My Cards and Tags: Simon Says Stamp Hey Love Release

It's been a sweet holiday season and amongst all the festivities, I had a little crafting time to make a card using a die from Simon Says Stamps' new Hey Love release.

I started off using another of my favorite Simon dies called Stacked Hearts.  I cut the heart background out of gray cardstock and glued it to a piece of white paper, leaving some of the hearts filled in.

I toned down the gray by smearing white acrylic paint over the hearts.  When that dried, I did some stamping on top using dots from Dina Wakley's Gals and Borders set and a large sketched circle from Concord & 9th's Love You Mean It set.
 

I dabbed some Distress Ink onto the background using sponges- just a light touch of a few different colors.  Then I finished it off by cutting the "Hey Love" sentiment out of Simon's new Hey Love die, adding a strip of plaid patterned paper, a stem and a heart.

 

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas and I'm excited to see what 2017 has in store!

My Cards and Tags: Vintage Atlas Cards

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is "Party Time"!  And when I needed to make coworker awards to be distributed at our company Christmas party, I decided the awards might as well be stylish.  Since I had so much fun making an atlas tag recently, I experimented more with using atlas paper as a background.

When it's crunch time for a project (and the holiday season is definitely crunch time for me), I go to my favorite techniques.  In this case, it's to use vintage text paper on top of a patterned background.  I used Tim Holtz's Frameworks dies and circle-cut paper scraps of Simon Says Stamp's vintage paper to make the text sections on top of the atlas paper.  I cut the background paper into 4x6 cards using a Project Life die and my Sizzix Big Shot.

Once my text paper was glued down (I used Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue and then let it dry overnight underneath a heavy book or two), I used a sponge to smudge on Distress Ink.  Then I went over it with a bit of white paint to tone it down.  All that remained was to stamp on some faux stitching using Bo Bunny's Stitches stamp and gluing on the sentiments I'd typed out on my We R Memory Keepers typewriter.

Last but not least, I added on some numbers from Tim Holtz's Ruler Ribbon, which I would buy by the mile if I could.  Love it!

The wacky compliments on these coworker awards probably won't make sense to people outside of our wacky group, but they did let my cohorts know that they were loved and appreciated at our Christmas party.

These are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Becky Higgins Project Life die set	Sizzix Big Shot	Tim Holtz Frameworks Courtyard die	Sizzix Tim Holtz Crosshatch frameworks die	Simon Says Stamp Authentic VINTAGE PAPER Unique
2.5" Circle Punch by EK Success	Simple Stories Basics Snap Color Vibe 12x12 Paper	Bo Bunny STITCHES Clear Stamps	We R Memory Keepers Mint Typewriter	Tim Holtz Idea-ology RULER RIBBON Fabric Canvas Measure
Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink	Ripe Persimmon - Distress Ink	Mustard Seed - Distress Ink	Tim Holtz Distress Twisted Citron Ink Pad
Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks

Our party theme lasts for TWO weeks this time, so you have plenty of time to recover from the holiday craziness and upload your projects to our Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog.  You could win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store and that would be a very merry post-Christmas treat indeed!

Happy holidays to you and yours and I wish all of you the very best for 2017!

My Other Creations: Paper Christmas Village Using Hero Arts' Gingerbread House die

"Let There Be Snow" is this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme.  I made a mini paper village celebrating the first dusting of snow, which is always beautiful!

I started out by building a 3D house using Hero Arts' Gingerbread House die.  The houses are nice and deep, so I actually cut one house in half to make two more narrow houses.  I stuck on some patterned paper and washi tape to give them some oomph.

Once I'd embellished them a bit, I added a thin layer of white paint here and there to represent just a touch of snow.

The little kitty cat is from Crate Paper's Cute Girl paper pad and the flower cluster is from My Mind's Eye's Hello Gorgeous collection.

The second house has patterned paper from Bo Bunny's Believe set (orange polka dots), Perfectly Plaid, and another flower from My Mind's Eye's Hello Gorgeous line.  I added a number from a strip of measuring tape ribbon I had in my stash.

I made some trees for my village by cutting triangle shapes and rolling them into cones, then adding stars to the top.  The paper is from Sizzix's Merry and Bright collection and the stars are cut with a die from Neat and Tangled called, "Seeing Stars."  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is washi tape from Doodlebug.

Hope you stay warm and dry (or pleasantly cool- depending on the climate) for your holiday season!  And if you do get snowed in, browse Simon Says Stamp!  Here are the supplies I used that you can find there:

Hero Arts Gingerbread House die	Sizzix Big Shot	Neat and Tangled Seeing Stars die	Bo Bunny Believe 6x6 Paper	Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid 6x6 Paper
MME Hello Gorgeous 6x6 Paper	Crate Paper Cute Girl 6x6 Stack	Sizzix Merry and Bright 6x12 Paper Pad	Illustrated Faith Reminders Washi Tape	Tim Holtz Idea-ology TISSUE TAPE SYMPHONY Music Self Adhesive Vintage Paper
Doodlebug Dainty Dots Spring Garden Washi Tape	My Mind′s Eye Sugar Plum Tape	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints	Doodlebug Merry Christmas Washi Tape

What wonderful snowy creations will you create this week?  Be sure to upload your project to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store!