STAMPTEMBER! Overlapping Drops Background and Giveaways

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Happy STAMPtember!  There are so many good things in store for everyone at Simon Says Stamp this month, including a big old release that just dropped today.

I have a couple of items in this release:

Printmaking Birds

Overlapping Drops

Today I'm working with Overlapping Drops.  I wanted to create some fun inky backgrounds for today's cards.

For this first card, I started with piece of Tim Holtz Watercolor paper that I swiped with a variety of Distress Ink pads in fall colors.  

Then, I sprayed he panel with water to get the ink moving.  Meanwhile I had pressed those ink pads onto my craft mat and spritzed those with water as well.

To create the panel, I dried my paper a bit with a heat gun, pressed the panel into the inks on my craft mat, dried some more, pressed/smooshed some more, etc. until I was happy with the result.

You get some great color variations, textures, etc.

Once the panel was fully dry, I ran it through my die cutting machine to flatten it a bit, and then I heat embossed the background in gold over top.

To finish the card off, I die cut the Etched Berry Branch die from Matte Gold cardstock as well as two layers of white cardstock.  These were adhered together and then to my panel.

The sentiment is from the All About You set, and was embossed in gold and then die cut.

Finally I added a few gold sequins for some extra sparkle.

This next panel was created in a similar manner, but in reverse.

This time, I started by first gold embossing the background onto a piece of Tim Holtz Watercolor paper.

Then, I swiped the panel with my Distress Ink Pads, spritzed with water, and went through the process of drying and smooshing the panel into the inks.

As you can see, you get a lot more variation in the color and texture in the background when you emboss before inking.

This card was finished similar to the last.  I die cut the Feel Better Soon sentiment from Matte Gold cardstock, added another couple layers to it to give it some height, and then adhered the entire piece to my panel.

Super easy.  I also love the different look/feel you get by changing the orientation of the drops, when I created this panel, it really reminded me of the ocean/fish.

I mentioned a giveaway right?  I'd love to share a little bit of STAMPtember with a couple lucky folks.  I've got one Printmaking Birds set and one Overlapping Drops set to share.  To be entered to win, be a follower, and leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite item from the release is.

That's all for me today.  Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release.  You'll want to check their blog every day this month too.  There are stamp collaborations with all your favorite companies throughout the month, and those sell out quickly, as well as all sorts of other fun surprises.