Category: Encouragement Cards

Simon Says Stamp Be Your Amazing Self

Hello and welcome back! I can’t get enough of DIEcember! If you know me, then you know that die cutting is my jam! There are so many awesome things in this release! Have you checked it out yet? Today’s project is featuring the new Stylized Butterfly, so let’s get right to it!

My first order of business was spraying some Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock with some Dina Wakely Gloss Sprays. I was going for a quasi rainbow feel, so the colors that I used were Lemon, Lime, Magenta and Ocean. I got a set of twelve sprays for my birthday, and I gotta say, I’m loving them! Once I was done with the sprays, I set that panel aside to dry.

I used the new SSS Imperia Plate to create the background for the butterflies using Neenah 110lb, and I die cut the SSS Stylized Butterfly from my sprayed panel three times, because I wanted some movement across the card. I also cut the butterfly three times from black cardstock, and adhered those together using liquid glue.

I glued just the inner edges of the butterflies to the background panel, along with their center body portions as well, trimming off the excess as needed. I chose a SSS Sentiment Strip that complimented the card well and adhered that with foam tape for dimension.

My panel was then adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb, and I added some confetti for that added pop of bling. Everything needs bling, am I right?!

I really like how this card turned out! I think the addition of the black shadow to the butterflies really added a lot of interest and contrast that was needed. I hope you like it, and I hope you’ll stop by and check out the entire DIEcember release! Lots of good stuff for sure! Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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Simon Says Stamp Magnetic Happy Thoughts

Hello Crafty Friend! Hope you are doing well today! Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my project for today, featuring the Magnetic Embossing Folder from Simon’s new release, Peace on Earth. Let’s dive right in to the details!

To begin this project, I cut a panel of SSS Holographic Cardstock and placed it in the SSS Magnetic Embossing Folder and ran it through the die cutting machine. The texture catches the light so beautifully on this cardstock.

Next, I die cut the SSS Etched Crocus Stems from Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock. I decided on this sentiment from the SSS XL Greetings 2 set. I stamped the sentiment using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink and heat embossed it using Ranger Clear Embossing Powder. I stamped it a second time using VersaMark Ink and heat set it again giving it a more glossy look.

I used the coordinating die to cut out the sentiment, and I cut it two more times from Neenah 110lb adhering all of those together using liquid glue. I glued the crocus flowers atop the holographic panel and glued the sentiment in the bottom corner.

This was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape before being adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb.

Super simple card today, but I love all of the texture and colors! What are your favorites from the Peace on Earth release? Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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Simon Says Stamp Cascading Stars

Hello! Hello! Thanks for stopping by today! I’m featuring a new background stamp from the latest Simon release, Peace on Earth. I always love Simon background stamps, and was super excited to find one in my release goodies! Let’s go through the deets for today’s project!

To begin my project, I stamped the new Star to Star Background on a panel of Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock using VersaFine Onyx Black Ink and heat embossed it using Ranger Clear Embossing Powder. I then trimmed a panel out using the PinkFresh Studio Diagonal Stitched Rectangles.

My next step was to add some sparkle, so I used the SSS Fading Stars Stencil to add some some Gina K Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel. The stencil didn’t quite fit the stars on the panel, so I just centered the stencil over some of the stars to add sparkle. It’s just enough to add a little bit of texture and interest.

I used the SSS Mini Stars Party Die to cut stars from various rainbow cardstocks from my stash. While I was die cutting, I went ahead and cut the SSS You Shine Die once from black cardstock and once from SSS Holographic cardstock, adhering those together with liquid glue.

I adhered the sentiment towards the bottom right and arranged the rainbow stars in a cascading fashion using a combination of glue and foam tape. The panel was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape again, and then to the card base, which is Neenah 110lb.

A simple card today, but I like how it turned out. I had the idea of cascading stars, but when I was laying things out, it was missing something, and that bit of glitter gel did just the trick! I hope you have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to check out the entire Peace on Earth release!

