I love the title of this release, Encouraging Words, and it is full of wonderful and very versatile the stamps and dies. You can see the whole Encouraging Words release here. Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and of course there are prizes to be won too.
I did two projects, with tutorials, a wall hanger and a card. The techniques can, as always, be used on almost any type of project.
I was very inspired by the Thank You Teacher stamp set, which contains fantastic sentiments, quotes and words, and certainly not only for teacher related projects. When I read the quote by Nelson Mandela, I knew I wanted it up on our wall. I believe very strongly in the power of education, and on top of that, am very lucky to have seen Nelson Mandela in real life twice (albeit at a distance). Inspiration can come from anywhere, and I find that I am quite often inspired by words. I paired the quote up with the Cosmic Trail die, also from Encouraging Words, the SSS Tiny Alphabet Background stamp and a Globe die by Tim Holtz.
These are some of the Encouraging Words products that I used: Kindness Matters, Cosmic Trail and the Thank You Teacher set.
For my second project, I also used these Encouraging Animals stamps and coordinating dies.
Die cut the globe twice from Heavystock paper and cut off the continents from the second die cut. Trace a circle using the die and cut out.
Ink the circle with Distress Inks and mist with water.
Paint the globe with White Gesso.
When dry, add a little bit of blue, avoiding the poles.
Smear some gesso at the top of the continents (which would be snow-covered), and when dry, ink the rest with shades of green, using only Twisted Citron in the driest areas.
Randomly stamp with the Tiny Alphabet Background. This is one of my all time favourite stamps.
Glue together and add Glossy Accents to the continents.
Die cut the Cosmic Trail from Heavystock paper.
Ink as before, and mist with water. Add Glossy Accents to the stars.
Stamp the sentiments on Heavystock paper and then ink with Antique Linen, and around the edges only, with Ground Espresso. 'You matter' and 'Remember' are such useful words, fitting many types of projects.
I glued cork to mat board (5.5 x 7 in)to create my background and stamped the cork with the Tiny Alphabet stamp. The corners were rounded. I also added some kids from Tim Holtz's Paper Dolls, as well as school related ephemera papers. These were were sanded, distressed and inked.
I really like the typography on this stamp. The edges were distressed a little. I also added a Pen Nib and some roses.
Place the stars here and there. At the bottom of the piece there is an inked wooden ruler.
Distress the Word Band with paint so that it coordinates with the rest of the project. Everything was glued down with Distress Matte Medium.
Here you can see the cool effect of the Glossy Accents.
I also made a little card, which has a different style than the project above.
The card displays a scene and an important message. The Encouraging Animals are so cute and also fun to color. Change the colors for a different look to the animals. I also really like the Kindness Matters die and it is so true.
Pair the animal stamps up with other sentiments sets and you can uses them for many different themes. On the inside of the card I used the 'Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody' stamp, which I thought worked well together with the kindness theme.
I often start by stamping a whole bunch of images, before deciding which to use.
Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. I colored these quickly and left some white showing for highlights. Die cut with the coordinating dies, which are easiest to use together with the Sizzix Magnetic Platform.
The background of the scene continues at the back of the folded card, and was done by inking up a large acrylic block (8 x 4.4 in), misting with water and pressing it down on watercolor paper.
I also used the Eyelet Arch Borders from the Cherished collection, and die cut a hill.
Ink with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap and mist with water droplets.
The same was done with a Kindness Matters die cut.
I stamped the hill with the You Matter stamp and Khaki ink.
The sentiment was stamped on the inside with Khaki ink.
Kindness Matters is almost like a cloud in the sky. If you want the letters to stand out better, matte it on darker or lighter cardstock. The row of hearts come from Wild Cuddly Critters and was stamped with Blue Jay ink.
Here you can see the highlights on the animals left white when watercoloring them. The coordinating dies makes it so quick and easy to cut them.
Try to make a sentence that you like from the You Matter show, in this case, 'you can do anything you set your mind to'.
Distress the edges for extra texture.
If you fold out the card, it looks like this. Creating a background that extends to the back is a very quick manner of adding interest to a card.
Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and if you have missed any of the previous stops, you'll find a list below. There are of course also prizes and a $25 gift voucher can be won on each stop of the hop. All you need to do for a chance at winning, is to leave a comment. The winners will be posted on the SSS blog on Tuesday.
Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)
Thank you so much for stopping by here today! I hope you will have a lovely weekend! Today, we are going to a nearby farm/outdoor museum to visit the animals there. The boys are both crazy about animals.
Happy stamping!!
Anna-Karin
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