some stars, a sentiment and two strips of label tape. Here you can see the ghost effect of both the open and solid grids.

The yupo paper makes for really bright colors.

The stars were die cut from Simon Says Stamp silver glitter paper and some of them where colored with Turquoise alcohol ink.

I die cut the sentiment a second time from white glossy paper and offset it a little. Here you can see the glossy effect better.

I hope you will join us this week in our Alcohol drink or ink challenge theme. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

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

Thank you so much for visiting 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.

Balloon Tag Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you are well and had a good weekend.

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.

We have a Masculine theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog this week. Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific designer/company and this week it is Tim Holtz. You can find Tim's fantastic range of products here. You don't have to use his products to join in the challenge, but it is always fun if you do.

Our guest designer during May is Ann Chuang aka Ann Chuang Crafts. I hope you will stop by her blog to see what she has created.

I made a tag this week, with a focal image which I really like and which feels joyful to me. It is from Tim's Sideshow set. The rest of the tag was built up with inking, stenciling and more stamping.

Start by stamping the Sideshow image on a heavystock tag with black ink.

Ink the tag with Distress Ink.

Ink through Tim's Linen stencil for a tone-on-tone texture.

Next I stamped the tag with a stamp from Tiny Textures and orange Distress Oxide ink.

The balloon was die cut with the smallest balloon from Simon Says Stamp Balloon Trio. Ink with orange Distress Ink and emboss with several layers clear powder. Always be careful when using a heat tool and never touch the melted powder until it has cooled down completely.

I also used some Heirloom Roses which had been colored with alcohol ink.

The tag was finished with a Word Band, design tape and sequins. 

I hope you will join us this week in our Masculine challenge theme. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

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

Thank you so much for visiting 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.