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Simon Says Stamp Leaf Spray Rainbow

Hello Lovelies and welcome back! Thanks for stopping by today! I just received my StampTember order and had to use some of the goodies right away! Today’s card is featuring the new Etched Tall Leaf Spray and the Detail Bohemian Slim Plate. Both of these are absolutely gorgeous! So let’s jump right into the details!

This was a super simple card by the way, because I used an alcohol ink panel that’s been sitting around in my stash forever! I love it when I can finally find a home for something that I’ve had a while. So the products used on the alcohol ink panel were Yupo Paper, Ranger Alcohol Ink Pearls in Deception, Sublime and Villainous along with regular alcohol ink in Lemonade and Denim. I also used the Tim Holtz Air Blower.

I die cut the SSS Etched Tall Leaf Spray from the alcohol ink panel and trimmed some Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock to a mini slim line size and ran it through the die cutter using the SSS Detail Bohemian Slim Plate.

I adhered the rainbow leaf spray to the bohemian panel using liquid glue, but only applying glue to the stem and the base of the leaves. I decided on a sentiment strip from the SSS Reverse Encouraging Words, and trimmed that out and glued it over the leaf spray.

The panel was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape for dimension. This was then adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb.

Like I said, super simple card, but I love how it came out. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it inspires you to get crafty! Have you gotten your StampTember order yet? What did you get, inquiring minds want to know!?! Hope you have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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Spellbinders Give Thanks

Hello Crafters and welcome back! I’m so glad that you stopped by today! For today’s project, I’m featuring the Spellbinders Falling Leaves Embossing Folder, as well as, the Mini Fall Blooms die set. These tiny blooms and leaves were so much fun to work with! So, let’s just jump right into the details!

To begin the project, I trimmed a panel of Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock to just smaller than an A2 card and placed it in the Falling Leaves Embossing Folder and ran it through the die cutter. I then began cutting the blooms and leaves using a variety of Concord and 9th cardstock.

I also cut the centers for the flowers and parts of the sprigs with mirror gold cardstock, and adhered the gold pieces using liquid glue. I stamped the sentiment, which is from the Fun Stampers Journey Fall Thanks stamp set, using VersaMark Ink and heat embossed it using Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder. I repeated that process again for a smoother embossed look.

I used the Fun Stampers Journey Fall Thanks Die set to trim out the sentiment and cut it a second time from plain cardstock and adhered those together for dimension. I placed the sentiment atop the embossed panel and began adhering the leaves and sprigs around and underneath it using glue. Once all of the leaves were adhered, I glued the sentiment on top of those.

The flowers were placed around the sentiment using foam tape. I also added some Spellbinders Fashion Gold Embellishments for that added bit a bling that the card needed. The embossed panel was then adhered to a black panel before being adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb.

That finishes up this project! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it inspires you to get crafty! This was a fun set to work with, but I really do love working with all of the tiny leaves and bloom sets that Spellbinders has to offer! Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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Simon Says Stamp Praying for Peace

Hello Crafty Friends and welcome back! In today’s post, I’m featuring a new stamp set from the StampTember release called, Raindrops. What a cute set this is! I’ve also made another card using the raindrops as flowers! That was super fun! So let’s get into the details!

I don’t do mixed media cards very often, but I have to say that I really enjoy the process when I do take time to do them! So, for this card, I started with a panel of watercolor paper and Ranger Crackle Paste through the SSS Falling Snow Stencil. Once the paste was dry, I pulled out the Distress Oxide inks in Hickory Smoke, Black Soot and Chipped Sapphire. I smooshed the ink on my glass work surface and spritzed it with water and smooshed my paper in it. I did only do one color at a time though.

The blue wasn’t quite bright enough so I spritzed some Distress Spray Stain Chipped Sapphire on the panel, working with it until I was satisfied. When the panel was dry, I used the PinkFresh Studio Diagonal Stitched Rectangles to trim it down. I then popped it in the Misti and stamped the sentiment from the SSS Raindrops stamp set on the bottom using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and heat embossing it using Ranger Clear Embossing Powder. I repeated that stamping again, but using VersaMark ink for the second time and heat embossed again. By heat embossing it twice, it gave the sentiment a nice glossy shine.

