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.