SSS Rain or Shine Blog Hop

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today I'm hopping with Simon Says Stamp celebrating the new Rain or Shine release. You should be arriving here from Yana Smakula's blog, and I'll have the full hop list below for you. As usual, Simon is giving away a $25 store credit on every stop along the hop.  All you need to do to be entered is leave a comment.  In addition, any order of $23 or more this weekend will receive a Balloon Bouquet die.  Why $23?  Well it's Simon's 23rd birthday this month.  

Today I'm showing off my newest stamp set, Mod Plants.  There are also a couple of coordinating products: dies as well as stencils that perfectly frame the different plant images.

First up a very simple one layer card set.  There are two stencils in the coordinating stencil set, and I picked out two shades of ink in several different colors (Cabbage and Artichoke, Petunia and Pansy, Nutmeg and Paprika, and Morning and Dusk). I used the lighter for the larger square, and the darker for the inner square.  The plant images were then stamped with Versa Clair black ink as were the sentiments which are all from the set.

These were super quick and easy to create and make for a great card set.

Next up, a dramatic tone on tone card.

For this card, I stamped just one of the images with Versafine four times on dark green cardstock, and clear embossed.  The images were then die cut with the coordinating die, arranged on a panel of the same colored cardstock, and adhered with foam adhesive.  The excess portions were trimmed off and used to fill in some of the edge areas on my panel.

The sentiment, also from the set, was gold embossed on the same dark green and also adhered with two layers of foam tape.

I went with the same color for the card base itself as well.  One tip: I could see the white foam tape when viewing the edges of the card which I didn't love, so I used a G29 Copic to color the edges of the white foam tape so that it blends in with that dark green. 

For this last card, i wanted a slightly rustic feel.

The plant image was stamped on a piece of natural cream cardstock with Distress Oxides.  I used Wild Honey and Crackling Campfire for the flower itself, blending the colors out a bit with my foam blending tool.  Similarly, the stem/leaves was stamped with Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn.

After stamping the sentiments, I thought we needed a bit of contrast with the frame (created using the Nested Domed Arches dies), so I added some soft blending to the stamped panel using Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide.

The frame was popped up with foam tape for a bit of dimension.

That's all for me today, but your next step on the hop is Mindy Eggen, and the full hop list is below.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win the $25 store credit. Good luck, and enjoy the hop!

Simon Says Stamp Blog  
Nina-Marie Trapani
Barbara Tarayao
Cathy Zielske
Laura Bassen
Heather Hoffman
Keisha Charles
Heather Ruwe
Yana Smakula
Miriam Prantner
Mindy Eggen
Jean Doeringsfeld
Kim Hamilton
Maura Hibbitts
Samantha Pfrimmer
Hanh Nguyen