My Cards and Tags: Wonderful Watercolor Journaling Cards

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:

Simon Says Stamp Good Friend with Circle Inserts Set	Sizzix Big Shot Machine	Lifestyle Crafts Genius Ultimate Platform System	Loew Cornell WATERCOLOR CAKES 24 Paints	Mama Elephant Hustle Clear Stamp Set	Technique Tuesday With Flair Clear Stamp Set	Tim Holtz Latticework Stencil
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Stripes	Mini Onion Skin Stencil by The Crafter′s Workshop	Simon Says Stamp small Hello die	Becky Higgins Project Life Enjoy Life Kit	Becky Higgins Project Life Happy Core Kit	Dylusions Ink Sprays - Fresh Lime	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad
Colorbox Rain Forest Ink	Memento Luxe Bahama Blue	Memento Luxe Rose Bud	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED PISTACHIO	Mustard Seed - Distress Ink	Worn Lipstick Distress Ink Pad	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink
Festive Berries - Distress Ink

 
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.

My Other Creations: Be Bright Bookmark

"Don't Abandon the Coral" is this week's clever theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog.  My lit nerd friends and I do love classy bookmarks, so that's the direction I went this week.  On a side note, not everyone uses this same bookmark courtesy.  Having worked in a library for most of my adult life, I can tell you that people use all sorts of weird and wacky and sometimes icky things for bookmarks: popsicle sticks, airline tickets, photos (some quite cheesy), Post-It notes, bills, receipts, napkins, string, sticks of gum, candy bar wrappers, recipes, and sometimes even juicy drama-filled junior high notes!  So beware of what you leave behind for bored librarians' eyes!

Isn't this lady a fabulous image?  It's from Dina Wakley's Positive Women stamp set.  I stamped her once on flesh-colored cardstock, fussy-cut her out, then paper-pieced her together.  I colored her with Distress Ink and watercolors and I made sure to give her plenty of pops of coral.  The little curly-swirly circles are from the Whimsical Wishes stamp set by My Favorite Things.

I watercolored the background and added some text stamping from Tim Holtz.  Her "Be Bright" sentiment is also from Tim Holtz- his Big Chat sticker set and his Elementary Flash Cards.

I made my bookmark using these fine products from Simon Says Stamp:

Dina Wakley Positive Women Stamp Set	My Favorite Things, Whimsical Wishes Stamp Set	Stampendous Wired Stamp Set	Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Purely Random Stamp Set	Loew Cornell WATERCOLOR CAKES 24 Paints	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad ABANDONED CORAL	Spiced Marmalade - Distress Ink
Distress Ink Tumbled Glass	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Mustard Seed - Distress Ink	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	Tim Holtz Big Chat Stickers	Tim Holtz Elementary Flash Cards

Coral reminds me of my favorite roses in my mother's flower garden, so I can't see what memories it evokes for you or what it inspires you to create.  Upload your masterpieces to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and you'll be automatically entered to win a $50 gift voucher to Simon Says Stamp!

Tutorials: Flower Headbands Made with Fabric and Dies

With an "Anything Goes" theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, I decided to make some snazzy floral headbands (great for babies and kids) using fabric and some floral dies.

 

I like a more delicate headband style, so the bands are all made with 5mm elastic that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  The flowers on the teal headband were cut with an Original Sizzix die I've had forever called, Flower Layers by Emily Humble.  You can still find it online here and there.  The pink one is made with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and the orange one is made with the Sizzix 3D Flowers die.

The process is the same for all of the bands.  I started with some fabric scraps, which I cut into flower shapes using my Sizzix Big Shot and dies.  The trick to getting the dies to cut through fabric is to throw in an extra "layer" in your die sandwich.  I included a sheet of cardstock on top of my top layer to give it more tightness and ensure a clean cut.  My die sandwich went as follows: bottom cutting plate, die, fabric, top cutting plate, piece of cardstock.

I cut out a few flowers in different fabrics and arranged them in a clustered row.  One note of caution is that if you use cotton fabric like I did, there's nothing to keep the edges of the flowers from potentially fraying a bit over time.  This doesn't bother me since I like that type of look, but be sure to use felt or some other non-fraying fabric if you like a cleaner style.

I wanted some of the flowers to have a bit of dimension, so I got out my Prima Esplanade flowers, which come white, and sponged some Spun Sugar Distress Ink onto the petals' edges.

I also quite enjoy tulle, so I pinched together a bit of it and cut a hole in it using the Crop-A-Dile.  I threaded a brad through the tulle and stuck it through my Prima flower.

Now that I had all my components, I glued them together (fabric flowers to each other where they overlap, then the Prima flower with the brad on top).  I used a glue gun to make life easy.  Next, I flipped my flower grouping over, cut a piece of white felt, and hot glued it to the back of my flower grouping to give it more stability and structure.

I prepared my elastic by cutting it to the right length (around 17 inches to allow for a bit of overlap and to ensure it wouldn't be too tight), and then sewed it together.  The elastic comes in different colors and I used pink elastic for this headband.

I put my flower cluster on the bottom, then glued my elastic to it, then glued another piece of felt on top to cover where I'd stitched the elastic together.  It would be more sturdy if I'd sewed the whole thing together, but I've never had any problems with the hot glue not holding up.

I flipped it back over and wah-la!  Instant cute headband!  

Here's a picture of the teal one being modeled by the cutest little person in the history of ever (in my totally unbiased opinion, of course).  And thanks to my amazing photographer friend, Amy, for this fabulous pic:

Here are the supplies I used for my headbands, which you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Sizzix Bigz Die - Tattered Florals

Sizzix Bigz Die- 3D Flowers

Sizzix Big Shot Machine

Prima Esplanade Flowers

Tim Holtz Distress Spun Sugar Ink Pad

Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink

Crop A Dile

It is indeed "Anything Goes" week, so there's no reason not to throw your hat in the ring!  Upload a picture of your creation to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and you'll be automatically entered in the weekly drawing for a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp!