Simon Says - Sunny Vibes Blog Hop - Day 1

Hi my friends, welcome to my stop on Day 1 of the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop for the Sunny Vibes release.  I'm thrilled to be joining lots of talented friends and designers to share inspiration using products from this fabulous release.

You can check out all the products from this release over at Simon Says Stamp HERE.

Simon Says Stamp has a blog hop exclusive give-away, the Hello stamp and die set is FREE with any purchase of $50 or more, just follow the 3 steps on the graphic to claim your free gift. This promotion is valid until June 23 at 11.59 PM EDT or while supplies last.

Simon Says are also giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop so make sure you leave a comment on each participant's blog to be in with a chance of winning. The winners will be chosen and posted on Simon Says Stamp Blog on Wednesday June 26, and if you are a lucky winner, you can e-mail Simon Says Stamp to claim your prize.

If you arrived from the very talented Barb Engler, you are in the right place but if you happen to get lost along the way, you will find a list of participants at the end of this post to help you get back on track.

I created a set of clean and simple notecards using bright summer colours along with the Summer Fruit Tiles stamp set and Lily Of The Valley Stem Wafer die from the release.

I began by creating simple backgrounds on 3.3/4" x 5" panels of Distress Watercolor card using the solid shape images from Simon Says Summer Fruit Tiles stamp set stamped with Simon Says Sage Pawsitively Saturated Ink and Tim Holtz Kitsch Flamingo and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide inks. I inked the sentiments from the stamp set with Simon Says Intense Black ink and stamped on to one of the shapes. I smooshed the ink pads on to my Glass Media Mat, spritzed with water and added splatters in colours to match.

I die-cut the Lily Of The Valley Stems Wafer Die from Distress Watercolor card and coloured with Simon Says Pearfection, Field, Sage and Pine Pawsitively Saturated Inks using a Round Detail Blending Brush.

I fixed the stems in place with Distress Collage Medium, added foam squares behind the large leaves to create dimension. 

I matted the panels on to A2 panels of Distress Kraft HeavyStock and fixed to top folding A2 white card blanks.

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Nina-Marie Trapani

Caly Person

Jennifer McGuire

Suzy Plantamura

Amy Rysavy

Debby Hughes

Lisa Addesa

Alberto Gava

Barb Engler

Kath Stewart <you are here>

Karin Åkesdotter

Jean Doeringsfeld

Tracy Ware

Daniel West

You'll find more inspiration from the release on Simon Says Stamp Sunny Vibes Gallery HERE and if you make anything with the release, we would love you to share with us all in the Gallery. There will be more fabulous inspiration tomorrow on Day 2 of the Blog Hop that you don't want to miss. In the meantime, I'm off to make myself a cuppa, find a comfy sofa and enjoy an afternoon of blog hopping and being inspired by all the makes.

Hugs Kath xxx

Simon Says - Sunny Vibes Release

Hello my friends, Simon Says Stamp have launched yet another fabulous new release - Sunny Vibes. You can check out all the amazing new products in the release HERE.

I am over the moon that there are 4 new sets of Wafer Dies that co-ordinate with some of my favourite stamp sets from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous - Floral Outlines, Floral Trims, Bold Botanicals and Flower Shop. I created a created a card using Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Floral Trims coloured with Distress Watercolor Pencils, the co-ordinating wafer dies from the release along with Simon Says Repeating Rainbows A2 die and used the sentiment from Simon Says Summer Fruit Tiles stamp set.

I trimmed Distress Watercolor card to 4.1/4" x 5.1/2", smooshed Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide inks on to the craft mat on my Glass Media Mat, spritzed with water, dragged the panel through the inks and dried. I repeatedly tapped the panel into the remaining ink droplets and dried between layers until I was happy with the background.

I die-cut Simon Says Repeating Rainbows A2 wafer die from Distress Watercolor card, discarded the inner rainbow sections, trimmed 1/8" of each edge and fixed to the panel with Distress Collage Medium.

I created a stamping template for each of the 4 stamp sets using the co-ordinating dies. If you struggle to line up dies with stamped images, this is an easy way to solve the problem. I trim Distress Watercolor card into panels to fit my stamp platform and die-cut each die from the set. I remove the die-cut from it's space and replace with the stamp. Wiggle the stamp into the negative space - you will feel when it is lined up. Pick up the stamp on the lid of the stamp platform and ink. Replace the die-cut into the negative space and stamp. I  store the templates with the stamps and dies, ready to use next time. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as they say.

With the stamped die-cut still in place on the template, I coloured with Distress Watercolor Pencils from Set 4 - Scattered Straw/Carved Pumpkin/Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn using a Detailer Waterbrush.

