SSS DieCember Release!

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy December!  The DieCember release is officially live at Simon Says Stamp!  There are all sorts of new goodies in this release, including my newest stencil design - Dimensional Rectangles.  

I'll have a bunch of cards to share with you featuring those stencils later this week, but today I thought I would focus on one of my favorite new dies from this release, Winsome Branch.

I'm kind of a sucker for delicate branches/leaves, so this die is right up my alley.

I thought it would be fun to paint gold watercolor accents on some die cuts.  The branch was cut from watercolor paper as well as navy and green cardstock.

I used Starry Colors watercolors to add accents to each of the branches, setting them aside to dry.

For the backgrounds, I used Gansai Tambi watercolors to paint soft watercolor washes on watercolor panels: brown and yellow, green and brown, and blue and brown.  Once the panels were dry, I used the darker color from each background to add a bit of splatter to the panel.

The finished/dried panels were then stitched to my kraft card bases.  Usually I stitch pretty close to the edge of my panel, but for these I put the stitching a little closer to the center of the card, and I really like how that frames things.

The die cut pieces were then adhered to my cards.  You'll see that there aren't fully adhered, I like the movement/dimension you get when they aren't fully adhered.

The sentiments are from the Well Wishes and Spring in My Step sets.  They were stamped with Versafine Clair, and popped up over some gold thread.

I varied the placement of the branches in each of the cards to mix things up.

Finally, a few gold sequins completed the look.

That's all for me today.  Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release!