SSS Encouraging Words Blog Hop

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog and to the last stop on the blog hop for the Simon Says Stamp Encouraging Words release! I am so happy to be a part of this fun blog hop. If you are following along the hop, you should have come here from the wonderful Barb Engler who has a whole bunch of colorful and very clever projects to share with you.

I love the title of this release, Encouraging Words, and it is full of wonderful and very versatile the stamps and dies. You can see the whole Encouraging Words release here. Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and of course there are prizes to be won too.

I did two projects, with tutorials, a wall hanger and a card. The techniques can, as always, be used on almost any type of project.

I was very inspired by the Thank You Teacher stamp set, which contains fantastic sentiments, quotes and words, and certainly not only for teacher related projects. When I read the quote by Nelson Mandela, I knew I wanted it up on our wall. I believe very strongly in the power of education, and on top of that, am very lucky to have seen Nelson Mandela in real life twice (albeit at a distance). Inspiration can come from anywhere, and I find that I am quite often inspired by words. I paired the quote up with the Cosmic Trail die, also from Encouraging Words, the SSS Tiny Alphabet Background stamp and a Globe die by Tim Holtz.

These are some of the Encouraging Words products that I used: Kindness Matters, Cosmic Trail and the Thank You Teacher set.

For my second project, I also used these Encouraging Animals stamps and coordinating dies.

Die cut the globe twice from Heavystock paper and cut off the continents from the second die cut. Trace a circle using the die and cut out.

Ink the circle with Distress Inks and mist with water.

Paint the globe with White Gesso.

When dry, add a little bit of blue, avoiding the poles.

Smear some gesso at the top of the continents (which would be snow-covered), and when dry, ink the rest with shades of green, using only Twisted Citron in the driest areas.

Randomly stamp with the Tiny Alphabet Background. This is one of my all time favourite stamps.

 

Glue together and add Glossy Accents to the continents.

Die cut the Cosmic Trail from Heavystock paper.

Ink as before, and mist with water. Add Glossy Accents to the stars.

Stamp the sentiments on Heavystock paper and then ink with Antique Linen, and around the edges only, with Ground Espresso. 'You matter' and 'Remember' are such useful words, fitting many types of projects.

I glued cork to mat board (5.5 x 7 in)to create my background and stamped the cork with the Tiny Alphabet stamp. The corners were rounded. I also added some kids from Tim Holtz's Paper Dolls, as well as school related ephemera papers. These were were sanded, distressed and inked.

I really like the typography on this stamp. The edges were distressed a little. I also added a Pen Nib and some roses.

Place the stars here and there. At the bottom of the piece there is an inked wooden ruler.

Distress the Word Band with paint so that it coordinates with the rest of the project. Everything was glued down with Distress Matte Medium.

Here you can see the cool effect of the Glossy Accents.

I also made a little card, which has a different style than the project above.

The card displays a scene and an important message. The Encouraging Animals are so cute and also fun to color. Change the colors for a different look to the animals. I also really like the Kindness Matters die and it is so true.

Pair the animal stamps up with other sentiments sets and you can uses them for many different themes. On the inside of the card I used the 'Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody' stamp, which I thought worked well together with the kindness theme.

I often start by stamping a whole bunch of images, before deciding which to use.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. I colored these quickly and left some white showing for highlights. Die cut with the coordinating dies, which are easiest to use together with the Sizzix Magnetic Platform.

The background of the scene continues at the back of the folded card, and was done by inking up a large acrylic block (8 x 4.4 in), misting with water and pressing it down on watercolor paper.

I also used the Eyelet Arch Borders from the Cherished collection, and die cut a hill.

Ink with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap and mist with water droplets.

The same was done with a Kindness Matters die cut.

I stamped the hill with the You Matter stamp and Khaki ink.

The sentiment was stamped on the inside with Khaki ink.

Kindness Matters is almost like a cloud in the sky. If you want the letters to stand out better, matte it on darker or lighter cardstock. The row of hearts come from Wild Cuddly Critters and was stamped with Blue Jay ink.

