Crazy Dog Card

Hi stampers! I hope you are well and had a good weekend! We are back with a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. 

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 our theme is 4-legged friends. I hope you will join us! And don't miss the project by our August guest designer Ann Chuang.

I made a card with a fun dog stamp from Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs set. It was watercolored and then sentiments were stamped with Simon Says Stamp Mandala Blossoms. 

Stamp one of the Crazy Dogs with Archival Ink on watercolor paper.

Color with watercolor paint, leaving a few highlights. 

Paint the background and add shading under the dog. 

When dry, ink Simon Says Stamp Pepita Background with Lucky Clover Distress Ink. Mist with water and stamp on the background. Avoid stamping on the dog. You can mask him out if you want to.

I didn't want the dog to be centered on the background, so I cut off some of paper on the left-hand side, but left the tail.

White emboss the larger sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Mandala Blossoms. Stamp the second sentiment with black ink.

Add Glossy Accents to the collar and highlights with a white gel pen. I also added some marks with a black pen.

This is such a fun dog image.

The watercolor stamping in the background gives texture and a tone-on-tone effect without being overwhelming.

I also added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Prism Gems. 

The tail sticks out, but can be carefully folded up if the envelope is too small.

Join us this week in our 4-Legged Friends 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.

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.