Simon Says Stamp In My Heart 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 In My Heart release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from the wonderful Sandi MacIver.

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 Simon Says Stamp In My Heart release is filled with of a great variety of new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins, perfect spring-time, Easter and Mother's Day crafting. You can find the entire In My Heart release here.

The not-yet-released Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Beautiful Day 3x4 stamp is automatically added to your cart that contains any purchase from the exclusive In My Heart collection! This gift with purchase will expire 3/22 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last.

 

I made a spring-time tag with an embossed floral background. I wanted most of the background to be visible, and just added two sentiments and a few ribbons. I used the new Simon Says Stamp Everlasting Flowers embossing folder for the background, the Bereavement Thank Yous and Getting Old sets for the sentiments and the Little Bows for the ribbons.

Start by applying Distress Ink directly to the Simon Says Stamp Everlasting Flower folder. Then mist the folder with water. Cut a tag from watercolor paper, mist the back with water and emboss. 

When dry, watercolor the flowers with Distress Watercolor Pencils. I used a paint brush to pick the pigment up from the tips of the pencils.

Do the same with the stems. You can leave the background like this, if you want to.

I wanted more texture and splattered the entire tag heavily with the pencils. Dip the pencil in water and flick a paint brush against it. 

Next, I added a little shimmer, by misting with Antique Linen Distress Spritz at the bottom and in a couple of places and splattering with Tumbled Glass.

The banner from Simon Says Stamp Getting Old was stamped on left-over inky paper. Stamp a sentiment from Bereavement Thank Yous in the middle. 

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Little Bows from Pawsitively Velvet paper. Aren't these cute?

Distress the edges of the tag. Glue the bows to the background and add a Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Peachy Gem to the center. 

I stamped another sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Bereavement Thank Yous on left-over inky paper, but didn't use the entire sentiment, just the first part.

Here you can see the shimmer from the Distress Spritz better.

The Everlasting Flowers are so cute. I also made one version with only yellow flower, but tested something after that which didn't quite work out.

Fold the banner and staple to the tag with two ribbons underneath it. 

Antique Linen adds a nice shimmer, without adding much color.

Thank you for stopping by here today, next stop is is my friend Lorraine Aquilina.

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 Simon Says Stamp 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 25 March.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Nina-Marie Trapani

Heather Hoffman

Laura Bassen

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Amy Rysavy

Keisha Charles

Sandi MacIver

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Lorraine Aquilina

Alberto Gava

Natasha Vacca

Barb Engler

Debbie Frank

For more inspiration, remember to check out the In My Heart 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 In My Heart 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.

Happy Yellow Flowers Tag

Hello friends! I hope you had a fun weekend. Here it was raining almost the whole weekend, but today the sun is out again.

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 Beautiful Blooms theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Don't miss the lovely project by our March guest designer Simona Rebecchi.

I was inspired to create a floral tag with spring-time colors. I haven't seen any of the yellow spring flowers yet, but they will soon be here. I used a stencil, gesso, texture paste and watercolors for the background. I was also happy to use Tim Holtz Handwritten Love, which is one of four Handwritten sets that have just been re-released. The four sets have very versatile and useful words in a nice handwritten style.

The tag was coated with gesso and when the was dry, I applied texture paste through Tim Holtz Floral stencil.

The background was painted with watercolor paint. I used watercolors from Daniel Smith. If needed, you can wipe some of the paint off from the flowers.

Let dry, and then paint the flowers with yellow watercolor paint. 

Paint the leaves and stems with Cascade Green.

I also added some Distress Mustard Seed watercolor pencil to the flowers to deepen the yellow. Mustard Seed was also splattered on the background.

I die cut the title from Simon Says Stamp Lemon Glitter cardstock and black cardstock using Tim Holtz Handwritten Love.

One of my favorite parts with creating dies, is picking the ribbons, twine, fibers and so on, to tie the tag with. Some of these have been in my stash for a very long time. I just noticed that the yellow, green and blue ribbon has twisted. The blue part is dots on the right side of the ribbon.

The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Wildflower Cuttings and was stamped on left-over grey watercolored paper.

The combination of gesso, texture paste, watercolor paint and splatters gives a background with interesting textures.

I am happy to see these handwritten dies return. Almost like meeting an old friend again.

I also added Simon Says Stamp Sunbeam Pawsitively Dazzling Gems.

You can of course do the background technique with many different types of stencils.

Join us this week in our Beautiful Blooms challenge! 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 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.

Lucky Clover Tag

Hi crafters! Signs of spring are appearing more and more and the days are getting longer. Today, I have a spring-time tag to share.

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.

I made a lucky clover tag in memory of having looked for clovers with four leaves as a child (and sometimes still today). The clovers were stamped with Simon Says Stamp Printmaking Clovers stamp set, from the new Beautiful Moments release. 

I had this piece of watercolor paper which I liked, but it wasn't quite big enough for a tag. A small piece was missing, but I will fix that. I also cut a tag from plan watercolor paper. 

Ink one of the three stamps in the Printmaking Clovers set with Pine Needles and mist with water a few times first.

Repeat with one of the other stamps using Mowed Lawn.

Repeat with the third stamp and Lucky Clover ink. Again, misting with water first. 

Ink Simon Says Stamp Swiss Dots with Lucky Clover, mist with water and stamp here and there.

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Friend from left-over inky paper.

Distress the edges of the watercolor panel. The sentiments were stamped with Simon Says Stamp Heart Suite. 

And the word 'lucky' had to be somewhere on the tag. I also added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Sprout Gems to the center of each clover.

I tore the bottom edge to hide the ugly spot add added a piece of lace twine underneath. The sentiment was die cut from a very splotchy inky paper and from cream paper.

Thank you so much for visiting 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.