Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Recycle Using Dina Wakley's I Am Stamp Set and Tim Holtz's Mini File Folder

Happy Monday and a big YAY for some signs of Spring!  The weather's getting a little warmer and I saw some tulips and daffodils just starting to peek up through the dirt in my flower beds.  What a wonderful time of year for new ideas in our quest to keep those creative juices flowin'!  This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is recycle.  I decided to recycle some tea bags, which I colored, then ripped up and used as part of the background for this decorated file folder.

I started with tea bags, which I sprayed with water and Infusions color stain.  After they dried, I stenciled stars and dots onto them with acrylic paint.

I ripped one of the tea bags in half so that it was roughly as tall as this Tim Holtz file folder.  Then I sewed the tea bag together.

I lightly glued some patterned paper scraps (some from the Market Square paper collection) and my tea bag to the folder, then I sewed everything in place with my sewing machine.

Next I stamped and fussy-cut out this silhouette from Dina Wakley's I Am stamp collection.  I love this image and have used it several times on different projects.  I covered the silhouette with paper scraps and paint.  When it was done, I felt like it needed a pop of red.  I love the color red, but have a hard time using it in my crafty projects.  I don't know-- I feel like every time I try it, the end result looks like a murder scene.  But I thought maybe red-and-white polka dot paper would be the way to go.  I stenciled white dots onto some red cardstock, tore a scrap and glued it onto my silhouette.  I felt like the red turned out okay this time.  And of course, I added a pointy hat.

I glued the silhouette onto the front of my folder and stamped the words "Wishing heart" onto the scene.  The words came from Sweet N' Sassy's So Grateful stamp set.

And with that, my folder was finished!  Here's the complete list of the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

• Infusions Colored Stain: Olive Tree, Royal Blood, Frankly Scarlet, Lemoncello, Emerald Isle, Are You Cerise, and Green Man
• Simon Says Stamp Scattered Stars Stencil
• Dina Wakley Spaced Dots Stencil
• Dina Wakley I Am Stamp Set
• Sweet N' Sassy So Grateful Stamp Set
• Tim Holtz Mini File Folders
• Market Square Patterned Paper
• Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint: White, Blushing, Umber, Ruby, Olive, Turquoise, Night, Tangerine
• Dylusions Acrylic Paint: Laidback Lilac
• UHU Glue Stick
• Acrylic Block

What clever material will you recycle into a crafty delight?  Upload your projects to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Bright and Cheerful Card using Studio Light's Border Patrol Out of This World Die and a Tim Holtz Flashcard

Yippee to this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme, which is Bright and Cheerful.  I made a card/folder/not really sure what it is, but it's bright and cheerful.

I started with a black Dylusions tag and covered it with white dots using Tim Holtz's Splotches stencil and Dina Wakley white paint.  When the white paint dried, I colored in some of the white dots with purple, magenta and teal.  Then I gathered some other supplies and scraps, not knowing for sure what I'd use.

I started gluing things down (washi tape, some stamped leftover paper from a previous project, and some under-paper that had squiggles and smears on it).  I cut out a scallop border shape (with dangling stars) using a die from Studio Light and glued it on the top.  I also stamped on a bird image from Dina Wakley's Nested stamp set.

I stamped some letters using another Studio Light stamp called Writing on the Wall.  I stamped the letters using Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink.  I glued on a scrap of green tissue paper (a coffee filter) that I'd colored from a previous project.  I also added in some more bright colors using acrylic paint.

I added a Tim Holtz flashcard, did some stitching with the sewing machine, and added a scrap of ledger paper from Dina Wakley's Ledger paper Set 1.  I threw some fabric on there, too, because why not?

I blended the elements together a bit using paint and this project was done.

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

• Tim Holtz Splotches Stencil
• Dylusions Black Journaling Tags
• Dina Wakley Nested Stamp Set
• Dina Wakley White Paint
• Dina Wakley Turquoise Paint
• Dina Wakley Fuchsia Paint
• Dina Wakley Olive Paint
• Dina Wakley Typed Media Ledgers Set 1
• Dylusions Tropical Sangria Paint
• Dylusions Strawberry Daiquiri Paint
• Studio Light Border Patrol Out of This World Die
• Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink
• Simon Says Stamp Acrylic Block
• Tim Holtz Flashcards

How will you be bright and cheerful in your artwork this week?  Upload your projects to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Earrings using Washi Tape, Alcohol Ink and Metallique Wax

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is feminine!  I have always been fascinated by jewelry.  I remember being intrigued with my mom's necklaces growing up and she said I was a little too fond of pulling on them when I was a baby.  My mom is the picture of ultimate classiness and her jewelry is always understated and elegant.  As for me, I go for big, bold, quirky, obnoxious dangly pieces that cannot ever be worn safely around any sort of machinery!  And so I created a pair of earrings for this week's project.

