Sparkly Tropical Beach Tutorial

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog today! I hope you are all well and that you had a great weekend. 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Add a Little Sparkle theme. Fun! Instead of adding just a little sparkle, I added quite a lot on my tropical beach tag. Don't miss the gorgeous project by our July guest designer Karolina Bukowska.

Don't miss the Kid's Summer Vacation Challenge, which lasts until the end of July.

There was a time when I was a child when I was very much looking forward to seeing my first palm tree. I remember it very clearly, wanting to see a palm tree so badly. This is a particularly sparkly palm tree, on a very sparkly beach. I used lots of fun media and ways to create sparkle here. The background was actually in my scrap box, I made it originally for another project. All I did now, was to mist it with Pearl Mica Spray, and to add the sand. 

Start by die cutting two palm trees from Heavystock paper using Tim Holtz Sizzix Tropical set.

Ink them with Distress Inks and add Distress Crayons for a stronger shade of color here and there.

Ink paper green and die cut leafy branches using the Funky Flowers 1 and 2 sets. Add a darker shade of green with a Distress Crayon.

Coat the trunk of the palm tree with Glossy Accents and sprinkle Rock Candy Distress Glitter on top. Do the same with a die cut sentiment. Smear Sprinkled Sugar Stickles on the palm leaves and on the smaller branches. Leave to dry.

The tag was die cut from Specialty Stamping paper and the background was inked with Distress Oxides. Texture paste was applied through a wood grain stencil. Mix a little Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap into Texture Paste, together with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. This creates a sparkly sand. When it is all dry, mist the entire tag with Mica Pearl Spray.

Ink paper with Picked Rasberry and die cut tiny flowers from it. I love these tiny flowers from Funky Floral 2. Give the flowers some shape.

Glue everything down with Matte Medium, and use foam tape between the palm tree leaves. Add dots of Liquid Pearls to the pink flowers, and Electric Lime Enamel Accents to the palm tree leaves.

My dots aren't perfect - the way to get them to be rounded is to flick the back of the card after applying the Liquid Pearls. I couldn't do that, because I hadn't waited until the Matte Medium was dry. One flick and they would all have gone flying. It is better to wait to apply the Liquid Pearls until they are stuck.

Here's a look at all the sparkle on the palm tree.

I love the look of the Rock Candy Glitter.

Here you can see the sparkle effect in the sand a little better.

I dyed a piece of lace to use as a tie for the tag, and to coordinate with the pink flowers.

I hope you will join us this week in our Add a Little Sparkle challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 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 for taking the time to stop by 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.

Geometric Banner Tutorial

Hello friends! Today, I have a Sizzix tutorial to share with you. I made a geometric banner, which is easy and quick to do and a really fun decor item. Or you could make it for a special occasion, such as a party or celebration.

Here's the finished banner. Long and narrow items are notoriously difficult to photograph, but I think you can get an idea of what it looks like here. It was made with just one die, namely the Geometric Garland by Katelyn Lizardi. The banner has two different geometric shapes. It feels very cool to the touch with all those angles and corners, and also makes an interesting sound when moved around. 

Here you get another view of the banner, hanging on our fence. It will looks great in a window, or on a wall. You can also easily make it longer.

I used watercolor paper as a base for my banner and colored it with Paper Artsy's Infusions Colored Stains. This is very quick and so much fun. I made a whole bunch of papers in one go. Mist the paper with water first and then sprinkle a small amount of Infusions powder on top. I used two shades on each paper. Mist more water to blend, and if needed add a little more powder. As you can see, I pricked holes in the lids of the bottles.

Die cut enough shapes for your banner. Each time you die cut, you get one of each shape. Use this sandwich: Cutting Pad, die facing up, paper, second Cutting Pad.

Stamp the shapes with Archival Inks and various pattern stamps. I used a dot background, alphabet background and a star border stamp by Tim Holtz.

Fold the shapes along the score lines.

The shapes are easy to assemble, just add a strong adhesive along the flaps.

Don't they all look fun together? You could also use just one or two colors.

Each shape has two holes, which makes it very easy to assemble. I used twine and a long needle. If you want space in between each shape, tie a knot on each side of the shape. I liked mine to be close together.

Here's the finished banner - it is 28 in long, plus the extra twine that I left so that it can be tied to something.

I just love all those geometric triangles and diamond shapes.

The background technique is quick and also ensures that all the shapes look different.

You can also die cut the shapes from patterned or colored paper.

The banner can easily be customized with someone's name or by using tiny photos or images.

A Christmas banner with Christmas colors and patterns would also look great, and could hang in a tree.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! The background technique can also be used for cards, scrapbooking pages or art journals.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit 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.

Summer Fun Layout Tutorial

Hello friends! I hope you had a great weekend. The World Cup journey is over for Sweden, but it was fun while is lasted. We have had a good weekend, finding a new friend, going for walks, cycling and going swimming. 

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a very fitting Summer Fun theme. Don't miss the gorgeous project by our July guest designer Karolina Bukowska.

 

I made a layout this week, documenting memories from last year's visits to the sea, with lots of swimming, crab fishing (on this photo), sand castle building and more. The background was done with Tim Holtz Grid Dot stencil and Distress Spray Stains. I was aiming for a happy, playful summer look. The vellum was embossed with the Tiny Dots folder.

First, I covered most of a sheet of watercolor paper with the stencil, applying Texture Paste through it with a palett knife. You have to wait so that the first application is dry, before continuing, otherwise it will smear.

When dry, mist with Distress Spray Stains. I like how the ink pools in the recessed areas.

The title was die cut from white mat board using Tim Holtz's Sizzix Deco Alpha die. I inked the letters to give them an ombre look. Mat board takes ink beautifully.

Coat the letters with Glossy Accents, and they look almost like glossy sweets.

This circle was a left over from a gel printing session - you can find the original tutorial here in my Gel Printed Card Tutorial - the stamp used in the background is SSS Bohemian Lace stamp.

I stamped sentiments and cut into strips and also used the Mixed Media 1 set to die cut a honeycomb pattern from a paper that had been inked with Spiced Marmalade. The letter was also a left-over, with the A being clear embossed using the SSS Sketched Alphabet set.

My favourite part of misting is the areas along the edges which get this splattery look.

The heart was die cut from white paper with Tim Holtz Scribbles and Splat set.

It is easy to make your own title letters, all you need is a die, paper or, in this case, mat board, and ink or paint. The Glossy Accents gives the letters a nice finished look.

I also die cut butterflies with the SSS Stitched Butterflies set. They were die cut twice, with the one set left white and the other inked. I also misted them with Wendy Vecchi's Pearl Mica Spray.

Here you can see the effect of the Mica Spray a little better.

I hope you will join us this week in our Summer Fun challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 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 for taking the time to stop by 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.