Monday, November 8, 2021

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Thanks/Thanksgiving Blessings Book using Waffle Flower's A7 Disc Bound Dies

We are rolling right into November and Thanksgiving and pie and gratitude (I guess not necessary in that order, but you get the idea).  It's a wonderful time of year to reflect on our blessings.  That's why for this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, the theme being thanks or Thanksgiving, I made a fat little gratitude book.


I started by using Waffle Flower's A7 Disc Bound die set to cut about a million pages out of Kraft paper and white cardstock.  Most any die that offers me a chance to make a book or a folder or a tab or a page has my support and this is a great little set.


Next I cracked out a brand new stamp set from Dina Wakley (I Am) and stamped the flower design onto my cover page.  I started gluing little bits of paper onto my flower petals, which, as usual, I ended up mostly covering with paint later on.  It's all part of the process, right?


Quite a transformation here as I smeared and smooshed some paint around and finished off the flower.  I also stamped a "blessings" sentiment onto the page using Sweet n' Sassy's So Grateful stamp set.


With my cover done, I assembled all of the pages onto the two binding discs (also from Waffle Flower).  I cut some numbers from a piece of patterned paper (Family Fun from Simple Stories), touched them up with paint, and glued them into my notebook as tabs.  I also sprayed the edges of the pages with Ground Espresso Distress Spray to make them look a little grungy and weathered.  I added paint to the page edges as well, but you've got to be careful when you smear paint onto a wad of pages (when held closed) because there's a high chance you'll glue the pages together with the paint.  Been there, done that.  But if you just smear a little paint along the book's pages (again, while holding them all tightly together), then go back and open every page and leave the pages spread out until the paint dries, you'll be alright.


While the inside is not very exciting yet, you can see that it's all ready to fill in with one or two gratitude thoughts or lists of blessings per page.


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

Monday, November 1, 2021

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Any Occasion Tags using Visible Image's Total Chaos Stamp Set

Whew!  We've wrapped up Halloween and are moving headfirst into Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It doesn't get much better than that.  With so many big holidays on the horizon, I didn't want to forget about how often I need little everyday "Just a Note" cards and tags. They are perfect for any occasion, which is this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme.  We're also highlighting products from Visible Image.


To get some texture into the background, I started by using white paint through Visible Image's Mad Here stencil.  Then I sprinkled on some Infusions color stain powder and spritzed it with water.


I added some paint and here's how it looked when I peeled off the stencil:


Once this dried, I cut two tags out of the paper.



Too busy of a background for anything to be put on top of it, so I toned it down with white paint through a polka dot stencil.


I drizzled on a few drops of Dylusions spray and spritzed it with water and let the colored liquid run down the tags.


When the tags dried, I stamped on this gorgeous flower image from Visible Image's Total Chaos stamp set.   Where the ink was lighter, I outlined the lines with a black Sharpie.


I painted the inside of the flower petals with white paint, then accented that white paint with some brighter paint colors.  I also added in a piece of text paper.


To make text paper, I stamped a quote image (from Simon Says Stamps' Inside Friendship Messages set) over and over on some paper, then ripped it into strips.  I glued a text strip to the base of the tags and added the "Just a Note" sentiment from Simon Says Stamps' Printmaker stamp set.


These tags were done and ready for any normal everyday occasion!



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

What holiday or occasion will you make something clever for 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.