I fixed the stamped die-cut to the panel and trimmed off anything hanging off the edges.

I dipped the Carved Pumpkin Distress Watercolor Pencil into water, scribbled over the solid rectangle stamp from Simon Says Summer Fruit Tiles stamp set, stamped on to a scrap of Distress Watercolor card, dried and stamped the sentiment from the stamp set inked with Ground Espresso Distress Archival ink.

I fussy cut around the sentiment rectangle to leave a white border and fixed to the panel, popped up on foam squares. To finish I matted the panel on to a white card blank.

Happy Crafting

Hugs Kath xxx

Simon Says - Let's Paint

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 PAINT

I created a set of small notecards to gift to a friend. I used Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Forgotten Garden with the Simon Says matching dies, Field Notes and Note Quotes, Mini Layering Stencils from Set 9, and matching colours of Distress Paint and Distress Spritz.

I began by applying Distress Paint using the small Distress Brayer on to 3.1/4" x 4.1/2" panels of Distress Watercolor card

I spritzed the co-ordinating colour of Distress Spritz through the Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Mini Layering Stencils from Set 9.

I die-cut the Forgotten Garden dies from Simon Says Stamp from Distress Watercolor card and placed the die template I created previously into my stamp platform. I placed the matching stamps into their negative spaces and picked up with the lid of the stamp platform. I inked the images with Black Soot Distress Archival ink, placed the matching die-cuts back in place and stamped. Such an easy way to stamp die-cuts if you're not great at lining up the dies after stamping and the template can be used over and over again.

I coloured the Forgotten Garden images with a light coat of Distress Paints and once dry, I sprayed a small amount of Distress Spritz on to my glass media mat and applied a top coat of the co-ordinating Distress Spritz colour using a dry Detailer Waterbrush.

I stamped the postal and number images from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Field Notes and the sentiments from Note Quotes with Black Soot and Peeled Paint Distress Archival ink, added Scorched Timber Distress Ink lightly around the edges of the panels using a Tiny Blending Tool and matted on to top folding 3.1/2" x 4.3/4" white card blanks.

I fixed the Forgotten Garden die-cuts to the panels popped up with foam squares to create dimension and despite taking photos from every conceivable angle, the camera failed to capture the beautiful shimmer on the background and the die-cuts.

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 have until Monday 8am Ohio time...1pm UK time...2pm CET to join in with the chance to win a $25 voucher to spend online at Simon Says Stamp

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

Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Spritz

Hi my friends, woohoo a brand new product from Tim Holtz and Ranger has just joined the Distress family. Distress Spritz – 12 bottles of beautiful pearl pigment shimmer, a perfect match for some of our favourite Distress colours. You can pop over to Tim's YouTube Channel and re-watch the Live launch where Tim explains the unique properties of this new product and shares demos and lots of hints and tips.

I created two tags stencilling with Distress Spritz over matching Distress Oxide ink blended backgrounds and then flipping the stencil to create a monoprint effect and one of the unique properties of this new product is that it doesn't reactivate the Distress Oxide inks on the background. 

But first it was time to have some fun playtime and create some swatches. I selected complimentary colours of the Distress Spritz to create 6 colour combos - Fossilized Amber/Peeled Paint - Worn Lipstick/Walnut Stain - Twisted Citron/Wilted Violet - Barn Door/Spiced Marmalade - Weathered Wood/Uncharted Mariner and Picked Raspberry/Peacock Feathers.  I used the same process for all the colour combos and am sharing the techniques I used below.

I applied Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint Distress Oxide inks on to two tags using mini round blending tools. 

I placed Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Floral Layering Stencil over the first tag and sprayed Distress Spritz Fossilized Amber and Peeled Paint through the stencil.

a tone-on tone pearl shimmer effect

I lifted  the stencil, flipped and pressed on to the second tag to create a monoprint effect.

I flicked water droplets on to both tags and dried. I added stamps from the Idea-ology Postmarked Sticker Book, inked the floral image and script sentiment image from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Exquisite with Black Soot Distress Archival ink and stamped on to both tags and inked around the edges with Scorched Timber Distress Ink using a tiny blending tool.

To finish I spritzed Dina Wakley Black Gloss Spray on to my media mat, picked up with a Distress Splatter Brush and flicked on to the backgrounds. I added Idea-ology Metallic Stickers and black twine bows.

It is difficult to catch the shimmer with a camera but when I turned the tags to the light, I was blown away by the beautiful Distress Spritz pearly accents.

Happy Distress Spritz making

Hugs Kath xxx