Hi everyone! It is STAMPtember® at Simon Says Stamp during September. This is such a fun event, a whole month full of stamping fun and inspiration. I was happy to take part in the celebrations on Saturday with the release of an exclusive Tim Holtz blueprint set. You can find my post here.
It is Monday and a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, 'stamp + punch'. You can also combine stamping and die cutting, something I love to do.

Almost overnight, the weather changed into a feeling of autumn. It is almost as if you can smell and feel autumn in the air. Even though I would have loved summer to be longer (and warmer), I am looking forward to autumn. I like the changing of seasons and I haven't seen a 'real' autumn in a while. That might have been the reason for why I wanted to create a warm and golden layout for this week, with two photos and a quote that you can also find in my Brothers Crackle Album. I used Tim Holtz new Sizzix punches, which have such great designs. They also store easily since they are rectangular and have a closing mechanism. I took some step photos.

I worked on a 12 x 12 piece of watercolour paper. After coating it with gesso, I painted the page with Distress Paints. If you look carefully, you can see that the paint puddles are not on the layout, but on a piece of plastic packaging.

After the first paint layer dried, I added some lovely gold. It is hard to see in the photos, but it makes the layout glow.




The flowers were punched from Metallic Kraft-Core cardstock, using the gold. If you haven't seen this cardstock yet, it has gold, silver and copper sheets and if you sand it will reveal a kraft-core as in the other kraft-core papers. The metallic shine is gorgeous, but I decided to slightly sand my flowers, to give them a rougher texture. The punches easily punch through cardstock. I used the Spiky Floral Medium. Daisy Flower Large, and Tattered Flower Large punches.



The layout was also splattered with some black paint. The mix of paint, stamping, and Crackled Paste gives the background an interesting texture.

I really like this sentiment, and if fits extra well since Anton is wearing dress out clothing on the photos, although not actually superhero clothing, since he is Darth Vader. The stamped sentiment comes from the Crazy Talk set.

The flowers were layered together with some gears and I also punched Laurel branches, which is one of my favourites of the punches that are available now.

The photos were layered on sanded and inked gold Metallic Kraft-Core cardstock, inked Motif Cardstock (which has an embossed pattern that resists ink) and yellow Kraft-Core cardstock.

The flags were glued to a piece of twine. Spelling: 'brother'.

A close up of the Wheat Silhouette stamping, stamped with both first and second generation stamping.

I placed another stamped sentiment in an Ornate Plate and layered more of the flowers and gears, and a piece of ruler ribbon that I found on my desk. I used both glitter and star brads to hold the flowers together.
I hope you will join us in our 'stamp and punch' challenge, as always, one random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.
In case you missed it, I am on Instagram now, you can find me here. And if you want to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff every day.
If you use instagram add #sssmchallenge to your challenge entry uploads, so that we can see them on there too.


Thank you so much for visiting today!
Happy crafting!
Anna-Karin
Supplies (affiliate links):


Thank you so much for visiting today!
Happy crafting!
Anna-Karin
Supplies (affiliate links):