Simon Says Stamp Born To Sparkle Blog Hop

Hello stampers! I am very happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Born To Sparkle blog hop, to celebrate the new collection. If you follow along in the hop, you should have come here from the very creative Heather Hoffman.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

The Born To Sparkle release is full of versatile stamps, dies, stencils, sequins and paper products. If you use the code CRUSH428 Island Crush Ink Cube set for free (with purchase).This promotion will expire 5/2 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last.

I just love the name of this release. We are all born to sparkle.

I made a tag and a card, with some fun and easy technique. I'll show you two of the many ways in which you can use the Open Grid Background stamp (which is one of the stamps from Born To Sparkle that I designed). As always, the techniques work for many types of projects.

 

Let's start with the congrats card, which could be a birthday card or a graduation card, or something else. Congrats is one of the sentiments that work for many themes. The background was watercolored stamped, which is a favorite technique of mine. 

I had fun and made a bunch of backgrounds using the Open Grid Background, using slightly different combinations of Distress Inks. The four inks shown here are the ones I used in the panel that ended up on the card. Ink the stamp starting with the lightest ink first. Mist 4-5 times with water and then stamp. I just love the unpredictable results of this technique and the way in which the inks blend. Watercolor paper works best for this technique.

When dry, cut out and distress the edges. Mist in a just a few places with Antique Linen Distress Oxide spray, and add some splatters too.

Stamp the Party Balloons on watercolor paper, with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Smear Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. Watercolor the balloons that aren't partly covered by other balloons. Leave some of the paper showing through for highlights.

There are two sizes in the Congrats On A Line set. Die cut the larger from heavystock paper.

Ink in an ombre fashion and mist lightly with water.

No square will look exactly like the other. My favorites are the ones that end up being more than one color.

This technique works great with the Solid Grid Background stamp too.

Cut out the balloons and add twine strings. Most of them were adhered with foam dots and two are glued directly to the background.

I folded the ends of the sentiment strip around the edges of the card. The smaller sentiment was stamped with Dark Chocolate ink and comes from the very versatile Family Headlines set.

For the tag, I used almost an opposite technique as for the card, with the squares being cream and the background colored. And I used a very warm color combo with touches of gold.

Start by embossing the Open Grid Background on a heavystock tag, using the Simon Says Stamp Cream embossing powder.

Ink the tag with yellow, orange and brown Distress Ink, using an ink-blending tool.

Smear a little Mustard Seed Distress Oxide ink on a non-stick craft sheet. Mist with water and dip the tag into the ink, just here and there.

When dry, splatter with a brown Scribble Stick. Dip the stick in water and flick a paint brush against it. This is the least messy way of adding splatters that I know of.

Die cut the You Shine die from brown and gold papers.

Using cream instead of white embossing powder gives an even warmer look to the background. Don't worry about stray powder, it just adds texture.

The only thing that I used which wasn't from the Born To Sparkle release was the Leafy Branch die, die cut from gold and orange cardstock.

The sentiment comes from the Family Headlines set. My youngest loves to say 'my favorite' about lots of things, so I was happy to find this sentiment on the set. It is meant to be followed by one of the other sentiment stamps on the set (mom, dad, son, etc.), but I like it on its own too.

The You Shine sentiment is so gorgeous. And you can use the 'shine' letters on their own too. I will be using this sentiment a lot.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop. There are of course prizes to be won too, 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 5th of May.

Your next stop on the hop is my wonderful Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog team mate Emma Williams and she will show you one of her gorgeous projects.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Laura Bassen

Debby Hughes

Jennifer McGuire

Cathy Zielske

Amanda Korotkova

Heather Hoffman

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Emma Williams

Bibi Cameron

Yoonsun Hur

Bobbi Lemanski

Dilay Nacar

Mindy Eggen

Kath Stewart

Norine Borys

Tina Smith

For more Born To Sparkle inspiration, remember to check out the Born To Sparkle gallery at Simon Says Stamp, 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 blog hop was yesterday, so don't miss all the inspiration there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! I will see you again tomorrow.

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.