SSS The Color of Fun Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to be a part of the blog hop for the latest Simon Says Stamp release, The Color of Fun. The name fits so well since this new release is both very colouful and lots of fun. There are 12 new gorgeous colours of ink, and new stamps, dies and stencils. You should have arrived here from the wonderful Wanda Guess.

Aren't those new ink colours gorgeous, and perfect for summer. I hope you will join us in the blog hop and there is a prize to win at each stop of the hop, all you need to do is to leave a comment. 

I had such fun with these products and made an art journal page, with a tutorial, as well as a tag and some cards. 

I made a summery page in my art journal, with happy sentiments fitting for any time of the year. I had fun experimenting with a great background technique, which gives you pretty unpredictable areas of colour. 

These were the products from The Color of Fun that I used for my projects: My Sunshine stamp set, Sunkist ink, Blue Jay ink and the Relax die. I also used a bunch of other Simon Says Stamp Exclusive products. 

I like to apply Distress Inks to my acrylic blocks, or in this case a Sizzix Cutting Pad, and misting with water before 'stamping' the block to a page to make a background. Here is an art journal page using that technique. I wanted to try something similar with the Simon Says Stamp inks, but without misting with water. I simply dabbed the inks on a new Sizzix Cutting Pad.

I pressed the pad first on a piece of scrap paper (to the right) and then on a piece of Specialty Stamping Paper. Don't press down hard everywhere on the Cutting Pad, unless you want to transfer much more ink to the background. Just sort of press here and there. It is a pretty unpredictable technique, which I enjoy. 

I ended up making quite a few backgrounds. Here you can see a first impression one to the right, and the second impression to the left. 

Once I had decided which background to use, I stamped the stunning large sun from the My Sunshine set with embossing ink and embossed it with Snowflake Tinsel. I have mainly used this powder for Christmas projects, and liked the subtle glittery effect I got here. I didn't want a yellow sun, since I wanted the blue and the orange to be my only colours. I also embossed the Falling Snow on the orange part of my page.

The sentiments were stamped with Slate ink, since I wanted something softer than black. I also stamped a banner with Sunkist ink.

I love this Delicate Thistle die and die cut it from old dictionary paper and from Slate cardstock. The Sizzix Precision Base Plate works wonderful for these types of intricate dies. Glue the text thistle on top of the cardstock one, a little bit off set, so that you get a shadow. 

I die cut 'relax' from Slate cardstock, and the sweet Smile circle from one of the inky backgrounds that I didn't use, and from Slate. I love this circle die, it is a new favourite of mine. There are so many projects where a simple 'smile' fits. 

The shadow really adds to the look of the thistles and makes them stand out from the background better. 

I also used some strips of tissue tape, partly to ground the thistles to the page, so it didn't look like they were floating.

First, I stamped the Sunkist banner directly on the background, but I was too quick with stamping the sentiment on top and the ink wasn't dry yet, so it smudged. Instead I stamped the banner on white cardstock and cut it out. The 'be happy' sentiment comes from the Happy and Smile set.

I placed the smile circle in the middle of my glittery sun. 

I also made a tag.

Since the Simon Says Stamp inks are dye inks, it means that they are transparent, so if you stamp them on a surface that is not completely white, you also get a different shade of the same ink. I wanted to show you that on this tag, which is manila, and therefore gives a warmer and less bright look to the inks. That's one of the great things with dye inks. I stamped the background with the Leaf background stamp. At the bottom I stamped a border of suns from the My Sunshine set.

I thought the large sun would fit perfectly at the top of the tag. It was stamped on manila cardstock and cut out. I added a die cut circle in the center and punched a hole.

I did the same technique with the Woodland Tree as with the thistle, adding a thin shadow by also die cutting it from Slate paper.

The sentiment comes from My Sunshine, it has a triangular shape, which didn't fit so well with my tag design. Instead, I stamped it and cut into strips. At the bottom there is a piece of Linen Ribbon and Paper String.

We needed thank you cards for my son's teachers. He was supposed to have made them, but he spent so much time carefully picking out beautiful buttons from his own stash of buttons to place in the boxes he was giving them, that he ran out of time. Since I had several leftover inked backgrounds from the art journal page, I decided to use them.

I simply die cut a lot of circles with the fabulous Dots Circles set, which is a favourite of mine from the Falling for You collection. I love circles, and this one contains so many fun ones. This is a great technique to use for any leftover backgrounds that you were maybe not happy with, just die cut them into smaller shapes and they will look great. The fun sun stamp comes from the Happy and Smile set, stamped with Sunkist and Slate.

I made square cards and die cut relax directly from the cardbase, using the Sizzix Magnetic Platform so that my word wouldn't shift. The 'thanks' stamp comes from the You're So Sweet set. 

I made the cards all a little different, but using the same stamps and die cuts.

 I really like the random look of the colour on the die cuts. 

The sentiments were stamped with the Blue Jay ink, it is a great colour blue.

This is the last card, which might be my own favourite. I like the large half circle 'framing' the sentiment.

And with that very happy sun, I will finish this long post.

Don't forget that there are prizes to be won! If you leave a comment, you have a chance to win a price on each stop of the hop. The winners will be drawn on June 15 and Simon Says Stamp will contact them.

Next stop on the blog is the fabulous Laurie Willison. Don't miss all The Color of Fun inspiration along the hop!

If you get lost, head back to the Simon Says Stamp blog again.

Thank you for stopping by and happy summer crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Simon Says Clear Stamps MY SUNSHINE	Simon Says HAPPY AND SMILE	Simon Says Clear Stamps YOU'RE SO SWEET	Simon Says Cling Rubber Stamp FALLING SNOW	Simon Says LEAF BACKGROUND
Simon Says Stamp RELAX	Simon Says Stamp DOTS CIRCLES	Simon Says Stamp SMILE CIRCLE	Simon Says Stamp WOODLAND TREE	Simon Says Stamp DELICATE THISTLE
Simon Says Stamp BLUEJAY	Simon Says Stamp SUNKIST	Simon Says Stamp Dye Ink SLATE	Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SLATE	Dyan Reaveley SMALL CREATIVE JOURNAL Ranger
Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SUPER SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE	Ranger MANILA TAGS #8	Ranger Inkssentials 12 X 12 MANILA CARDSTOCK	Ranger 12 x 12 SPECIALTY STAMPING PAPER	Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK
Ranger SNOWFLAKE EMBOSSING TINSEL	Tim Holtz PAPER STRING STRIPES	Tim Holtz Idea-ology TISSUE TAPE ELEMENTS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LABORATORIE Tissue Tape	Tim Holtz Idea-ology LINEN RIBBON
Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE	Sizzix MAGNETIC PLATFORM	Sizzix PRECISION BASE PLATE	Tim Holtz TINY ATTACHER Stapler	3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4
We R Memory Keepers CROPADILE	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Ranger Inkssentials US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL	Ranger Inkssentials EUROPEAN HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL
Sizzix WATERMELON Standard Cutting Pads	Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 3 by 3	Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS

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