At the Beach Mini Canvas

Hello friends! I hope you had a great weekend! In Sweden we had Midsummer celebrations this weekend. 

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.

We have a At the Beach theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog. I hope you will join us and celebrate summer. Don't miss the project by our June guest designer Ann Chuang.

I felt like a mini project this week since it is fun to work on different sizes. This little canvas is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches, the same size as an Artist Trading Card. I made a mixed media beach scene with a simple sentiment. You can also work on watercolor paper.

Start by coating the canvas with gesso. I formed the beach and added some texture to the sky and sea.

Glue cheese cloth to the beach with matte medium. I later added a little more.

Paint the canvas with Distress Paints. 

Apply gesso to watercolor paper and add texture with the palette knife.

When dry, die cut clouds with Simon Says Stamp Heart Showers Embossing Folder and Cutting Die and emboss in the coordinating folder.

Add some paint to the clouds.

When dry, I added Stickles Star Dust to the clouds. The little hearts were die cut with Simon Says Stamp Drawn Hearts, from a Simon Says Stamp Champagne Luxe Glitter sheet.

The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp Be Your Beautiful Self stamp set with Hickory Smoke Archival Ink. There are coordinating dies, but I decided to cut the sentiment into strips instead, so that the background would show through in between the strips.

I glued shells and a small piece of sea glass to the beach and sprinkled with Ranger Mica Flakes and Rock Candy glitter.

I also added more luxe glitter hearts and splattered a little white paint.

The little canvas has quite a lot of dimension. 

The smaller cloud was adhered with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape. 

Join us this week in our At the Beach 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.

Celebrate Butterfly Card Tutorial

Hello crafters! I hope you had a fun weekend filled with creativity. Here, nature has exploded into shades of green, which inspired today's project.

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 Things With Wings theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Lots of fun options with this one! Don't miss the lovely project by our May guest designer Estelle Palumbo.

I made a butterfly card for this week, using Simon Says Stamp Butterfly Escapades Embossing Folder and Cutting Dies, combined with ink and glitter. The green background was inspired by all the trees with their bright spring green shades.

Start by inking the Simon Says Stamp Butterfly Escapades with Distress Ink. Mist the paper with water and emboss. Let dry and repeat until you are happy with the look. 

I added Stickles Star Dust to the smallest butterflies.

Die cut the coordinating butterflies from the Butterfly Escapades set and emboss in the folder. Later, I die cut their bodies from Simon Says Stamp White Glitter Cardstock instead.

Smear Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. When dry, add white details with a gel pen and add Stickles to the large butterfly.

Die cut the sentiment with Tim Holtz Handwritten Celebrate from Simon Says Stamp White Glitter Cardstock and Island Blue cardstock. Stamp the second sentiment with Simon Says Stamp Stay True and Blueprint Sketch Archival Ink.

For the large butterfly, I also used a glitter butterfly underneath. Fold up the wings and add Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape under each wing.

I used foam tape under the wings of the smaller butterflies too.

Here you can better see how the butterflies flutter across the card.

You can add even more butterflies if you want too.

Join us this week in our Things With Wings 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.

Easter Bunny Card

Hello crafters! My Easter decor is out and I was inspired to make an Easter card today.

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 bright yellows and greens of spring are just wonderful, especially after the long winter. Here I used the Simon Says Stamp Everlasting Flowers embossing folder for the background together with a fun debossed resist technique. The folder and the Little Bows die set are both from the new In My Heart release.

Start by inking the Everlasting Flowers embossing folder with Simon Says Stamp Clear Emboss ink. Place watercolor paper in the folder and emboss. We are using the debossed side. Cover with white embossing powder. Remove the excess and melt. Be careful when using a heat tool and do not touch the powder until it has cooled down completely.

Mist the background with Distress Spray Stain, starting with Squeezed Lemonade. Add just a little Mermaid Lagoon. Next, mist with Distress Spritz Twisted Citron, for glimmer. 

I had some left-over collage paper and die cut three butterflies and one bunny from Tim Holtz Sizzix Vault Hippity Hop. You can see how I made that paper in this post.

Paint them with Distress Paint.

I die cut more butterflies. The collage paper butterflies were die cut again from Simon Says Stamp Lemon Glitter Cardstock and placed underneath the collage butterflies. I also die cut tiny butterflies from Tim Holtz Sizzix Vault Boutique, from glitter cardstock and from left-over pink inky cardstock.

Bend the wings of the butterflies and let them flutter across the page. 

For the sentiment I die cut a Simon Says Stamp Petal-Tipped Label and stamped a sentiment from Hoppy Spring on top. The bows were die cut from glitter paper using Simon Says Stamp Little Bows.

I die cut the bunny one more time from brown cardstock and off-set slightly. The bunny also got a little bow. 

The deboss resist technique gives a great textured look. Don't worry if you don't get a perfect result, that is part of the fun with the technique.

This little corner of blue is one of my favorite parts of this card.

For another background technique using this same Everlasting Flowers folder, check out this tutorial of mine.

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.

Simon Says Stamp In My Heart 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 In My Heart release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from the wonderful Sandi MacIver.

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 Simon Says Stamp In My Heart release is filled with of a great variety of new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins, perfect spring-time, Easter and Mother's Day crafting. You can find the entire In My Heart release here.

The not-yet-released Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Beautiful Day 3x4 stamp is automatically added to your cart that contains any purchase from the exclusive In My Heart collection! This gift with purchase will expire 3/22 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last.

 

I made a spring-time tag with an embossed floral background. I wanted most of the background to be visible, and just added two sentiments and a few ribbons. I used the new Simon Says Stamp Everlasting Flowers embossing folder for the background, the Bereavement Thank Yous and Getting Old sets for the sentiments and the Little Bows for the ribbons.

Start by applying Distress Ink directly to the Simon Says Stamp Everlasting Flower folder. Then mist the folder with water. Cut a tag from watercolor paper, mist the back with water and emboss. 

When dry, watercolor the flowers with Distress Watercolor Pencils. I used a paint brush to pick the pigment up from the tips of the pencils.

Do the same with the stems. You can leave the background like this, if you want to.

I wanted more texture and splattered the entire tag heavily with the pencils. Dip the pencil in water and flick a paint brush against it. 

Next, I added a little shimmer, by misting with Antique Linen Distress Spritz at the bottom and in a couple of places and splattering with Tumbled Glass.

The banner from Simon Says Stamp Getting Old was stamped on left-over inky paper. Stamp a sentiment from Bereavement Thank Yous in the middle. 

Die cut Simon Says Stamp Little Bows from Pawsitively Velvet paper. Aren't these cute?

Distress the edges of the tag. Glue the bows to the background and add a Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Peachy Gem to the center. 

I stamped another sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Bereavement Thank Yous on left-over inky paper, but didn't use the entire sentiment, just the first part.

Here you can see the shimmer from the Distress Spritz better.

The Everlasting Flowers are so cute. I also made one version with only yellow flower, but tested something after that which didn't quite work out.

Fold the banner and staple to the tag with two ribbons underneath it. 

Antique Linen adds a nice shimmer, without adding much color.

Thank you for stopping by here today, next stop is is my friend Lorraine Aquilina.

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 Simon Says Stamp 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 25 March.

Here are all the stops along the hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Nina-Marie Trapani

Heather Hoffman

Laura Bassen

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Amy Rysavy

Keisha Charles

Sandi MacIver

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Lorraine Aquilina

Alberto Gava

Natasha Vacca

Barb Engler

Debbie Frank

For more inspiration, remember to check out the In My Heart 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 second In My Heart blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 1, which was yesterday.

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.