SSS, Grad Basics

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

The new Grad Basics sentiment set came out just in time for me!  I normally have a few graduation cards to make each year, but this year my oldest graduates which means so do most of her friends, which means I need a lot more cards!

When I need cards in a hurry, stencils are my best friend.  I pulled out a few favorites to create fun, colorful backgrounds, and finished things off with a sentiment from the Grad Basics set.

For these first two cards, I tilted the Positivity stencil when putting it over my cardstock panel, and then inked with two colors: Pucker and Citrine for the card on the left, and Cabbage and Sky for the card on the right.  All my sentiments were stamped with Versafine Clair black.

For below left, I used the Dimensional Cube stencils with Bubblegum, Carnation, Violet, Orchid, and Sky.  The card on the right uses the Dimensional Rectangles stencils with Sky, Dusk, and Flannel (I used Sky twice inking one layer with a lighter hand than the other).

Next up. I used the Stepped Back Blocks stencil on the left, with Ocean, Mist and Raindrop, and 3D Box stencils with Sky, Dusk, Night, and Twilight, using several of those colors multiple times.

Finally, I pulled out the Giant Firework stencil, which is a good one to have in your stash just because it works for all celebrations.  For the card on the right, I inked Blush and Butter.

For the card on the left,  couldn't resist pulling out Stickles Solar Flare Glitter Gel.  In addition to the 'regular' sparkle, there are fun star shaped pieces in this gel which make is especially festive.  

That's all for me today.  We're off to graduation tomorow night!

SSS Rainbow Splash Inks

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Like most of you, my appetite for inks is greater than my budget for inks.  I've been eyeing the Rainbow Splash inks since Simon released them last year, and I was finally able to pick them up this month.

There are 13 inks in the set.  I was looking for a quick and easy way to try out most of them, so I pulled out my Dimensional Rectangles stencils.  

There are four stencils in this set, and for each of these cards I used two colors for each layer.  One color was inked from the top left corder of my stencil diagonally across to the center area, and the other color (the darker one) was inked from the bottom right diagonally across to the center.

For the card on the left, I used the following color combinations:  Princess and Crimson, Pumpkin and Dandelion, Lime and Grass, and Lake and Heather.

This one came out a lot more colorful than I anticipated, but I love how bold it is.  To soften it a bit, I added some dark splatter and used a black card base.

The Chin Up die is one of my favorite new ones, and I die cut the sentiment itself from white cardstock and the shadow from black.  After adhering them together, they were popped up over my background with foam tape.

For the next card, I narrowed down the color families a little bit going with a lighter and darker shade of each color family.  I used Ballet and Princess, Canary and Dandelion, Lime and Grass, and Lake and Sea.

This time I used the pattern horizontally, added a black mat, and the Hugs and Kisses sentiment which was also popped up with foam tape.

This was a really fun way to take these new inks out for a spin.  There were two that I didn't get to use yet, Scarlet and Emerald, but I am sure they will be soon!

SSS Kisses, Slay

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Hi friends!  My delayed Simon Says Stamp package arrived along with my latest designs from the Kisses release.  Today's cards feature my new Slay die.

I created two similar, but different cards to share today.

For each card, I added a bit of inking to the tops and bottoms of my alphas.  This is a little more subtle in the card where I cut the letters from colored cardstock, but I think it adds just a bit of depth to the die cuts.

I used the same inks for both cards:  Cherry, Tidepool, and Aegean.

Once I had finished adding the inking, I fit the letters together.  I found this was easiest to do from right to left because the letters line up against each other more on the right side so they serve as a guide for one another.

For the second card, I actually die cut two shadow pieces, then die cut the sentiment from the center of one.  The second shadow piece was used as my base, and the other pieces were then inlaid together on top of it.

To finish off my die cut sentiments, I created some fun backgrounds.

The first card features my Dimensional Rectangles stencils which were inked with a light layer of Cherry, a heave layer of Cherry, and then Tidepool and Aegean.

The background was then trimmed down and adhered to my card base, and the sentiment was popped up over top.

For the second card, I cut a panel of white cardstock and die cut the shadow piece from the center.  This piece was then embossed using the Crystal Distortion embossing folder and popped up with foam tape over my card base.  I actually embossed this panel upside down, but decided I really liked the look of the reverse side, so just went with it.

I finished things off by inlaying the sentiment piece in the center of the frame and adhering it to the card base with foam tape.

Hope your week is going well!

SSS DieCember Blog Hop, Dimensional Rectangles

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy Saturday!  Today I'm taking part in a fun hop showing off the new DieCember release from Simon Says Stamp.  You should be arriving from Alberto Gava's blog, but I'll have the full blog hop list at the end of this post if you need it.

It's not a good hop if there aren't prizes right?  Not only is Simon offering the Merry on a Line die set for free with any $25 purchase this weekend (use code MERRY at checkout), but they'll be choosing one commenter from every step along the hop to receive $25 to spend in the store!  

My cards feature my latest design for Simon, Dimensional Rectangles.  It's a set of four stencils that create this really fun background.

My first couple cards show off the basic design of the stencil.  For the green card, I used Aspen, Sage, Pine, and Flannel inks.  These were stenciled over a very subtle patterned paper.  

The finished panel was trimmed down, matted, and added to my card base.  I finished things off with the Yay You sentiment die and a secondary sentiment from the Reverse Yay sentiment strips.

For the blue version, I used that same patterned paper again, but this time used Morning, Twilight, Galaxy, and Flannel ink

The sentiment is from the XL Stacked Greetings set.

Because I stenciled on 6x6 paper, I had a couple rows of each of the blue and green pattern left from the previous cards, and I didn't want those to go to waste, so for this next card, I adhered the strips to a base piece of white cardstock, alternating the colors and offsetting the pattern.

I used the Basic Box Card Happy Birthday die for the sentiment, inking up a piece of white cardstock with Twilight and just a bit of Galaxy ink to get that ombre look before die cutting the sentiment.

It's December, so I really couldn't get away without creating a couple Christmas cards.

To do so, I did some selective inking with the stencils to create borders to frame each of my sentiments.  This is pretty easy to do since the rectangles are in rows, so masking off is easy.

For this first card, I used Celery, Limelicious, and Pearfection ink, and gold embossed the last layer.

The sentiment once again features my go to Merry and Bright die along with that fantastic Matte Gold cardstock.  I also used the stars that come with the die set to add a bit of embellishment, again with the Matte Gold.

This next card features Celery, Limelicious, and Watermelon ink along with a final gold embossed layer.

The sentiment is from the Holiday Greetings set and was also embossed in gold.

That's all for me today, but your next stop is Anna-Karin Evaldsson, and I have the full hop list below if you need it.  Enjoy all the inspiration and have a great weekend!

Simon Says Stamp Blog <<YOU ARE HERE!
Laura Bassen
Debby Hughes
Alberto Gava
Miriam Prantner
Anna-Karin Evaldsson
Amanda Korotkova
Mindy Eggen
Emma Williams
Cheiron Brandon
Heather Hoffman
Emily Midgett
Lea Lawson
Sandi MacIver
Kim Hamilton