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

Lunar New Year Challenge

 

Happy first day of May!  I'm guest designing this month for the Lunar New Year Challenge.  

The is one of those great challenges that allow you to use whatever you might have in your stash.  No rules, just create a Lunar New Year card.  There are sponsors each month, and prizes too, but no requirements to use anything in particular.  This month's sponsors are Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn, My Favorite Things, and Catherine Pooler.  Be sure to stop by the blog to access this month's link up and get the details on the prizes being offered.

Because it's the year of the dragon, and I happen to be a dragon, I had to make a dragon card.

I pulled out one of my favorite dragon stamps, Magical Dragons from MFT, and stamped the dragon and clouds on Neenah Solar White cardstock using Gina K Black Amalgam ink.  The images were then colored with Copics.  I used C1 and C3 to add a little depth to the clouds and R89, R39, R35, and R29 for the dragon as well as Y17, Y38, and YR24.  The reds on the dragon felt a little too red for me, so I muted them by coloring E07 over all the red areas.  The images were then fussy cut and set aside.

The die I used in the background is an older Spellbinders die, Chinese Knot Frame.  I cut it three times, centered on a 4 1/4" square piece of paper, and then from red and yellow cardstock.  I then created an inlaid background mixing the colors together to incorporate the red outline piece and some yellow sections.

I arranged the colored pieces over top to get the spacing right and then stamped the sentiment, from Simon Says Stamp's Joyful Greetings set.

The colored pieces were then adhered.  The large cloud and small cloud on the left were adhered directly to the card, and the dragon and small cloud were popped up with foam tape.

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to stop by the Lunar New Year Challenge blog to get all the details on how to link up your card and be entered to win!

SSS DieCember, Joyful Greetings

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Happy first day of DieCember!  Have you checked out the new DieCember release from Simon Says Stamp?  I've got a couple of items in this release including the Joyful Greetings stamp set that coordinates with the Joyful die released last month.

This bold sentiment is the perfect focal point for a card, and when used with stencils creates nice flat mailable cards.  I've got a few examples to share with you today.

This first card features the Village stencils.  The house layers were inked with Bubblegum, Morning, Sweets, and Twilight.  For the windows, I just placed the stencil over my panel, and used a white gel pen to fill in the windows.  

I then stamped the main sentiment along with a couple of secondary sentiments with black Versa Clair ink in the center of my panel.

These next two cards feature the previously released Berries and Leaves stencil, one of my favorites!

I did this two ways.  First, very clean and simple.  The stencil was placed over a blue panel and inked with Royal ink.  I did add just a bit of additional Royal inking around the edges of my panel, but not a ton.

I used my heating to make sure all of the ink was dry so I wouldn't have any issues with stray embossing powder, and then embossed the sentiment in gold in the center of the wreath.

For the green version of the card, I started by inking a panel in greens using Fairway, Field, and Pine.  I was not trying to get a very deep rich color for this.

Once that was done, I placed the stencil over the panle, and using the same colors, inked through the stencil.

After again ensuring that the panel was fully dried using my heat tool, I embossed the sentiment in gold.

I added a bit of gold splatter to finish things off.

This last card features the Holy City stencils.

There are two 'sets' of stencils here, one which adds the buildings and trees, and a second that adds the windows.  I offset these two sets vertically and VERY lightly inked each, lighter for the one that is higher on the panel, and slightly darker one that is lower and in the foreground.

It's hard to pick up in the photo, but I also used the fourth stencil, the starry sky, at the top of my panel.

I used Cadette for the card on the left, and Royal for the one one on the right.

The sentiment was then embossed with silver ink.

These were really very quick and easy to create.

Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release. lots of good stuff in there!