I have to say that after a LONG season of fence-sitting (like a decade's worth), I have finally started doing something with all those eighty million pictures that have been sitting in the basement or on my hard drive. That's right, kids! I've joined the Project Life / pocket scrapbooking revolution. Since this week's theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is to make something using Simon Says Stamp exclusive products, I made some journaling cards using the Simon Says Stamp Good Friend with Circle Inserts die/stamp set.
When it comes to memory preservation, I can't seem to nail a 12x12 layout to save my life. It's never been my thing. There's just something about staring down at a sheet of big bad 12x12 that gives me hives. That's why I have the utmost respect for people that have the 12x12 layout skills that I lack at this point in time. But pocket scrapbooking is a little easier for me to handle and I like how you can still be as simple or as complex as you want with the materials. Are my albums going to win artistic awards? Negative. But I remind myself that that's not what it's about. Will my family have pictures to look at? Yes and yay!
To make these cards, I started by doing some watercoloring and stenciling, then cut out the card's background shape with the Simon Says Stamp Circle Card Border die.
Next I went digging through my Project Life cards to find some that I could adhere my watercolored cut-outs to.
I stuck my watercolor pieces on top of these pre-made cards and used the same Simon Says Stamp Circle Border die on some different paper to create the thin outline pieces (the same die cuts both the inside and the thin border shape).
I glued those down then stamped some sentiments from the coordinating Simon Says Stamp Circle Friends stamps, Mama Elephant stamps and Technique Tuesday stamps.
I put them all together and wah-la! Some original cards were born. On each one, I used watercolors and Distress Inks for the backgrounds and used Memento Luxe ink for the stamping (it works well with clear stamps). For the card below, I used the Simon Circle Friends stamps and the Simon Says Stamp Small Hello die. I also added a spritz of Lime Dylusions ink spray and mounted it on a 4x6 Project Life card to allow for journaling on the other side.
I used the Simon Circle Friends stamp on this one as well as the Onion Skin small stencil by The Crafter's Workshop.
The "Duh" sentiment on this card is from Technique Tuesday's With Flair stamp set and is stamped over the Simon Circle Friends arrow stamp. The stencil was a large no-namer brand moroccan-style one that I found at Walmart.
Lastly, I made this one with Tim Holtz's stripes stencil, Mama Elephant's Hustle stamp set (sentiment) and a camera that I cut from Amy Tan's Plus One paper.
Here's a complete list of supplies that I used that you can find at Simon Says Stamp:
If you're a crafty supply hoarder like myself, I know you must have some Simon Says Stamp exclusive stuff in your stash! Whip it out and give this week's challenge a whirl! Upload your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store.