I pulled out some of the raindrops from the set and stamped some of them using Distress Oxide Chipped Sapphire ink and some using VersaMark ink to heat emboss those with Ranger Holographic Embossing Powder. Once the raindrops were stamped, I did fussy cut all of those.

The background was ready for some stamping and more stenciling now! I used the Tim Holtz Stencil 102 and more crackle paste and left that white. For the background stamping, I used the SSS Crackle Background stamp, along with some elements from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge stamp set with Ranger Archival Black ink. I used the wand of the Distress Oxide Chipped Sapphire Spray to add some splatter to the panel as well.

Once I was satisfied with how the panel looked, I arranged and added the raindrops diagonally across the panel using foam tape. This panel was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape again, before being adhered to the card base, which is Neenah Classic Crest 110lb.

That finishes up this mixed media project for today! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it inspires you to get crafty as well! Stop by and check out the entire StampTember release, and don’t forget about all of the amazing collaboration sets that will be released all month long! Have a wonderful day!

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Waffle Flower Leafy Smile

Hello Crafters and welcome back! Waffle Flower has monthly challenges and I’m super excited to be co-hosting week one with my special friend Rachel! This week’s theme is Leaves, which is just perfect for the upcoming fall weather. You can head over to Waffle Flower for all the challenge details! So let’s get into my project!

For my project, I opted to use the Fall Leaves Die set, along with a couple of other Waffle Flower products. I began by cutting the solid leaf dies from watercolor paper twice. I got out a water brush and my Karin Brushmarkers to do a little bit of watercoloring on them. Very quick and simple technique of adding water to the leaves and dropping in color from the markers. Once satisfied with the colors, I set them aside to dry.

While those were drying, I went ahead and cut the leaf detail for all of the leaves from mirror gold cardstock. I also went ahead and cut the Triple Line Diamond Panel Die from Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock, and placed foam tape strategically on the back of it.

I adhered the gold leaf detail to the solid leaves using liquid glue. Now that I had the panel cut and the leaves ready to do, I needed to decided on a sentiment. The Oversized Smile Word Die fit within the space that I had to work with, so I cut it once from that same mirror gold cardstock and three more times from Neenah 110lb cardstock and glued all of those together.

I began adhering the leaves to the die cut panel using glue, creating a row at the top and the bottom. Once those were all done, I trimmed off the stems. Since I had previously put foam tape on the back of the die cut panel, I went ahead and adhered that to the card base, which is Neenah 110lb as well.

The only thing left to do was glue the sentiment in the center of the panel. I didn’t even add bling to this card! Can you believe that? I can’t, actually! I hope you enjoyed this project, and I hope you’ll join us in the challenge! Leaves is such a great theme for this month! Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome friend!

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Simon Says Stamp Interlocking Leaves

Hello Lovelies! I hope you’re doing well! Thanks so much for stopping by. StampTember is always so exciting with all of the new products! What are your favorites from the release? Today’s project is featuring the Interlocking Leaves Background stamp, so let’s just get right to it!

I began this project by stamping the Interlocking Leaves on a panel of Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock using VersaMark ink and heat embossing it using Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder. I then pulled out some fall-ish colors for some ink blending.

The Distress Oxide inks that I used were Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin, Fired Brick and Twisted Citron. Once the ink blending was complete, I cut the panel out using PinkFresh Studio Diagonal Stitched Rectangles, and started on the sentiment.

I opted for the SSS You’re the Best die. I cut it twice from black cardstock and once from Mirror Gold cardstock. I removed the letters for “the best” on one of the black die cuts, and inlaid the gold letters in their place using liquid glue. I adhered the rest of the sentiment to the shadow and glued it to the ink blended panel.

This panel was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape for dimension, and everything was then adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb. No card is complete without embellishments, so I added a few PinkFresh Studio Gold Metallic Pearls to finish it up!

That does it for this card! Have you checked out the entire StampTember line up yet? Do you have any favorites? My wallet is screaming right now! Thanks so much for stopping by and don’t forget to stay awesome friend!

