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.

Simon Says Stamp Happy Camper 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 Happy Camper release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from the wonderful Barb Engler.

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 Happy Camper release is full of a great variety of new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and sequins. You can find the entire Happy Camper release here.

The not-yet-released Simon Says Stamp exclusive Sunflower Dance 3x4 stamp set is automatically added to your cart that contains any purchase of Happy Camper products! This gift with purchase will expire 8/3 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last.

I made a tag for this blog hop, using the Simon Says Stamp Confetti Butterflies 3-D embossing folder. I like anything with butterflies and this is a gorgeous folder. There are also coordinating dies, but I didn't use them here. The tag was colored with watercolors and the sentiments come from the Simon Says Stamp LOL set, also from the Happy Camper release. 

Mist a tag cut from watercolor paper with water and then emboss in the Confetti Butterflies folder.

Paint the background with Daniel Smith Amazonite Genuine and Lunar Black, letting them blend into each other.

The butterflies were painted with Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold. I mixed two shades, one with more and one with less water. Start with the former and then drop the darker shade into the center of the butterfly. I also dropped a little Lunar Black into the center.

Continue until you have painted all the butterflies. Let dry.

Use Lunar Black to add a little bit of shading to the butterflies.

Ink the edges with Distress Ink Scorched Timber. 

Apply Ranger Moon Dust Stickles to the butterflies.

Color the embossed dots with a white gel pen.

Splatter Winsor & Newton Permanent White Gouache on the background.

Stamp the sentiments using Simon Says Stamp LOL with Pawsitively Saturated Sherbet ink.

Add Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Prism Gems here and there.

I covered the non-embossed part at the top of the tag with Tim Holtz Design Tape Trims.

The glitter and white splatters makes it look like the butterflies are sparkling.

Daniel Smith Lunar Black is a heavily granulating watercolor paint, which you can see on the texture in the center of the butterfly.

I added pompom ribbon and lace trim at the bottom of the tag, to hide the part that wasn't dry embossed.

You can use this coloring technique with lots of embossing folders.

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 6 August.

Your next stop on the hop is my friend Karin Åkesdotter. 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

Suzy Plantamura

Cathy Zielske

Laura Bassen

Debby Hughes

Lisa Addesa

Emily Midgett

Heather Ruwe

Sandi MacIver

Tina Smith

Hanh Nguyen

Barb Engler

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Karin Åkesdotter

Rosemary Dennis

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Happy Camper 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 Happy Camper 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.

Blue Shark Card

Hi crafters! Simon Says Stamp has a brand new release called Friend Like You and today I am sharing a card that I made with some of the product.

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 Friend Like You release is filled with wonderful, summery dies, stamps, embossing folders, inks embellishments and tools. So fun!

My youngest loves sharks and these are meant to be little blue shark, one of his favorites. The background is watercolored, with an embossed sheet of acetate on top. There is some space between the acetate and the background, making the card look 3-D.

Stamp a bunch of sharks from Simon Says Stamp Snappy Birthday on watercolor paper.

Color them with watercolor paint. I also stamped a few more, but didn't color all of them. Cut them out with scissors or with the coordinating dies.

Emboss acetate in the new Simon Says Stamp Dot Spiral folder.

Add Star Dust Stickles on the back of the folder, following the shapes of the circles.

I painted a simple underwater background using the same colors as for the sharks.

When dry, splatter with Permanent White gouache at the top and dark paint at the bottom.

I adhered the sharks with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape, for more dimension.

The acetate panel was adhered to the watercolor background with staples. Here you can better see the shape of the embossed circles. It is a really cool. Almost like waves.

The Tidal Wave sequins are also from the Friend Like You release. Glue them with Simon Says Stamp craft glue.

The sentiments also come from the Snappy Birthday set.

The glitter adds a fun touch behind the embossed acetate. The shiny acetate also gives the card a water feel.

The final little blue shark.

Thank you for visiting! 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.