SSS, Poinsettia Cover

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Today I'm working with my Poinsettia Cover. This is another great cover for mass production because you can mix and match colors, and the pieces are large and very easy to assemble. 

I love using metallics for Christmas cards, so I pulled out a bunch of my metallic Matte cardstocks. I due cut the cover plate from Gold, Silver, and Champagne. For this first card, I used Silver as the base, Gold for the leaves and dots, and Champagne for the petals.

the sentiment, from my Holiday Messages set, was gold embossed on Matte Silver, and die cut. The secondary sentiment, also from Holiday Messages, was gold embossed directly on the Silver base, and then I popped the die cut sentiment up with foam tape.

For the next card, I used the Matte Champagne piece as the base and then inlaid all of the Silver pieces.

I used my Joyful dies for the sentiment. The shadow piece that comes with the Joyful die is much wider, but I wanted a more streamline feel, so I used the coordinating die for the stamp set as the shadow piece and popped the completed sentiment up with foam tape.

I also added a few Cottontail embellishments to complete the card.

The previous two cards were a little more subtle and elegant, but I wanted this next card to be bolder, so I die cut the cover from a piece of Matte Red cardstock.  This time, I used Gold for the base, red for the petals, Champagne for the leaves, and then die cut a few extra Silver dots.

The joy die was cut from Matte Red with a Matte Gold shadow piece, and was then popped up with foam tape.

For my last card, I thought I would do something completely different, and go with a more rustic feel.

The cover was die cut from Kraft, and then I inked up all the die cut pieces using blending brushes.

I tried to keep the inking relatively light, because I wanted to preserve the kraft look. The petals were inked with Watermelon, the leaves with Fairway, and the dots with Honey.

The sentiments, from the Holiday Messages set, were inked with Lisa Horton Solid Gold ink.

Hope this gives you some good ideas for how to use this die. I can't believe it's almost time to send these out!

SSS Sunny Vibes Blog Hop

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy Saturday!  I'm hopping with Simon today celebrating the new Sunny Vibes release.  You should be arriving here from Keisha Charles' blog.  There are lots of prizes to be had on the hop.  Simon is giving away a $25 store credit to one commenter on every stop along the hop.  In addition, with any purchase of $50 or more, you can get the above stamp/die set for free using code HELLO.

OK, let's get on to the projects.  Today I'm featuring the new Tin Roof background stamp.  I've created a couple cards using a very simple inking technique that gives a grid based background a quilted look.

For this frst card, I stamped the background on a light peach piece of cardstock using Allspice ink.  I then used a scrap piece of cardstock as a mask, placing it along the diagonal and added some Paprika ink using a small blending brush.  This step was completed all along the panel.  I then turned the panel and repeaed the procedure in the other direction.  By doing this you are essentially inking two adjoining sides of each of the squares.  The trick is to not over ink and focus the inking right along the pattern line. 

To add some sparkle and interest, I adhered some flat sequins in the corners of each of the squares using the Candy Hearts mix.  I think this gives it almost an upholstered look.

The Fancy Thanks die was cut from Matte Champagne cardstock and I swiped Allspice ink over white cardstock for the shadow piece.  These were adhered together and then popped up with fam tape.

Next I thought I would create a Christmas card.  This time I started with a panel of white cardstock, stamped with Grass ink, and then added the inking using Lime ink.

For my sentiment, I pulled out the Joyful die.  The shadow piece was die cut from white cardstock and a scrap of green cardstock that I had.  I then took the white piece and die cut the sentiment itself from the center of it adhering the remaining outlined piece to the green shadow piece.

I then cut the sentiment itself from red cardstock, and inlaid the j, y, f, and l.  The o and u from the previous die cutting were inked with Lime and then inlaid as well.  The finished piece was then popped up with foam tape.

I added a secondary sentiment from the Joyful Greetings set which was white embossed and also popped up with foam tape.

That's all from me, but there is so much more to see.  Your next stop is Heather Ruwe's blog, and I have the full hop list below if you need it.  Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to with the $25 from my blog.  Winners will be announced on the Simon blog next week.  Happy Hopping!

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Laura Bassen

Cathy Zielske

Nichol Spohr

Barbara Tarayao

Mindy Eggen

Emily Midgett

Yana Smakula

Keisha Charles

Miriam Prantner

Heather Ruwe

Bibi Cameron

Lea Lawson

Bobbi Lemanski

Jennifer Kotas

SSS All the Joy, Snow Pattern Stencil

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Hi folks!  I've got a couple cards to share today that show off a fun way to step up your stencils using the Snow Pattern stencil from the All the Joy release.

I started by inking the stencil in Morning for the blue background and Bubblegum for the pink.

Next, I chose a Copic marker in a darker shade of each, and carefully colored the thin openings around the snowflakes.  I used B93 for the blue, and V05 for the pink.

Then, some white splatter was added to each of the backgrounds.  Once dry, these were adhered directly to my card bases.

For the blue card, I used the Large Joy die.  The sentiment itself as well as the the shadow piece were cut from white cardstock, but the sentiment piece was colored with that same coordinating Copic marker.

The sentiment was popped up with foam tape, and I added a secondary sentiment from the From Me Christmas sentiment strips.

For the pink card I used my Joyful die.  Both pieces were cut from white cardstock.  I colored the letters with that same V05 Copic marker, and softened the shadow piece by adding a bit of Bubblegum inking.

The finished piece was then popped up over my background.

These were lots of fun to make, I really love this delicate new stencil!

SSS All the Joy, Joyful Die

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've got a couple of card to share today featuring my new Joyful die from the All the Joy release.

This is a great CAS sentiment that I think is the perfect size.  It's large enough to command the full card, but small enough that it doesn't cover up too much of a focal point background.

For my first card, I used the berry bunches from the Winter Wishes set to stamp along the bottom of my card, creating almost a frame for my sentiment.  I used Cherry for the berries and Mocha for the branches.

The sentiment was cut from red cardstock and the shadow piece was cut from white.  These were adhered together and then popped up with foam tape over my background.  The secondary sentiment is from the Christmas Wishes Sentiment Strips.

Next I thought it would be fun to make a shaker.  Because none of the letters in the sentiment is connected to the other, they all create little windows when die cut from the center of a panel.

I started by gold embossing the Not Quite a Dot background on white cardstock, and then inking the panel with Distress Inks.  I used Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Rustic Wilderness.

I then die cut the sentiment from the center of the panel.

I wanted to really play up the gold, so I used a piece of Matte Gold cardstock for the shaker base.  This was adhered directly to my card base.

Foam tape was then used to create the 'well' for the shaker as well as around the edges to adhere the front panel to the card base and mat.  I also added a piece of clear acetate behind the die cut sentiment, adhering the center of the 'o' directly to that acetate.

I filled my shaker well with a variety of sequins and then adhered the font panel over top.

I really love how that Matte Gold in the background give this a very glowy look.  

I'm marching along with my Christmas card creating!  This release has done a lot to help me get back on track!