Simon Says Stamp DieCember Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp DieCember® release blog hop today. You should have come here from the creative Bibi Cameron.

The DieCember® release is full of fantastic and versatile dies and most of them are perfect for any time of the year. You can see the full release here. If you use the code JINGLE when ordering and you will get an American Crafts Christmas Tag Kit. This promotion will expire 12/4 at 11:59 pm EST.

I made two projects, an art journaling page and a shaker card. Both are stepped tutorials and the techniques can be used for many types of projects. 

When I saw the Hexagon Tiles die set I knew it would be perfect to use together with scrap papers and create a kind off patchwork honeycomb pattern. I love to use scrap papers from previous projects. They often contain interesting textures and colors and also consists of various types of papers. Here you will find watercolor paper, glossy paper, smooth white paper and heavystock paper. Most of the scraps that I used had been done with Distress Ink, Distress Oxide Ink, alcohol ink or watercolors. 

Start by die cutting lots of hexagons from various scrap papers. You can also get a similar effect by using patterned paper scraps. I only used the solid tile, but you can use the other two as well.

Most of the tiles were stamped with SSS background stamps and SSS inks, in a similar shade as the tile, creating a tone-on-tone effect. I used the Old Letter, Crackle Background and Wood Planks background stamps.

Next I used small sentiments from quite many SSS stamp sets (you can see them all in the supply list below). Stamp with black ink.

Hang In There was die cut from SSS white glittery paper and the mat was die cut from vellum.

Glue the glitter letters to the vellum mat. The vellum helps the sentiment stand out, without covering up the background completely.

The tiles were glued to a burlap page in Dina Wakley's Blue Edition Media Journal, alternating the colors. The butterfly comes from SSS Thoughtful Flowers.

I thought the little people from the Just Miss You set were perfect together with the Hang In There sentiment. The pink and orange tiles are glossy paper, which adds a nice touch, but might be hard to see here. 

The scraps carry a bit of their former projects with them, since I can remember every single project that these came from. Some of them were made long ago. That is one of the reasons why I like to use these types of inky scraps.

If you look closely, each tile has interesting textures. This tile came from my Distress Ink Blocks card.

If you want to see how I made the green tile in the middle, it comes from my Cling Wrap Watercolor Floral Tutorial.

The light blue tile is a left-over from a video I made on Wax Paper Resist.

The blue tile is glossy paper, inked with Distress Ink and misted with water.

Some words were stamped more than once.

I also added some sequins to the page, for a fun touch.

And now to the shaker card.

The Chunky Hearts Panel is so versatile and I love the shape of the hearts. Hearts work for any time of the year and you can use both the panel as such and the die cut hearts. I saved my hearts for a future project. I used a previous background here too, from my Cling Wrap Watercolor tutorial. I thought it looked a bit like ice and fit with a winter card. 

Start by die cutting the Chunky Hearts Panel from a left-over paper or from patterned paper.

Cut a piece of acetate or Clearly For Art Modeling Film and color with alcohol inks, to create the look of an old stained window.

Stamp on the other side in a few places with the Crackle Background stamp.

Adhere the inky acetate to the back of the heart panel, add foam tape around the edges and fill with Seaglass Sequins and Tim Holtz Mica Flakes. Place another acetate sheet on top to create a sandwich.

Die cut the Simple Stem from SSS white glitter paper, aqua glitter paper and kraft cardstock. This is such a lovely stem. 

Apply gesso to an old book paper, but don't cover the text up completely.

Adhere the old book paper to the back of the shaker and then mount everything on folded kraft cardstock. Glue some sequins to the background. I really like to add sequins to my projects at the moment and they are within easy reach on my desk too.

The sentiment was stamped with a stamp from the Slimline Scene Builder on a left-over piece of Tim Holtz Journal Card.

The mica flakes and sequins look lovely behind the windows, as if a treasure is hiding there.

And when you don't see the flakes, you can read some of the words in the background.

The three Simple Stems were layered on the card. 

I am going to enjoy using the left-over icy hearts on future projects. 

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 9th of December.

Your next stop on the hop is Bobbi Lemanski and she will show you wonderful card inspiration.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Debby Hughes

Laura Bassen

Amanda Korotkova

Yoonsun Hur

Heather Hoffman

Bibi Cameron

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Bobbi Lemanski

Vicky Papaioannou

Gayatri Murali

Keisha Charles

Dana Joy

Daniel West

Preeti Chandran

Kath Stewart

Kim Hamilton

For more DieCember® inspiration, remember to check out the DieCember® gallery at SSS, 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. Part one of the DieCember® blog hop was yesterday, so don't miss all the inspiration there.

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

Happy winter 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.

Cardinal Tag Tutorial

Hi friends! The cold weather seems to be here finally and we had a nice Advent Sunday yesterday. I should have worked at a big traditional Christmas market, but it of course had to be cancelled. Today I have a fun tutorial using alcohol ink and also Scribble Sticks for watercoloring a cardinal bird.

This week we have a Alcohol Ink theme on the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge blog. We are looking forward to seeing all the alcohol ink submissions. Don't miss the last project by our November guest designer Laura Cassina aka elaborando on instagram. 

I love creating projects from an acetate or Clearly For Art Modeling Film base and combined with dry embossing and alcohol ink, you will get a quick and stunning background. You don't need to make a tag since the technique works great for cardmaking too. Just fold a piece of acetate and dry emboss it on one side only (or both1). I also used a beautiful cardinal bird stamp by Memory Box. 

Start by die cutting a tag from fairly thick acetate or Clearly for Art Modeling Film. Emboss it in the SSS 3-D Floral Field Embossing Folder.

Turn the tag around and add drops of alcohol ink to it. I used Patina, Turquoise, Denim and Espresso. The add a few drops of Alcohol Blending Solution. 

The front of the tag was splattered with white Gloss Spray, for a wintery look.

Stamp the cardinal from the Memory Box Spirit of Christmas Set on watercolor paper.

Pick up colors directly from the tip of Scribble Sticks with a paint brush and paint the bird. I used mainly the Sedona shade, which was the right red-orange shade I was looking for. Add some shading and texture with the black stick.

Die cut with the coordinating die set, or cut with scissors.

Die cut the SSS Leafy Branch die from Memory Box Frosted Glitter and Polished Foil papers.

Stamp the sentiment with SSS Island Blue ink and die cut with the coordinating die - which also happens to be a really nice oval die on its own too. Layers a piece of lace, the two leafy branches and a piece of tinsel. 

Leave some of the white paper showing through when coloring, to create highlights.

The background has a interesting look with the embossing, alcohol ink, splatters and lastly also a few silver sequins.

The alcohol ink will collect in unpredictable ways in the grooves of the embossing.

The Frosted Glitter and Polished Foil papers look so nice together and add both shine and bling. I left some of the leaves inside the outline on the glitter die cut.

Here you can see the tag on a white background. I am planning to hang my tag in our Christmas tree, since I think it will look nice there, with the see-through background, glitter and shine. 

I hope you will join us this week in our Alcohol Ink challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 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 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.