Anniversary Card

Hi friends! I hope you are well and had a good weekend!! We had two fun outings this weekend and the weather was lovely.

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 Wedding/Anniversary theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Don't miss the last project by our May guest designer Estelle Palumbo. 

I made a card using neutral shades for this week's challenge, using stamps, dies, papers, inks and embossing powder. I was going to go for mainly white and cream first, but then added a bit of darker brown too. 

Start by die cutting the Simon Says Stamp Retro Hearts coordinating heart die from heavystock paper. Stamp the heart with embossing ink and white emboss. I added several layers of embossing powder. The heart was stamped so that there would be an unstamped area at the bottom of the heart.

Don't worry about stray embossing powder, it will only add texture.

Ink with Distress Inks. I aimed for an ombre look to the heart and inked darker around the edges. The larger edge at the bottom then becomes a shadow. 

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Heart Chain from Simon Says Stamp Glimmer Vellum and from left-over gessoed paper.

For the background, I used Simon Says Stamp Detail Pincushion Plate. Die cut from heavystock paper.

White emboss the alphabet stamp from Tim Holtz School Desk here and there.

Ink lightly with Distress ink, making it darker around the edges.

I die cut Simon Says Stamp Layered Bird Bunch from various papers and glued them together.

They were adhered with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape. I also added cheese cloth under the heart.

Use a white gel pen to add a highlight to the eye.

The sentiment was die cut with Tim Holtz Vault Travel set from cream paper. 'Happy' was stamped with Simon Says Stamp Cool Birthday.

Behind the pincushion panel there is a piece of Tim Holtz Neutral Palette paper, woodgrain pattern.

Join us this week in our Wedding/Anniversary 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.

Beautiful May Art Journal

Hello crafters! Today I have an art journal page to share, made about the beautiful month of May. 

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.

May is perhaps the most beautiful month here, everything turns bright spring green and it goes so fast. Flowers appear all over, but it is the green that is the most amazing thing. I never get tired of butterflies and you can make them in any color imaginable. It is also easy to make them dimensional. You can of course make a card instead of an art journal page, if you want too. 

Watercolor paper was first coated with gesso. When dry, I applied texture paste through Simon Says Stamp Petal Lattice stencil. At this stage, I was still planning to make a card and to cut down this panel, but I liked it so much with the open area that I decided to use the whole paper instead.

Paint with Distress Paint and mist with water to blend.

Mist with Antique Linen Distress Spritz here and there for shimmer.

When dry, apply Stickles Moon Dust in a some areas.

Next, I die cut Simon Says Stamp Flourish Butterfly Trio from left-over watercolor paper and from Simon Says Stamp Silver Shimmer Vellum. Most of the watercolor pieces were papers where I had tested different shades and how they blended. The bodies were die cut from Simon Says Stamp glitter cardstock.

If you want to, you can add Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam tape under the wings. I didn't, since this is an art journal page

I die cut the title with Tim Holtz Alphanumeric Bulletin. I die cut it from Tim Holtz Neutral Palette Paper and from Simon Says Stamp White Glitter cardstock.

The butterflies will all look different, since they are die cut from leftover papers.

The background was covered with gesso and then paint with brown shades of Distress Paint. Mist with water to blend. I stamped it with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter.

The dot stamp comes from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful and Curious and was stamped with Blueprint Sketch Archival Ink.

I had fun using pastell colors. I also added a trail behind each butterfly with Simon Says Stamp Opal Rainbow embellishments.

I like that there are three different sizes of butterflies in the Simon Says Stamp Flourish Butterfly Trio. Here I used all of them, but for some projects you might want just small butterflies.

The first part of the sentiment was stamped with a stamp from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful and Curious. I cut off the rest of the sentiment since I only wanted the word 'beautiful'.

I added Clippings Stickers here and there.

The Stickles adds a nice glittery touch to the background.

Here you can see the effect of the Antique Linen Distress Spritz better.

The gesso and paint background on today's page had been done a long time ago. I often use up leftover paint in my art journals. It was next to this You Shine page, which you can find a tutorial for here.

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.

Hyacinth Flower in Pencil

Hello crafters! Today I have a hyacinth flower to share, stamped on patterned paper and then colored with pencils.

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.

Stamping on patterned paper and then using pencils to color the image is one of my favorite techniques. The pencils will cover most of the pattern, but some of it will show through. I particularly enjoy combining this technique with ledger papers. I made an art journal page, but this could just as well be a card instead. 

The page was added to my Stamperia Happiness Mixed Media journal, 4x8.5 in.

Stamp the hyacinth from Simon Says Stamp Big Botanicals on Tim Holtz Red Palette Paper.

Color with pencils, starting with the lighter shades. I used Prismacolor pencils.

Add highlights with a white gel pen.

Use a black pencil to draw a small hill, some grass and shading. Color with pencils.

I cut the sentiments from Tim Holtz Palette Paper. Ink the edges.

Die cut butterflies from Pink Palette Paper using Simon Says Stamp Bright Butterflies. The edges were sanded lightly and inked.

I stamped words and numbers from Simon Says Stamp Big Botanicals on the background.

Add Stickles Star Dust to the flower centers. 

I used different shades of blue and a purple for the flowers.

This sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Vintage Bunnies and was stamped on ledger paper. I used the same sentiment yesterday for my Patterned Peony Flower tag.

Adding a grassy hill grounds the flower to the page. Here you can also see how the background paper shines through the pencil coloring.

Little Things was also cut from Palette Paper.

The ticket comes from one of the collage papers from the 8x8 Palette Papers. Stamp a word on the ticket and ink the edges.

Thank for stopping by here 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.