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Simon Says Stamp Just A Card

Happy StampTember! Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you’re having a wonderful day! Have you checked out the entire StampTember release yet? What are your favorites? I’m looking forward to seeing all of the collaboration sets for the month! Today’s card is featuring the new Raindrops stamp set, but used in a different way! Let’s jump right in!

When I first saw the Raindrops Stamp set, my brain saw flowers! So that’s the direction that I went! To begin, I pulled out a panel of Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock and attached the SSS Fading Tiny Dots Stencil to it using masking tape, and applied a good layer of Gina K Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel. That was then set aside to dry.

Next, I took one size of the solid raindrop stamps and the coordinating detail stamps and began stamping. For the solid stamp, I used PinkFresh Studio inks in Bubble Gum, Peach Fuzz, Sunshine, Fresh Pear, Ocean Breeze and Soft Lilac. I think that I stamped each color three times using the solid stamp. Next, I took the detailed stamps and stamped over each coordinating color using the next darkest shade of ink, which were Raspberry Bliss, Apricot, Sweet Mustard, Meadow, Aquamarine and Lavender. Once I had all of the petals stamped, I fussy cut them all.

I used the SSS Stitched Daisies die set to cut a few centers from black cardstock, and then adhered the petals to the back using liquid glue, in rainbow order. For the sentiment, I opted to use one from the SSS XL Greetings 2 set. I stamped the sentiment using VersaFine Onyx Black ink and heat set it using Ranger Clear Embossing Powder. I then repeated the stamping and embossing two more times, but using VersaMark ink on those. I do it this way because my paper always warps slightly during the embossing process, and by stamping in VersaMark, you don’t see any mistakes if it doesn’t line up perfectly correct the second and third time because of the warping.

I used the SSS XL Greetings 2 coordinating die to trim out the sentiment, and cut it a second time for stacking purposes. I trimmed the Tiny Dots panel using Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle die and adhered the sentiment in the center using foam tape. I then placed foam tape on the back of the flowers and adhered those around the sentiment, trimming off any excess. The panel was then adhered to a black panel using foam tape, and then to the card base, which is Neenah 110lb.

That finishes up this project! I hope you enjoyed it! I quite like using these “raindrops” as flowers! Stop by and check out the entire StampTember release and let me know your favorites! Have a great day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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Simon Says Stamp Kindness Matters

Hello Crafty Friend, and happy StampTember! This is my second StampTember, and it’s always so exciting to see all the new products and all the new collaboration sets! Have you taken a look at the release yet?! There’s 150 Simon brand products released today, can you believe that?? Today’s card is featuring the new Leaves Wreath Stencil with some ink blending, so let’s get right into it!

I began this project by attaching the first stencil to a panel of Neenah Classic Crest 110lb cardstock, using masking tape. I used my usual rainbow line-up of Distress Oxide inks, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron and Broken China, for the ink blending. I removed the first stencil, and attached the second stencil for the detail.

For the second stencil, I smooshed a VersaMark ink pad over the entire stencil to get a good coating, and then heat embossed the detail of the leaves using Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder. Once done with the panel, I splattered it using Royal Talens Amsterdam Light Gold Acrylic Ink, and set it aside while I worked on the sentiment.

For the sentiment, I chose the SSS Kindness Matters die and I cut that twice from black cardstock and once from Gold Mirror cardstock. I made sure the letters stayed in one of the black die cuts, and popped them out of the second black die cut. This is because, I’m going to inlay the gold letters atop the black ones. I put foam tape on the back of the black die cut to ensure that the letters stayed in place and then adhered the second black die cut to it using glue. I then inlaid the gold letters using glue as well.

I adhered the sentiment to the center of the ink blended leaves using the foam tape that I had already put on the back. I then used PinkFresh Studios Gold Metallic Pearls to adhere to the dots that the stencil creates. I then adhered the panel to a black panel using foam tape, because I always love to use black on my cards. It just gives a lovely contrast in my opinion. Everything was then adhered to the card base, which is also Neenah 110lb.

That finishes this project! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it inspires you to get crafty! Let me know your favorites from the new StampTember release in the comments! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog party! Have a wonderful day and don’t forget to stay awesome!

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