Here you can see the highlights on the animals left white when watercoloring them. The coordinating dies makes it so quick and easy to cut them.

Try to make a sentence that you like from the You Matter show, in this case, 'you can do anything you set your mind to'.

Distress the edges for extra texture.

If you fold out the card, it looks like this. Creating a background that extends to the back is a very quick manner of adding interest to a card.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and if you have missed any of the previous stops, you'll find a list below. There are of course also prizes and a $25 gift voucher can be won on each stop of the hop. All you need to do for a chance at winning, is to leave a comment. The winners will be posted on the SSS blog on Tuesday.

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Debby Hughes

Kathy Racoosin

Yana Smakula

Heather Hoffman

Nichol Spohr

Suzy Plantamura

Sarah Moerman

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Virginia Lu

Barb Engler

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

There will also be a blog hop for Encouraging Words tomorrow (Saturday), don't miss it. It will also start at the Simon Says Stamp Store Blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! I hope you will have a lovely weekend! Today, we are going to a nearby farm/outdoor museum to visit the animals there. The boys are both crazy about animals.

Happy stamping!!

Anna-Karin

Supplies (affiliate links):

Simon Says THANK YOU TEACHER	Simon Says Stamp COSMIC TRAIL	Simon Says Stamp KINDNESS MATTERS	Simon Says ENCOURAGING ANIMALS	Simon Says Stamp ENCOURAGING ANIMALS dies
Simon Says Stamps And Dies ENCOURAGING ANIMALS set	Simon Says Stamp EYELET ARCH BORDERS	Simon Says TINY ALPHABET BACKGROUND	Simon Says YOU MATTER BACKGROUND	Simon Says WILD CUDDLY CRITTERS
Simon Says Stamp BLUEJAY	Simon Says Stamp Ink KHAKI	Tim Holtz Idea-ology PAPER DOLLS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology COLLECTOR Ephemera	Tim Holtz HEX FASTENERS
Tim Holtz Sizzix GLOBE Thinlits	Tim Holtz HEIRLOOM ROSES	Tim Holtz RULER PIECES	Tim Holtz Metal WORD BANDS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology PEN NIBS
Tim Holtz TEXTURED SURFACES	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress 8.5 X 11 MIXED MEDIA HEAVYSTOCK	Ranger WATERCOLOR PAPER	Sizzix LITTLE SIZZLES MAT BOARD 6x13 WHITE	Tim Holtz Distress Ink GROUND ESPRESSO
Tim Holtz Distress Ink VINTAGE PHOTO	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD FRAYED BURLAP	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD ANTIQUE LINEN	Tim Holtz Distress Ink WILTED VIOLET	Tim Holtz Distress Ink WORN LIPSTICK
Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK MUSTARD SEED	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK SALTY OCEAN	Tim Holtz Distress Ink TUMBLED GLASS	Tim Holtz Distress Ink BLUEPRINT SKETCH	Tim Holtz Distress Ink MERMAID LAGOON
Tim Holtz PINE NEEDLES	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PEELED PAINT	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK MOWED LAWN	Tim Holtz Distress Ink TWISTED CITRON	Ranger TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS Mixed Media Palette
Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PICKET FENCE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint MERMAID LAGOON	Tim Holtz Distress Paint TUMBLED GLASS
Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS	Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Sizzix MAGNETIC PLATFORM	Sizzix MULTIPURPOSE PLATFORM STANDARD
Sizzix PRECISION BASE PLATE	Sizzix MINT Standard Cutting Pads	Tim Holtz Tonic MINI SNIPS	Tim Holtz Tonic PAPER DISTRESSER	Tim Holtz SANDING GRIP
Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT SCRATCHER	Tim Holtz Distress COLLAGE BRUSH SET	We R Memory Keepers Cropadile CORNER CHOMPER	We R Memory Keepers CROP-A-DILE	Tim Holtz TINY ATTACHER Stapler
Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET	Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 3 by 3	Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS

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