Simon Says Stamp Moments in Time Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop to celebrate the new Rain or Shine release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from Miriam Prantner.

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 Moments in Time release is full of wonderful new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins, perfect for summer-time crafting. You can find the entire Moments in Time release here.

The exclusive and not-yet-released Best Fishes stamp set will be automatically added to your cart that contains Moments in Time release products! This gift with purchase will expire 6/1 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last. 

I made an art journal page, but you can also easily turn the design into a card.

Quite many years ago, I got a snake plant from a neighbour and it is still thriving. I thought it was a fun idea to have it in my art journal. This plant has a funny name in Swedish, namely 'mother-in-law tongue'. The plant was done with the new Simon Says Stamp Snake Plant stencil set.

The Simon Says Stamp Snake Plant set consists of five stencils. I accidentally deleted the first step photo. For the first stencil, I used Twisted Citron Distress Ink and for the second Twisted Citron Distress Oxide Ink. Hold the stencils in place with Simon Says Stamp Very Very Low Tack Tape.

Next use Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide Ink.

For the first of the pattern stencils, I used Mowed Lawn Distress Ink.

And for the last stencil, I used Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink.

I wanted to mask the snake plant and used a pencil to draw around the first stencil on Simon Says Stamp Masking Paper. Cut the paper out to create the mask and place it on the design.

Ink the page with various Distress Inks.

Remove the mask.

Stamp here and there on the background with Simon Says Stamp Thank You Text and Fern Green Ink. I stamped on the plant in a few places, but mainly avoided the plant. 

The new Simon Says Stamp Giggle Thank You is so cute and a great size. Die cut it from Simon Says Stamp Pine glitter cardstock, Midnight Green cardstock, Ice Vellum and left-over inky paper.

I glued the sentiment as shown, off-setting both the mat and the words. The stamped sentiment comes from the Mandala Blossom set, from the Your Are My Favorite release.

This sentiment comes from the new Simon Says Stamp Birthday Dragons set. I stamped and cut into strips, avoiding to stamp 'birth' in 'birthday'. I wanted a few small embellishments and die cut the Simon Says Stamp Poised Primula from glitter paper and Ice Vellum. This die comes from You Are My Favorite.

The shapes and patterns of these stencils are really great.

Don't worry if a little bit of the background shines through, it just adds highlights.

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 4 June.

Your next stop on the hop is Heather Ruwe. Don't miss to the stunning project she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog 
Nina-Marie Trapani
Laura Bassen
Cathy Zielske
Barbara Tarayao
Mindy Eggen
Heather Hoffman
Keisha Charles
Miriam Prantner
Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)
Heather Ruwe
Jean Doeringsfeld
Kim Hamilton
Anne Fiene
Nicky Meek

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Moments in Time gallery at Simon Says Stamp, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in the galleries too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration.

This is the first Moments in Time blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 2, which is tomorrow.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

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.

Simon Says Stamp Rain or Shine Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop to celebrate the new Rain or Shine release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from Tina Smith.

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 Rain or Shine release is full of wonderful new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and gems, perfect for spring-time crafting. You can find the entire Rain or Shine release here.

The exclusive Balloon Bouquet die will be automatically added to your cart that contains $23 or more of Rain or Shine release products! This gift with purchase will expire 3/31 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last. 

I made thank you tag with lots of words and lots of little ducks. The sentiments from the new Simon Says Stamp Thank You Basics are the perfect length for a tag and I always did enjoy covering an entire background with words. The little ducks from Farm Life were watercolored with Distress Ink. 

I started out by planning where to place the sentiment stamps from the Thank You Basics set. This set is filled with very useful thank you sentiments. Snap a photo so that you will remember. 

White emboss the sentiments on the background, working one or two sentiments at a time. 

Smear Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Press the tag into the ink. I liked this first background, but wanted more color and texture. Let dry and repeat.

After having repeated the process above three times, I did a layer with only a tiny bit of Uncharted Mariner. 

And finally, the background was finished with Mermaid Lagoon and Mustard Seed Distress Oxide Ink. Smear on the non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and just lightly touch the tag to the ink here and there.

The Simon Says Stamp Farm Life set is adorable! I stamped the ducks on watercolor paper.

Smear Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. I forgot to include the orange ink in the photo.

Cut the ducks out. There are coordinating Farm Life dies, but I don't have them yet, so I used scissors instead.

The May Arts Faux Wrinkled Ribbon was dyed with Distress Ink. 

I also stamped a few hearts from the Hoppy Birthday set, cut out an glued to the tag. Glue all the ducks. 

Place the ducks here and there so that it looks like they are walking towards each other, for a meeting somewhere in the middle of the tag.

The background works great on its own too, you don't really have to add anything on top. 

I also glued Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Sunbeam Gems to the tag. Don't worry about covering some of the text up. 

The final sentiment perfectly fit across the tag.

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 26 March.

Your next stop on the hop is my friend Karin Åkesdotter. Don't miss to the wonderful project she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Caly Person

Nichol Spohr

Suzy Plantamura

Jennifer McGuire

Debby Hughes

Emily Midgett

Lisa Addesa

Tina Smith

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Karin Åkesdotter

Sandi MacIver

Tracy Ware

Barb Engler

Michelle Short

Charlene Madrid

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Rain or Shine gallery at Simon Says Stamp, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in the galleries too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration.

This is the first Rain or Shine blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 2, which is tomorrow.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

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.

Monstera Art Journal Page Tutorial

Hello crafters! I hope you had a good weekend! We had lovely sunny weather and even more spring flowers are not visible.

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 an A bit o' Green challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! And don't miss the gorgeous project by our March guest designer Rox aka Red Dirt Crafter.

I made an art journal page with a whole lot of green, in fact, with almost only green, with just a bit of yellow and blue. I really like the monstera plant and the great shape of the flowers. It also has a funny name. The large leaves take up most of the space, with the additions of some words and other elements.

I have a bunch of pages in my art journals where I have used up left-over paste and/or paint and this was one of them. I had used Tim Holtz Woodgrain stencil together with texture paste and Distress paints. It is in my large Dylusions journal.

Start by stamping here and there with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter.

Apply Ranger Starshine Glitter gel to the paste areas.

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Monstera from heavystock paper. Smear Distress Inks on a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Press the paper into the ink. Let dry.

Repeat a couple of times until you are happy with the result. 

The final layer is Distress Oxide Ink, but just touch the paper to the ink here and there.

Tim Holtz Sign Painter letters were stamped with Simon Says Stamp Green Meadows Pawsitively Perfect Saturated inks. Die cut with Simon Says Stamp Sign Painter Letters coordinating dies.

The smaller sentiments come from Tim Holtz Tiny Text and were stamped with green ink. Simon Says Stamp Circle Loops were die cut from green glitter cardstock.

Glue the sentiment strips here and there.

This technique with multiple layers of Distress Ink is one of my all-time favorite techniques. You can also use Simon Says Stamp Monstera stencil set together with this die.

The title needed to stand out better and I cut a strip of Simon Says Stamp Color-Blend and glitter cardstock as borders.

This sentiment come from Tim Holtz World Traveller. 

More yummy ink texture.

The yellow glitter gel adds a bit of shine to the background. 

Simon Says Stamp Simple Peace was die cut from Color-Blend paper. The Color-Blend papers are glossy, adding an additional texture to the page.

Join us this week in our A bit o' Green 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.