Sooner rather than Later: SSS Happy and Joyful Release Blog Hop

Friday, April 22, 2022

SSS Happy and Joyful Release Blog Hop

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Happy Friday! Today I'm part of a hop celebrating the latest release from Simon Says Stamp, Happy and Joyful. You should have arrived here from Emily Midgett's blog. If you didn't and have just stumbled upon the hop, never fear, I have the entire hop list at the end of this post.

There's no point in having a hop if there aren't prizes, right? Simon is giving away a $25 gift certificate at each stop along the hop. In addition, with any purchase this weekend, use code GRDPTY and you'll get a free Garden Party sticker sheet.

I'm sharing a couple of cards created using my new Lined Background for Simon.

For my cards today, I wanted to try Alcohol lift ink. I thought this would be the perfect background to use because it's pretty bold and I figured I would get a good effect with it.

I started by creating a background to lift from using Celestial, Citrus, and a yellow alcohol ink which bizarrely did not have a name on the bottle. I was going to use Tim Holtz Glossy Cardstock for this, but not shockingly, I could not find it so I ended up using Simon Says Stamp White Glossy cardstock.

After my panel was dry, I applied the Alcohol Lift ink to my background, and stamped it on the panel. I then placed a clean piece of the Glossy White cardstock in my stamp platform and stamped again. Then I went back to the original panel, buffing it with a paper towel to remove the excess color from the lifted areas.

This didn't achieve quite the look I was going for. The stamped image came out a lot lighter than I thought it would. Reading up a little on the technique (clearly something one would normally do ahead of time) turns out I probably should have stamped on regular cardstock. Still I actually like the muted colors in my second card (I was having all sorts of trouble with the lighting and reflections when trying to photograph the card, so I ended up photographing it standing up).

I was more disappointed with the original panel because not enough of the ink seemed to come off, it was a really really subtle look.

Solution? I decided to just ink my stamp with Versamark (after cleaning it of course) and then embossed with Rainbow Black Embossing Glitter.

To finish that card off, I used one of the sentiments from the new XL Stacked Greetings set embossed in gold on some black cardstock, backed it with Matte Gold cardstock, and popped it up over my background.

For the second card, I really wanted to show off the dreamy look of the panel and went pretty subtle. I die cut the Magical sentiment from Matte Gold cardstock with the shadow piece cut from Glossy White. I added a secondary sentiment from the Magical Wishes Sentiment Strips which was foiled in gold, and added a few gold sequins for some sparkle.

I definitely need to do some more experimenting/working with alcohol lift ink, but mistake or not, I'm loving the muted effect you get stamping it off on the glossy white. It's hard to photograph, but hopefully you get a sense of how pretty it is!

Your next step on the hop is Alberto Gava, and I also have the entire list below in case you need it. Happy hopping, have a great weekend!

Simon Says Stamp Blog