SSS My Favorite Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to be a part of the blog hop in celebration of Simon Says Stamp new exclusive release, called My Favorite. The release has wonderful stamps, dies and watercolour cards. You can find the whole My Favorite release here. You should have arrived at my blog from the fabulous Vicki Papaioannou. Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and there is a prize to be won at every stop.

I made two projects, an art journal page and a card, and took some tutorial photos too. 

I wanted to use the Birthday Wishes Frame as a Polaroid frame, and found this childhood photo of mine on my desk. Sometimes, I like to include photos in my art journal and that is what I did here, but you could also of course do something similar on a scrapbooking page, or on a card. If your project is not a birthday project, it is easy to simply cut that part of the die cut off. I also used a bunch of other Simon Says Stamp exclusive products on this page. 

From the My Favorite release, I used the Birthday Wishes Frame die, and I want to show you how versatile it can be. Some of my other favourites from the My Favorite release are: Beautiful Ride (love the bike and sentiments), Sketch Ranuculus (beautiful flowers and sentiments), and these word dies: Painted Kindness and Painted Friend. I love word dies and I will show you a fun way to use them below, turning them into stamps with Sizzix Inksheets. 

I used these four inks on my journal page. Don't they look nice together?

I started by stamping the Leaf Background with Melon ink twice in my large Dylusions art journal. There was some left-over ink on the stamp which also transferred to the page. I kind of liked it. 

Continue with the Grid Background and Teeny Bikini ink and finally the Tiny Alphabet Background and High Drive ink. I held all the three stamps in my hand for a more random impression, instead of placing them on a block.

Die cut the Birthday Wishes Frame three times from Ranger's watercolour cardstock, with the smoother side placed towards the die. Use this sandwich: Sizzix Multipurpose Platform Tab 2, Precision Base Plate, paper with smooth side up, die facing down, Cutting Pad.

I used Sizzix Inksheets to turn my word dies into stamps. The sheets come in many colours, I used black. You also need an Inksheets Transfer Pad. For more inspiration on Inksheets, check out this Paper Leather and Inksheets canvas tutorial of mine, where you will also find links to other projects. Use this sandwich: Multipurpose Platform Tab 2, Transfer Pad grey side up, paper, Inksheet with matte side down, die facing down, Cutting Pad.

Ink with Distress Inks and add a little texture with the Distress Spritzer tool and a Ground Espresso marker. 

Smear Teeny Bikini ink on gloss card and die cut using the Create word. 

Stamp flowers and butterflies, from the Friendship Blooms set, on watercolour paper.

Smear Distress Inks on your craft sheet, mist with water and pick the ink up with a paint brush. Then die cut with the coordinating dies. 

Ink glossy cardstock with Scattered Straw and Pumice Stone and mist with droplets using the Distress Sprayer. 

Die cut a Smile Circle and the fun Stacked Hearts from SSS cardstock. 

 I added some spritzing to the background too, and stamped it with stamps from the Happy & Smiles and My Sunshine sets.

 Glue the heart die cut behind one of the windows, and add an inky glossy paper behind it.

 The word dies are perfect for the Polaroid frames.

Glue a few left-over hearts here and there. The Birthday Wishes Frame, without the die cut sentiment, is a great place for a stamped sentiment.

I also added some Tim Holtz tissue tape and Deco Tape to the page. There is a white 'create' glued under the pink one, to make it stand out better.

The small pieces were glued with Glossy Accents.

I also made a birthday card, on a stamped acetate base.

You can easily layer more than one Birthday Wishes Frame for a great effect. Or use only the sentiment for a card and skip the frame all together. The die cut sentiment is so pretty. The acetate card base was a left-over from another project, and was already stamped with the Tiny Alphabet background stamp and Cotton White ink.

Die cut the Birthday Wishes Frame three times from three shades of grey SSS cardstock. Cut the sentiment off from two of the frames.

Use a post-it note to mask off the bottom part of the sentiment on the stamp (from Friendship Blooms) while inking, and stamp on the frame. You can stamp the whole sentiment if you want to, but I didn't want to repeat the word 'birthday'.

Glue the darker grey sentiment on top of the lighter one, but off-set it a little. Layer the frames together.

The hearts were stamped with the Tons of Hearts set. The solid hearts were inked with Distress Ink and misted with water before stamping, for a watercolour effect. As you can see, the background stamp wasn't completely clean, so some black ink was stamped on the background too.

 I also added three Mirrored Hearts to the card.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! 

Remember that Simon Says Stamp is giving away a prize on every stop of the hop, you just need to leave a comment for your chance to win. The winners will be drawn on Monday 25 april and Simon Says Stamp will contact them. 

Your next stop on the hop is the wonderful Sarah Moerman. If you get lost somewhere along the way, you can always head back to the beginning at the Simon Says Stamp blog.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies (affiliate links used): 

Simon Says Stamp BIRTHDAY WISHES FRAME	Simon Says Stamp STACKED HEARTS	Simon Says Stamp CREATE Wafer Die	Simon Says Stamp SMILE CIRCLE	Simon Says Stamp PAINTED ENJOY
Simon Says Stamp PAINTED SUMMER	Simon Says Stamp LIFE FAMILY LOVE	Simon Says TONS OF HEARTS	Simon Says HAPPY AND SMILE	Simon Says Clear Stamps LIFE'S JOURNEY
Simon Says GRID BACKGROUND	Simon Says TINY ALPHABET BACKGROUND	Simon Says LEAF BACKGROUND	Simon Says FRIENDSHIP BLOOMS Set	Simon Says FRIENDSHIP BLOOMS
Simon Says Stamp FRIENDSHIP BLOOMS	Simon Says Stamp Card Stock RAINBOW PACK	Simon Says Stamp 3 SHADES OF GRAY	Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SLATE	Dyan Reaveley DYLUSIONS JOURNAL
Ranger WATERCOLOR PAPER	Ranger GLOSS PAPER 8.5 X 11	Simon Says Stamp TEENY BIKINI	Simon Says Stamp HIGH DIVE	Simon Says Stamp DUCKLING
Simon Says Stamp MELON	Tim Holtz Distress Ink SCATTERED STRAW	Tim Holtz Distress Ink MERMAID LAGOON	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PUMICE STONE	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK BLACK SOOT
Tim Holtz Distress Ink WORN LIPSTICK	Tim Holtz Distress Ink FOSSILIZED AMBER	Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Tsukineko Stazon COTTON WHITE	Tim Holtz Distress Markers GROUND ESPRESSO
Tim Holtz TISSUE TAPE SYMPHONY	Tim Holtz Idea-ology TISSUE TAPE ELEMENTS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology DECO TAPE	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White
Sizzix STARTER KIT Inksheets	Sizzix STANDARD TRANSFER PAD Inksheets	Sizzix BLACK SHEETS Transfer Film Inksheets	Sizzix MINT Standard Cutting Pads	Sizzix MAGNETIC PLATFORM
Sizzix PRECISION BASE PLATE	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Ranger Inkssentials INK BLENDING TOOL	Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS
3M Scotch PINK ATG ADVANCED TAPE GLIDER 1/4	Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT KNIFE	Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 3 by 3	Tim Holtz Distress Marker SPRITZER TOOL	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger

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