Butterfly Artist Trading Cards

Hello friends! I hope you are well! There is a chill in the air here, but I hope summer will remain a little longer. 

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.

This week we have a Play with ATCs theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Artist Trading Cards are such a fun format to work on (3.5x2.5 in). Don't miss the beautiful project by our August guest designer Ann Chuang.

I made two ATCs with a butterfly theme. The cards were stamped so that they can fit together on both sides. I only stamped each butterfly once. The butterflies were colored with Prismacolor pencils, which also acts as a resist, protecting them from the inking, so you do not need to do any masking. 

This is how they fit together from the other sides.

I started by cutting a two ATCs from heavystock paper. They are 3.5 x 2.5 in. Place them together and stamp Tim Holtz Perspective Butterfly. Make sure to place the stamp so that the entire body is on one of the cards. 

Switch the cards around and repeat with a butterfly from Tim Holtz Flutter set. Stamp the body on the card that only has wings.

Color them with Prismacolor pencils. I aimed for strong, contrasting colors.

Ink with Distress Inks using an ink-blending tool.

Add dots and highlights with a white gel pen and darken some of the details with a black pen.

Stamp the sentiment with Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Butterflies. Stamp here and there with Tim Holtz Craze & Planks stamp, using Archival Ink Potting Soil.

Splatter with a little Winsor & Newton Permanent White gouache.

Butterflies are always fun to color! The card with the large butterfly can easily be on its own too.

I found some tiny butterfly charms in an old box and stitched them to the card. 

This sentiment was stamped with Tim Holtz Tiny Text.

On the second card, the focus is on the smaller butterfly and the sentiment.

I distressed the edges slightly and added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Mandarin Gems to the cards.

Try not to get too much crackle stamping on the butterflies, but if you do, it doesn't matter.

White gel pens are great for adding highlights. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Don't miss the Kid's Summer Vacation Challenge, which goes on until 29 August. There are three great surprise parcels to be won! For kids 2-16 years. Read more here.

Join us this week in our Play with ATCs challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

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.

Happy Place Journal Page

Hello friends! I hope you are well! The sun is shining and we have a new challenge for you at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog. Our theme this week is Let's Art Journal.

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.

If you have never done art journaling before, I hope you will try it out. It is a lot of fun and there are so many options! Don't miss the project by our August guest designer Ann Chuang.

I made a page in my Dylusions Small Creative Journal, a mixed media background with texture paste and Distress Paint, stamped and watercolored flowers and some bits and pieces I found on my desk.

Start by applying texture paste through Tim Holtz Focus stencil. When dry, paint with Distress Paint and mist with water. Let dry.

Stamp here and there with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter.

Add Stickles glitter glue to the stenciled area, using your finger. 

Stamp Tim Holtz French Garden flowers on watercolor paper.

Paint with watercolors. Drop in darker shades before the first layer dries completely.

Die cut with Simon Says Stamp coordinating French Garden dies.

I also die cut Simon Says Stamp Stitching Butterflies from paper that had already been painted. 

Add a few postage stickers from Tim Holtz Postmarked and numbers from his Clippings Stickers.

Don't worry about perfection when watercoloring.

I also added Tim's Design Tape Trims and sentiment stickers.

I found some strips of Tim Holtz Backdrops papers on my desk and added them to the page, together with Design Tape.

Don't miss the Kid's Summer Vacation Challenge, which goes on until 29 August. There are three great surprise parcels to be won! For kids 2-16 years. Read more here.

Join us this week in our Let's Art Journal challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

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.

Birthday Cottage Card

Hello friends! This week we would like you to join us for the Monday Challenge's 15th Birthday Celebrations!

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.

Can you believe that the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge has been going for 15 years! We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our fellow crafters who have joined us over the years and we hope you will continue to join us. So many years of creativity and inspiration! And about 760 challenges, if I calculated correctly.

Our theme this week is of course Happy Birthday. Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products by a specific company/designer and this week it is AALL & Create. You can find all their stunning products here. You don't have to use AALL & Create products to join in the challenge, but it is fun if you do.

We also have a new guest designer and during August Ann Chuang will be joining us. Remember to check her blog to see what she has created.

I made a tall birthday card and created a scene with AALL & Create Tudor Cottage set. It was painted with watercolor paint adding stamped sentiments and sentiment strips. 

The AALL & Create Tudor Cottage is such a fun stamp set and you can create many different houses and scenes with it. I stamped a tall house, a lamp post, some animals and some pebbles.

I started by painting the house with various watercolors.

Paint the sky and then paint the ground. The dark paint is Daniel Smith Lunar Black, which is a granulating paint, adding texture.

Add highlights with a white gel pen and details and shading with a black pen.

Here you can see the granulating effect for the Lunar Black paint. The watercolor panel was mounted on Slate, Cotton Candy and folded Cornflower Simon Says Stamp cardstock.

The stamp set contains fun little details such as the directional arrows.

Don't worry about perfection when painting. Add shading before the first layer of paint is completely dry, so that the colors will blend.

This stamp set would be fun for a Christmas house too, just change the colors and add some snow. The sentiment strips come from AALL & Create Mindful Moments.

Join us this week in our Happy Birthday challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

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.