SSS Holiday Sparkle

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Happy Thursday!  The Holiday Sparkle release is now available at Simon Says Stamp, and it's definitely been helping me get my Christmas cards done!

I love the idea of mass producing cards, but I get bored making the same card repeatedly.  Today's cards are a solution to this boredom.  They follow a recipe, the same products are used in each, but they are all unique in their own way.

The focal point for these cards were created using the new Sweater Weather embossing folder/dies as well as another new product, Luxury cardstock.  This cardstock has a soft brushed feel that reminds me of fabric/leather.

I started by die cutting my Sweater Weatherr pieces from the soft brown/gray color.  There's a hat, a stocking, and two mittens.  There is also a die for the pom pom on the top of the hat, as well as the cuff of the stocking.  I cut those secondary pieces from the white Luxury cardstock as well as the bottom portions of both the mittens and hat because I wanted some contrast there.

Each of the pieces was then placed in the embossing folder and run through my die cutting machine.  For those bottom pieces, I just trimmed the piece down to create the 'cuffs' for the mittens and hat.

To really bring out the pattern of the embossing, I ran my white pigment ink pad across each of the pieces.  Don't they look so lifelike?

Because I knew I was going to pop these pieces up, and the Luxury cardstock is a little softer/less sturdy than normal cardstock, I also die cut pieces from cardstock to use as a base, and adhered the luxury cardstock pieces to those.

For my backgrounds, I stamped three different backgrounds onto red cardstock using Cherry ink, trimmed them down, and then added some white splatter.

For some extra pop, texture, and interest, I die cut the Harmony Snowflakes from white cardstock to use with each card.

The stocking card features the Dimensional Quilt background.  To ground my stocking, I cut the Large Rounded Tag die from a soft gray, added some twine, and adhered it directly to my background.

The snowflakes were adhered over top, and then the stocking as well as a sentiment from the Reverse Love Peace Joy sentiment strips were popped up with foam adhesive.

The hat card features the Large Kaledoscope background (currently unavailable).  The snowflakes were adhered directly to the background, and the hat and sentiment were popped up with foam adhesive.

This one looked a little stark, so I added a few clear sequins.

This final card features the Soft Plaid background.  This time I used two sets of snowflakes in the top left and bottom right corners, and also added a bit of twin connecting the mittens.

Just like with the other cards, the embossed pieces and sentiment were popped up with foam adhesive.

These were really fun to make!

You'll want to hop over to Simon to check out the whole release, which includes my latest Printmaking design, Printmaking Pines:

Be sure to swing back tomorrow as I'll be showing off this new set as part of Day 2 of the Holiday Sparkle blog hop.

See you then!

SSS Dimensional Quilt Take 2

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

For today's card I pulled out my Dimensional Quilt background again.  

I wanted to color it with watercolors.  I started by heat embossing it on some watercolor paper.  Then I colored/watercolored it using Distress Markers and a water pen.  I added a bit of color in each section, then used my water pen to spread the color out.

For this card I used Carved Pumpkin, Cracked Pistachio, and Dried Marigold.

I really like the terracotta tile look that resulted.

To finish things off, I adhered a cardstock mat to my card base and then popped the watercolored panel up over with with foam tape.

The sentiment is from the Spring in My Step stamp set.  It was stamped with Versafine, die cut and popped up over my watercolored panel. 

That's all for me today.  I'll have my March reading recap to share tomorrow.

SSS Hello Gorgeous Blog Hop - Dimensional Quilt

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp 

Hi all!  Today I'm participating in a blog hop celebrating Simon's latest Hello Gorgeous release.  As always, there are prizes!  One winner will be chosen from every stop along the way to receive a $25 gift certificate to shop the Simon store.  In addition, any orders placed between now and the 27th will receive a free Birthday Wishes stamp set with code HBD322.

You should have arrived here from Amy Rysavy, and I'll include the full list at the end of my post if you need it.

Today I'm showing off my latest design for Simon, Dimensional Quilt.

For this first card, I wanted to do some monochromatic coloring.

The background was stamped with Gina K Black Amalgam Ink and then colored with Copics.  I used BG78, BG75, BG72, and BG70.

Once I was done coloring, I placed my panel back into my stamping platform and stamped again with Versafine to just sharpen up the lines.

The panel was trimmed down.  There were a few places where I cut across a square shape, so there wasn't a line at the edge.  In those instances, I used a black journaling pen and very carefully added that line in at the edge of the panel.

I finished things off with a black mat and a sentiment from the Reverse Foundations Sentiment Strips.

For this next card, I wanted to do some piecing as well as show how you can create interesting shapes using just part of the background.

I started by stamping the Dimensional Quilt background on some scrap white paper, cutting out the shape that I wanted to piece for my base.

Next, the background was stamped onto five different prints from an old BasicGrey 6x6 pad.

The different shapes were then fussy cut, edges inked, and adhered to the base piece.

I've found that it's easiest to work from the center out helps in terms of not running into fit issues.  Occasionally you might need to trim the edge down a bit so that the lines fit.  If you cut on the very outside of your edges, you'll end up with a 'double' edge and things won't fit as well, so you need to try and cut towards the inside of the stamped lines.

The completed pieced image was popped up over a patterned paper mat with foam tape, and a sentiment from the Spring in My Step set finished things off.

OK, that's all for me today.  Your next stop is Bibi Cameron, and the full hop list is below.  Thanks so much for stopping by and happy hopping!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Laura Bassen
Debby Hughes
Amanda Korotkova
Amy Rysavy
Miriam Prantner
Bibi Cameron
Barbara Tarayao
Alberto Gava
Vicky Papaioannou
Heather Hoffman
Lea Lawson
Tina Smith
Emily Midgett
Jennifer Kotas
Seeka