Simon Says - Let's Get Ready For Christmas

Hi Everyone...welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. Thank you for joining us for last week's challenge and we hope you can join us this week too because

and the theme for this week is...
LET'S GET READY FOR CHRISTMAS

Like it or not my friends, Christmas is just around the corner so now might be a good time to get organised and start planning because it has a habit of sneaking up on us. With that in mind, I decorated a notebook to use for Christmas Card Addresses, Present Ideas, Menus, Food Shopping Lists, in other words, all the things that we need to do to make the festivities go without a hitch. It's taken me 40 odd years to realise that a stress free Christmas is all about making lists, so let's hope that still applies.

I didn't want to go with the traditional Bright Red and Green so decided to go for an alternative more vintage colour palette using colours from the latest release of Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Sprays and of course, some of the fabulous new stamps from the Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Christmas Collection. If you didn't happen to see the Facebook Live Launch of the amazing new stamps and stencils, you can catch up HERE on Tim's Blog.

I began by trimming two pieces of Distress Watercolor Card to 5.1/2" x 8.1/2" to create the covers, spritzed with Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Forest Moss Distress Oxide Sprays, dried, spritzed with water and dabbed with kitchen towel to remove excess water and create the oxidised water droplet effect.

I inked sections of the background stamp from Lumberjack with Forest Moss Distress Oxide ink and stamped randomly on both covers. 

I inked the pine branch image from Yuletide Gatherings and the images from Scenic Holiday with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed with Ranger Superfine Clear Embossing Powder.

I added Ranger Opague Texture Paste through the Sparkle Mini Layering Stencil from Set 44 on the front cover only, sprinkled with Ranger Superfine White Embossing Powder and left the paste to dry before heat embossing.

I added Festive Berries Distress Oxide ink with the Gingham Mini Layering Stencil from Set 44 using a mini round blending tool, sprinkled with Ranger Superfine Clear Embossing Powder and heat set.

I trimmed the covers down to 4.1/4" x 8.1/4", used my Corner Chomper to round the corners at the opening edge, added splatters of White Gouache, tapped a Versamark ink pad around the edges, sprinkled on Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder and heat set. I trimmed the left over card to fit the spine of the notebook, decorated with Festive Berries and the Gingham Mini Layering Stencil and heat embossed as before with Superfine Clear and then Antique Gold on the edges. 

I fixed the panels in place with Ranger Wonder Tape and because this is a practical item rather than a decorative one, I kept the addition of embellishments to a minimum. I tapped Versamark ink on to a scrap of Distress Watercolor card, sprinkled with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder, heat set and repeated several times to build up the layers of embossing. I die cut the numbers using Tim Holtz/Sizzix Handmade BigZ XL die. I inked the sentiment from Modern Christmas with Festive Berries Distress Oxide ink, stamped on to a scrap of Distress Watercolor Card and heat embossed with Ranger Superfine Clear, repeated on the edges with Antique Gold and fixed both in place with Distress Collage Medium Matte.

I spritzed Crinkle Ribbon with Tattered Rose and Tea Dye Distress Oxide Sprays to tie-in (forgive the pun) with the soft peachy colour on the background.

You can find all the products I used over at Simon Says Stamp, just click on the links below

Why don't you pop over to the Monday Challenge Blog and check out the amazing creations from my very talented Design Team mates and as always you all have the chance to win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2 pm CET to join in...

You can also follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

and if you use Instagram...

please add #sssmchallenge to your entry uploads so we can see them on there too

I look forward to seeing what you create this week...

Have Fun and Happy Crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

*** Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can find my affiliate and product disclosure HERE.