Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Shine On Witch Card using Distress Watercolor Pencils

 Welcome to another Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!  This week our theme is Sparkle and Shine.  I decided to draw a "Shine On" witch card using Distress Watercolor Pencils.

I started by sketching out the face using Distress Watercolor Pencils, then blended it together with water and a #6 Dina Wakley brush.  I used Black Soot and Wild Honey for the basic outline sketch, then added in some shading and green tones (since she is a witch) with Hickory Smoke and Rustic Wilderness.  I added red to the lips with Candied Apple. 

Next I cut a hat out of black paper and added color to it with acrylic paint.  I gave my witch some braids using Crackling Campfire, Black Soot and Wild Honey.

For the background, I used some watercolors from Prima and also stamped a few circles from Darkroom Door's Open Circles stamp set.  I did some more sketching with various colored pencils and added acrylic paint to the edges.  I decided to add some text paper to the background (Dina Wakley's Ledger 2 paper), which was, of course, harder to do once I'd already had the witch glued down!  But we made it work.  I added a yellow glow around the witch using a Mustard Seed pencil, then I typed the Shine On sentiment on a typewriter and added that to the hat.  My watercolor witch was complete!

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

• Distress Watercolor Pencils, Set 1 and Set 3
• Prima Confetti Watercolor Set
• Darkroom Door Open Circles Stamp
• Dina Wakley Ledger Paper, Set 2 
• Dina Wakley Media Brushes
• Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint: White, Turquoise, Ocean, Olive

We're excited to see what you come up with this week!  Upload your Sparkle and Shine creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $25 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.  And get excited because STAMPtember is right around the corner!  Wa-hoo!

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Delicious Drinks Card using Papertrey Ink's Brew to Go Dies and Witches Brew Stamp Set

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is "delicious drinks."  Do potions fall into that category?  I can't say for sure, since I've never had one, but I would think it would depend on the type of potion as well as the skills and/or intentions of the potion-maker.  Regardless, here's the card I made that features one of my favorite die and stamp sets of all time by Papertrey Ink: Brew to Go and Witches Brew.

I started by cutting out the die elements and stamping onto them.  I added a green tint with Distress Ink, but the bolder greens and blacks are paint.  I also heat-embossed some white cobwebs onto the cup using Tim Holtz's Trick or Treat stamp set.

I went to work on the background.  I used a circle punch to pop some holes out of Strathmore Mixed Media paper and painted that for a textural kind of element.  Then I painted the background rectangle for my card.  I used Scribble Sticks for the doodled circle lines.

I tore up the punched-out part and glued that to the background.  I added on some strips of Dina Wakley ledger paper to the top part of the card for some subtle variation.  I splattered Dina Wakley's gloss spray onto the card and onto the top of my potion, then glued my potion drink to the front.  I outlined the edges in black paint and this card was done.

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

• Papertrey Ink Brew to Go Die Set
• Papertrey Ink Witches Brew Stamp Set
• Tim Holtz Trick or Treat Stamp
• Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks, Set 1
• Dina Wakley Ledger Paper, Set 1
• Distress Ink: Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover
• Sizzix Big Shot
• Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink
• White Embossing Powder
• Distress Embossing Ink
• Heat Tool
• Dina Wakley Gloss Spray: Black, Lime
• Dina Wakley Paint: White, Black, Night, Sage, Fir, Olive, Turquoise, Eggplant, Tangelo, Lemon, Sky, Fuchsia
• Dylusions Paint: Strawberry Daquiri, Tropical Sangria
• Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

I'm excited to see what delicious drinks show up in your creations 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 Blog: Altered Notebook Cover using Favorite Paint/Collage Technique

For this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, we're invited to use our favorite technique.  I like to make scribbly painted pages, then tear them into scraps and collage them back together.  That's what I did to create this notebook cover:

I start by putting drops of paint onto sketch paper, then spreading those paint drops around with water and a brush.  Here's how it looks at this point:

Because I know that I'm going to be adding more colors back on top of these colors, my next step is to add some white over the colored paint.  When I add white, I can add another color on top of the white and have it be bright again and not just muddy.

After the paint dries, I doodle around with Scribble Sticks, Distress Crayons and colored pencils.  At this point, it looks like a crazy chaotic mess, but I remember that I'm going to tear this up anyway.  It may look too busy as one whole piece, but when it's ripped up, I want there to be marks on each smaller piece.

For more patterned paper to rip up, I stenciled a bunch of dots onto deli paper and white cardstock using Tim Holtz's Bubble Wrap stencil and Dylusions spray.

Lastly, I made a third piece of scribbly paper using another stencil, watercolor pencils, paint and newsprint.  I even did some stamping on this one.

With all my background scribbly papers done, I started tearing them up and gluing them to the cover of a small notebook.  If there were edges I didn't like between where the different collage sheets were overlapping, I blended them in a bit with white paint.

For the focal point, I cut out a slide shape using a Tim Holtz die set and I also cut a scalloped-border piece.  I stamped and cut out a sentiment, also from Tim Holtz.

I assembled all my elements together and sewed the notebook cover collage onto the notebook.  My notebook revamp was complete!

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

• Tim Holtz Theories Stamp Set
• Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks, Set 1
• Stencilgirl Grate Full Stencil (by Seth Apter)
• Simon Says Stamp Scattered Stars Stencil
• Distress Crayons: Set 2, Set 12
• Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils: Set 3
• Dylusions Spray: Vibrant Turquoise, London Blue
• Dina Wakley Paint: Night, Sky, White, Turquoise, Olive
• Dylusions Paint: Cherry Pie, Mushy Peas, Pure Sunshine
• Tim Holtz Specimen Die Set
• Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink

We're anxious to see what some of your favorite techniques are!  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: Birthday Queen Card using AALL & Create's Ornithology Stamp

We're celebrating birthdays this week for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  The reason we chose this theme is because it's the 13th birthday of these wonderful Simon Says Stamp challenges!  We wanted to give a huge thank you to everyone who continues to share their projects, which always inspire!  We're also featuring products from that fabulous company, AALL & Create.  I love their quirky whimsical stamps and use their washi tape all the time.  I used their Ornithology stamp as the focal point for this birthday card:

This was another project that went off the rails in terms of process, so the process pics would be pointless because I kept changing my mind about things anyway.  I started with Ranger Kraft Heavystock and painted it white, then stamped some Darkroom Door circles onto it.  I added orange and pink paint to the dots.  While that dried, I used an embossing pen to doodle some marks on black paper, then I heat-embossed that with white embossing powder to make black and white patterned paper.  This is what is on the edges of my card.  Next I stamped the bird image, then cut it out and added more color to it and gave my bird a crown.  I also stuck some AALL & Create washi tape onto some paper and cut it out in scallop shapes to form borders.

I typed the sentiment "Birthday Queen" and added that to the central bird image.  I also gave the birdie a wing and scribbled around the outside of everything with Distress Watercolor Pencils.

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

• AALL & Create: Ornithology Stamp
• AALL & Create Washi Tape: Poets and Janet Klein Set
• Ranger Kraft Heavystock
• American Crafts Embossing Pen
• White Embossing Powder
• Heat Tool
• Darkroom Door: Open Circles Stamp
• Dina Wakley Paint: White, Cheddar, Turquoise, Night, Lemon, Olive
• Dylusions Paint: Cherry Pie, Tropical Sangria
• Distress Ink: Mermaid Lagoon
• Distress Watercolor Pencils: Set 1

We can't wait to see what birthday-themed projects you come up with!  Upload them to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store (bigger bucks this time in honor of our challenge birthday)!