Forest Shadows Dies

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today's card features the Forest Shadows dies from Sizzix.  This set includes three dies, two layers of trees, and a die that cuts out some stars.  For my card, I used just the trees.

I started by adding watercolor washes to three pieces of watercolor paper: one blue background piece, and then two green washes, one lighter and one darker.

Once dry, the the two tree dies were cut from the two green watercolored panels.  I then went in with some more green to add texture to the tree layers.  I die cut the front layer of trees one additional time from some green cardstock, and when the watercolored piece was dry, adhered it to the back of the watercolored piece to give it a little more depth.

The tree die cuts were then trimmed down a bit on the ends, and then adhered directly to the blue watercolored panel.

I added some white splatter over the completed panel, and then gold embossed the sentiment, from Waffle Flower's Elegant Christmas set.

The completed panel was popped up over a kraft card base.

Papertrey Ink, World Stencils

 

A quick card share today using the World Map stencil from Papertrey Ink.  This is actually a set of two stencils, one for a vertical and one for a horizontal card orientation.  I placed the the horizontal stencil over my white cardstock and very softly inked the top with Worn Lipstick and the bottom with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

I then added some gold splatter.  I used the Champagne Gold color from my Starry Colors watercolor set, so a very light, subtle gold.

Once that was dry, the sentiment, from The Greetery's Scripted Holiday Sentiments set, was stamped with Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide and then clear embossed.

The completed panel was popped up over a soft gray card base.

Loving how quickly I can create with stencils these days!

Uniko Ink and Flip Stencils

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've been eyeing the Ink and Flip stencils from Uniko for a while now.  Bev recently had a sale, and I jumped at the chance to pick up a couple.  I got the Christmas Star and Snowflake stencils.  Just as the name suggests, you create the patterns by inking, turning, and also flipping the stencils.

These are SO easy to work with, you can definitely mass produce a bunch of cards in a hurry.

For each of the stencils, I used just two colors:  Sky and Dusk for the Snowflake card, and Carnation and Peony for the Christmas Star card.  To mix things up a little bit, with the Christmas Star stencil I did not flip/rotate exactly, I did it a bit offset because I like the extra motion/layering you get when you do that.  There are some great samples on the Uniko website where folks selectively inked the areas to create rainbow cards, but I went simple and easy this go round.

Finishing off the panels was really easy as well.  For the snowflake, I used sentiments from the Holiday Messages set inked in Versa Clair black.

For the Christmas Star, I die cut the Merry & Bright sentiment twice from white cardstock and once from Champagne Matte.  These were adhered together and then directly to my card panel.  I also added a few Trinity Stamps Boiled Sugar embellishments.

Can't wait to ink these up again! 

SSS Festive Fun, Peace

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today's card features a couple of new dies from the Festive Fun release: Holly Sprig and Scripty Peace.  Sometimes it's fun to create with just dies, it is often quicker than stamping for me.

I started by adding a light wash of color to a watercolor paper panel. I used a lot of water and just a bit of blue and brown color.  This was set aside to dry.

Next, I die cut Holly Sprig as well as the Scripty Peace sentiment and shadow piece from watercolor cardstock.  These were then lightly watercolored, except for the shadow sentiment piece which was left plain.

Once all my pieces were dry, I adhered the berry pieces to the holly leaves and the sentiment to the shadow piece.

The Holly Sprig was adhered directly to my background panel, although I only added adhesive to the stems/bases of the leaves so that the ends come up a bit for extra dimension.  The sentiment was popped up with foam tape, and I let one of the leaves sit over the top of it to add depth.

The entire panel was then adhered to my card base with foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting!

SSS Festive Fun, Tea Time Dies

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've got a card to share today using the Tea Time dies from Simon's Festive Fun release.  The set creates four finished pieces which are all shown here.  The pieces were cut from white cardstock, colored with Copics, and adhered together to create the finished pieces.

Meanwhile, I created a grid to guide their placement by using the stencil with the largest openings from the Tiled Art stencil set.  I inked the openings very softly using Morning ink.

The completed die cut pieces were adhered in each of the inked squares, and then I stamped the sentiment, from an older retired set called Winter Wishes, with Versa Clair black ink.

That's all for me today, hope everyone had a nice long weekend!

SSS Festive Fun Release Blog Hop

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy Friday!  Today I'm participating in hop celebrating Simon Says Stamp's Festive Fun release.  You should be arriving here from Lisa Addesa's blog, and I've got the full list at the end of this post in case yo need it.

As with all good hops, there are prizes to be had.  Simon is giving away a $25 store credit at every stop along the hop.  All you need to do is a leave a comment to be entered.  In addition, with every $100 order of Festive Fun products this weekend, you'll automatically receive the above Cozy Together stamp and die set.

I'm sharing a couple of very simple cards created using the gorgeous Heartfelt Snowflake die.  The die was cut three times from Glossy White cardstock, and the die cuts were adhered to a panel of Bold Brights Color Blend cardstock with liquid adhesive.  The excess portions of the snowflakes were trimmed off the panel and the entire piece was then adhered directly to the card base.

The sentiments are from the Reverse Winter Sentiment Strips set and popped up with foam tape.

These were so quick and easy to make, you can easily mass produce these in a hurry.  I love the way the look of these Color Blend cardstock panels, but could certainly use ink blended cardstock, solid cardstock, or tone on tone patterned paper as well.

Your next stop on the hop is Anna-Karin Evaldsson, and the full hop list is below.  Happy hopping and good luck!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Caly Person
Nichol Spohr
Jennifer McGuire
Suzy Plantamura
Amy Rysavy
Emily Midgett
Debby Hughes
Lisa Addesa
Miriam Prantner
Anna-Karin Evaldsson
Kim Hamilton
Jean Doeringsfeld
Carly Minner
Bobbi Lemanski
Lea Lawson

SSS Festive Fun Release

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

There's a new release at Simon Says Stamp today.  As you might imagine, the Festive Fun release is filled with all sorts of holiday goodness.

Today I'm sharing a card featuring this gorgeous bow image from the Old Fashioned Christmas set.  I love the size of the bow, and thought it would look great on a gift.

The bow wast stamped on some Neenah Solar White cardstock and then colored with Copics.  I used R22, 24, 29, 59, and 89.  The bow was then fussy cut.  

I also cut two strips of Neenah Solar White cardstock to use as ribbons to 'wrap' around my box.  After determining where I wanted them to intersect, I used scissors to narrow the strip in that area to mimic where the ribbon would be cinched a bit with the bow.  These strips were then colored with the same markers.

For the 'box' itself, I simply cut a panel of kraft cardstock, adding a tiny bit of inking around the edges with Cappuccino ink.  The box and the strings were adhered to my card base, and then then the bow was attached.  I used a tiny piece of very strong clear adhesive tape in the center of the bow, and then foam adhesives at the edges of the loops and tails to give it more realistic dimension.

The sentiment is from my Christmas Block Art set.

That's all for me today.  Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release.  I'll see you back here for a fun hop tomorrow!