I started with some thin metal I had lying around (no idea what is was or where I got it-- it looked like a scrap sheet of aluminum if I had to guess).  The metal was thin enough to cut with some heavy-duty scissors into two half-circle shapes.  I cut paper half-circles to fit on top of the metal, then covered the paper with washi tape, glued the paper to the metal, and added some paint.  It was my normal collage routine, only metal was my base.  I also collaged the back of these, too.

Next I covered the metal pieces with a layer of Polyurethane to seal everything in.  When that was dry, I punched holes in the top using my Crop-A-Dile.  I got out my black Sculpey clay, fashioned some dome-shaped beads and cooked them in the oven.  When they were dry. I brushed on a layer of Metallique Wax in Old Silver.  Here is how they looked before the silver wax was added:

I found some white beads in my bead stash and dripped on alcohol ink to color them.  I found some hoop earring rings and you can see here how the formerly-black clay bead domes look with the silver wax on (it was a rainy overcast day, so the lighting is not great in this photo).  I also added just a touch of turquoise and olive paint to the silver wax.  Now all of my elements were ready.

From here, I strung everything onto wire and connected them.  I added earring hooks as well.  Here's how they turned out:

Everything on these earrings swings around (including the metal half-circle parts), so I decorated the backs, too.  Here's a shot of what they look like on the other side:

I always love to get a chance to go back to my jewelry-making roots, so I thoroughly enjoyed this project.  Here are the supplies I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

AALL & Create: Power Words Washi Tape

AALL & Create Washi Tape: Vivre 23 Washi Tape

Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint: White, Turquoise, Olive, Ocean, Tangerine

Dylusions Acrylic Paint: Tropical Sangria

Alcohol Ink: Citrus, Sunshine Yellow, Tranquil, Flamingo, Watermelon

Prima Metallique Wax: Old Silver

Crop-A-Dile

How will you interpret this week's feminine theme?  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: A Bit of Green with AALL & Create's The Gentlemen Stamp Set

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is to add a bit of green.  We're also featuring stamps from the fabulous AALL & Create.  I made a set of tags (each with a touch of green) using images from The Gentlemen stamp set.

I started by stamping and fussy-cutting these gents (Ranger Jet Black Archival ink and Strathmore Mixed Media paper).

Next I colored them in with acrylic paint, colored pencils and some polka-dot washi tape.  I also cut some tags out of Dina Wakley's Collage Collective 2, Vol 1 paper pad.

The great thing about starting with patterned paper is that it takes out the intimidation of starting with a blank white sheet of paper.  You can customize it, too, so you are still being creative, but you already have a bit of a head start (thanks to Dina in this case).  I repainted and tweaked these tags and added some more stamped images from AALL & Create's City Living and Cloud Nine stamp sets.

I can't seem to turn down the opportunity to put silly hats and crowns on people, so that was my next step.

The last step was to attach my gents to their backgrounds and then I stamped words onto the tags (the words also came with The Gentlemen stamp set).

I also added a little paint around the edges of my tag to finish them off and my little tag quartet was complete!  

On an unrelated side note, this blog makes the steps seem easy and like everything just flows along nicely all the time on these projects.  But for the record, these things take me forever to do even if it looks like it all came together in the five minutes I had between dinner and yoga (yeah- I don't do yoga, either).  But my point is, if you struggle with projects and things don't flow like you'd like, just know that the process IS hard.  It can be discouraging to watch artists on YouTube who do these amazing things in 10 minutes or whatever, but that's never happened for me.  Just know you're not alone if you've ever felt like ripping up a project or pulling out your hair after investing several hours over several painful days or weeks only to have the "vision" utterly fail.  Just keep trying-- that's what I tell myself, too.  The effort is worth it in the long run....sometimes in the long, long, LONG-long run.

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

AALL & Create The Gentlemen Stamp Set	AALL & Create On Cloud Nine stamp set	AALL & Create City Living stamp set	Dina Wakley Collage Collective 2, Volume 1	Waffle Flower Nesting Tags dies
ranger archival jet black ink pad	Strathmore Mixed Media 6x8 Paper	Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Ranger LAPIS 1 oz Media Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley Ranger NIGHT acrylic paint
Dina Wakley Sky acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Umber acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Black Acrylic Paint	Dina Wakley Olive Acrylic paint	Dina Wakley Ranger Blushing acrylic paint
Dina Wakley Tangerine paint	Dina Wakley Ranger BLACKBERRY 1OZ Media Acrylic Paints MDQ53958	Dylusions Tropical Sangria	Dylusions Strawberry Daquiri Paint	Dylusions Polished Jade paint
Dylusions Sour Appletini paint	Dylusions Lemon Drop paint	Dylusions Pure Sunshine paint	Dylusions Laidback Lilac Paint	UHU Glue Stick

How will you show us some green this week?  Upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.