SSS Sunny Days Ahead Blog Hop

Hello crafters and welcome to my blog! I hope you are all well and healthy. I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Sunny Days Ahead blog hop, to celebrate the new release. You should have come here from the very creative JD Collins.

The Sunny Days Ahead release is filled with wonderful and versatile products. You can see them all here. I think the name for the release is perfect, there are sunny days ahead. You will find gorgeous graduation products, lots of ways to celebrate Mother's Day, and an many pretty spring florals. If you use the code sssink you get a free Intense Black ink pad with any purchase (offer valid until 4/26 at 11:59).

I made two projects for the blog hop and they are very different from each other. There is a mixed media canvas featuring a trio of roses, and a quick stamped and watercolored Mother's Day card.

 

Here's the finished canvas. Mixed media projects look harder to do when you just see the finished product, but if you follow along in the tutorial below, you will discover that it isn't so hard. It is created layer upon layer. This would be a great Mother's Day gift and it is easy to send too, since many of us might not be able to see our mother in person on Mother's Day. Especially in these days. It's a 6 x 6 in canvas, but you can also turn the design into a card, if you use sturdy paper as a base. It was made with the Rose Trio Stencil.

Start with a layer of gesso (I forgot to take a photo of that step) and let it dry. The paint watered-down Distress Paints on the background, misting heavily with water.

When dry, apply Texture Paste through the Rose Trio stencil.

Paint the roses with three shades of pink and red. The pink shade to the right is a mix of Picket Fence and Candied Apple.

Continue with darker shades, adding shadow areas on the inside of the petals. Blend into the lighter shade by using some of the lighter colors.

Add a little white for highlights.

Paint the leaves with three shades of green, starting with the lighter one.

I wanted this canvas to have a light look and didn't add as many shadows as I often do, just a few lines here and there with a black marker. I also scribbled a white gel pen here and there for more highlights.

Stamp randomly with the You Matter background stamp. It's an older SSS stamp, and one of my favorites.

For more texture, apply Opaque Grit-Paste around the edges with a palette knife. You can also use Texture Paste, but it will give a little less texture. Let dry.

At first, I was going to use brown for the edges, but then I decided that I wanted to skip the brown and have more of a green feeling to the background. So I painted the grit-paste with Shabby Shutters, and added darker shades of Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. You can add paint directly to the grit-paste before applying it, but I usually like to paint it afterwards when it is dry. Some of the white will be visible and you get a better and more varied texture.

And for some shimmer, I mixed an ice-cream stick scoop (just the tip of an ice cream stick is enough) of Perfect Pearls into water to make my own shimmer mist, and misted on the project.

 

Cut sentiments from the Sentiment Strips Reverse Mom Days and drag a black ink pad along the edge to hide the white cutting line.

I used two sentiment strips and liked the contrast of the black strips against the background. Here you can see the texture of the grit-paste better.

Don't worry too much about mistakes when painting the roses, mistakes won't be visible in the end, especially not when you see the canvas from a little distance.

You can of course also paint all the roses in the same color, or make them white or yellow instead. The circle words was stamped with the Mom Word Mix 2 and Green Leaf ink.

I like the shape of these leaves, with the soft curving lines.

The glimmer is a little hard to capture on photo, but you might see it better here.

For a more grungier example with similar techniques, check out my Bouquet of Roses canvas tutorial.

The Mother's Day card is very different from the canvas and is quick and easy to make. You can use any colors that you'd like. I used the wonderful Luck and Hugs set. The circle flowers and overlapping open letters are so cool and fun to color. You can also use Distress Ink instead of watercolor paint.

Start by white embossing the stamps that you want to use on watercolor paper. As you can see, there are lots of options in this great set, and many different sentiments.

Mix and test watercolors on a piece of scrap paper first. I always test my colors and how they will blend before painting on the actual project. Start with the 'h' and paint the whole letter, also the overlapping part. Continue with the next letter before the 'h' dries. You want the paints to blend. Paint over the edge here and there so that the outline of the letters will be visible.

Continue with the flowers. This is also a good exercise in wet-on-wet paint blending. As you can see the orange and the blue create a darkish color, which is why I didn't place them next to each other in the word. On the flowers, the dark areas add interest, but on the word, they would have been too strong.

Splatter a little paint on the card. The stamp the sentiments. They come from the Mom Word Mix 2 set.

Distress the edges of the watercolor panel before adhering it to a piece of blue cardstock and then to folded white cardstock.

You can cover the word when splattering, but I liked having just a few splatters in the letters.

Here you can see how the paints blend with each other on the paper.

These flowers made up by overlapping circles are such a fun design.

The heart was die cut with Tim Holtz Falling Hearts die from SSS glittery paper. It was a left-over from another project.

The colorful splatters add a nice playful touch to the card.

There are of course prizes to be won, 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 29th of April.

Your next stop on the hop is Amanda Korotkova and she will show you wonderful inspiration using the previously released Mother’s Day, Graduation, and spring floral Simon Exclusive products.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog   

Laura Bassen

Yana Smakula

Amy Rysavy

Heather Hoffman

Bibi Cameron

Gayatri Murali

Vicky Papaioannou

Preeti Chandran

Sidnie Des Jardins

JD Collins

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

ADDITIONAL INSPIRATION using previous released Simon branded products.

Amanda Korotkova

Debby Hughes

Karin Åkesdotter

Yoonsun Hur

For more Sunny Days inspiration, remember to check out the Sunny Days Ahead 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 Sunny Days Ahead blog hop was yesterday, so don't miss all the inspiration there.

Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope you will have a lovely weekend!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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