Simon Says Stamp Cheering For You 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 Cheering For You release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come 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 Cheering For You release is full of wonderful new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins. You can find the entire Cheering for You release here. 

I made an art journal page, but it can also easily be turned into a card.

I am very fond of Monstera, or delicious monster, which is what I normally call them. In one of the places where I lived, they grew on the grounds and this page was inspired by that garden. The lush greens and the large leaves against a blue and sunny sky. From the Cheering For You release I used the Monstera stencil set, Old Letter stamp, You stamp and die and the Delicate Hummingbird Duo.

Start by coating the page with gesso and let it dry.

Paint with watered-down Distress Paint and mist with water to blend even more.

The Monstera stencil set consists of four stencils. Start with the largest one and Cracked Pistachio paint.

Let the paint dry in between layers. For the next layer, I used Pine Needles. The paint was too moist on the blending tool for the leaf to the right. Dab it on a kitchen towel to remove paint.

The third stencil was colored with Rustic Wilderness.

And the fourth stencil was colored with Twisted Citron. You can of course use other shades of green.

When the paint was dry, I stamped the Simon Says Stamp Old Letter almost over the entire page with embossing ink and embossed with white powder. The Old Letter stamp is one of my own designs. 

Splatter the page with Distress Watercolor stencils to create foliage. Dip the pencil in water and flick a paint brush against it.

I love bird dies and these Simon Says Stamp Delicate Hummingbird Duo are so cute. Die cut them from watercolor paper.

I painted the birds with a mix of Distress Watercolor Pencils and Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi Pearl colors.

Assemble the birds and add eyes with a black pen. I also die cut a shadow using Simon Says Stamp Peacock Teal cardstock.

I really like this You die from the Cheering For You release, as well as the coordinating You stamps which you see in the following photo. The two also comes as a You set. Die cut the word from leftover inky paper and Simon Says Stamp Color Blend Cardstock.

The Simon Says Stamp You stamp set is so versatile and I really like the different sentiments. Stamp one of the sentiments on white paper with Simon Says Stamp Tropic Pawsitively Saturated ink.

I die cut You one more time from white paper to make it stand out better from the background.

The splatters were done with four different shades of green, for variation. If you want a less messy look, skip the splatters. 

The sentiment was cut into strips so that it would take more place on the background and not get lost.

I am very fond of using script stamps to add texture and interest to a background.

The hummingbirds shimmer in particular on their heads, wings and tailfeathers.

The off set shadow die cut makes the bird stand out better from the background, while also adding dimension.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

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 31 July.

Your next stop on the hop is Kim Hamilton. Don't miss to the wonderful project she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Caly Person

Cathy Zielske

Jennifer McGuire

Debby Hughes

Barbara Tarayao

Amy Rysavy

Keisha Charles

Emily Midgett

Miriam Prantner

Heather Ruwe

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Kim Hamilton

Sandi MacIver

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Cheering For 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 galleries too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration.

This is the first Cheering For You blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 2, which is tomorrow.

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.

Vellum and Acetate card

Hi friends! Today Simon Says Stamp has a brand new release called Cheering For You. I have a card to share made with some of the products from the release.

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 Cheering for You release is filled with stunning new stamps, dies, embossing folders, stencils and other products. You can find the whole release here.

I made a card with a combination of dry embossed acetate and vellum. The Cheering for You release includes Clear Acetate Cards, which inspired my card. I used the Tumbling Flowers Embossing Folder and Cutting Die. The colored flowers were die cut and embossed with the same set.

Start by dry embossing the front of the Simon Says Stamp Clear Acetate Card in the Tumbling Flowers folder.

Next I folded Simon Says Stamp vellum and embossed the front.

Die cut three flowers with the die included in the Tumbling Flowers set, from watercolor paper and emboss in the embossing folder. The coordinating flowers is a little bit below the middle of the folder, to the left.

Smear Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Pick up with a paintbrush and watercolor the flowers.

When the ink is dry, add some lines with a white gel pen.

Ink YOU from the Simon Says Stamp You set with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and mist with water. Stamp on watercolor paper. Repeat with Lost Shadow. Die cut with the coordinating You die. Also die cut from Simon Says Stamp White Glitter cardstock.

Layer the two grey words as shown and then glue to the glitter die cut. Adhere with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam tape. The smaller sentiment also comes from the You set and was stamped with grey ink on white paper.

The layered acetate and vellum gives a shiny, yet translucent look to the card. The embossed vellum gives a more defined look to the embossed images. I also added some sequins.

Adhere the flowers with foam tape too.

I pierced holes along the spine and tied with gold DMC floss.

This was a hard card to photograph, as is often the case with very shiny cards. 

I will see you again tomorrow for more Simon Says Stamp Cheering For You inspiration.

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.

Matchbox filled with words

Hello crafters! It is Monday and I hope you had a good weekend with some crafty time!

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 our challenge theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is Add a Sentiment. I hope you will join us and don't miss the project by our July guest designer Laura Cassina. 

I made a matchbox and couldn't use just one sentiment, but instead filled the box with sentiments. Almost as if it is a little box holding a lot of secrets. The box was made with Tim Holtz Vault Matchbox set and I used a bunch of different butterfly stamps to embellish it and the cards.

There are seven sentiment cards in the box.

Start by die cutting the box with the Vault Matchbox die from heavystock paper. Fold along the scorelines.

Ink the box with Distress Ink. I also die cut a card for the top of the box.

Stamp one of the butterflies from Tim Holtz Flutter on acetate. 

Cut out and color on the back with alcohol ink.

Gently heat with a heat tool and shape the acetate. Be careful as this might not work with all types of acetate. I used Wendy Vecchi Clearly for Art Modeling Film.

Die cut seven cards from inky paper. Stamp sentiments and small images on the cards. Mist the images with water after inking. Also stamp a sentiment inside the box.

Stamp here and there with Simon Says Stamp Stained Glass, for texture.

Ink the edges and assemble the box.

I added Moon Dust Stickles Glitter Gel to the back of the butterfly, but forgot to take a photo of that step.

A part of a Tim Holtz Tiny Text sentiment was stamped on the front.

I stamped words from Simon Says Stamp Forest Scenery on both sides of the box. I messed up the stamping of 'peaceful' and restamped and cut into a strip. 

When you open the box you will find a little treasure of words.

I used a mix of stamps by Simon Says Stamp and Tim Holtz for the sentiments and images.

Mist the stamp with water after inking for a watercolor effect.

The remaining four cards. The long sentiment comes from Tim's Urban Chic, the sentiment to the bottom left is from Simon Says Stamp Extra Proud and the remaining two sentiments are from Tim's Tiny Text.

The birds come from Tim Holtz Mini Ornates.

The stamp at the top is one of my youngest son's favorite sayings.

All the little cards and the box itself.

Die cut the side pieces from kraft cardstock and sand to reveal the texture.

Join us this week in our Add a Sentiment! 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 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.