20.02.2015

Hop To It with Simon Says Stamp

Hop To It

So you’ve probably seen the sneaky peeks popping up all over Instagram and Facebook but today the Hop To It release from Simon Says Stamp is finally available to purchase.  There is such a fabulous range of products included in this release – amazing stamp sets, dies and stencils – it’s got something for everyone!

I was very privileged to be sent a few goodies to play with and was immediately drawn to the Abby’s Spring Showers stamp set and dies.  I love the simple style of Abby and had to include her cute little bunny, they are so fun to colour!  I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her around blogland!

Hop To It 1

 

Rumours have it there is s pretty special blog hop happening soon over on the Simon Says Stamp blog so I suggest you pop on over there, grab a cuppa and enjoy some fabulous inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by xxx


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18.02.2015

Simon Says … Add a little texture.

 

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Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Thank you for joining us for the All Creatures Great And Small Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is

ADD A LITTLE TEXTURE

We are showcasing our very own SIMON SAYS STAMP EXCLUSIVE PRODUCTS this week. You don’t have to use them to join in but if you have some we would love to see them used

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

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When I thought of texture I was immediately drawn towards my embossing pastes and stencils.  Then I thought I’d go and dig about in my stash and came across some jars of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) that I’ve had sitting about for YEARS.  I haven’t really played with it in forever and I even found I had a jar of white UTEE that I’d never even opened!!  I took my Simon Says Stamp Large Tag dies and cut one from thick coaster board.  I used Versamark and gave it a good coat of ink and then poured on my first layer of white UTEE.  I heat embossed it and then repeated it 4 more times.  I wanted to “impress” my image into the UTEE so I took the Summer Garden stamp set and inked up one of the flowers and leaf images with Simon Says Stamp Mint dye ink.  I then heated the UTEE again so it was liquid and then carefully (but quickly) stamped the images on it in one go.  You then have to leave the stamps in place while the embossing enamel cools and then you can carefully peel them away. This technique isn’t the easiest to do as you need to be quite quick with your stamp block to get a deep impression – the UTEE starts to cool down quite quickly!  I love the finished look you get – I think I’ll be playing a bit more with my enamels in the future!  Incidentally, you can achieve the very same effect with normal embossing powder – you just need to add few more layers!

Texture SSS

For the rest of the card I created a white A2 card base from Neenah white card and cut a panel from Simon Says Stamp Mint cardstock.  I splattered the card with some Mister Huey Calico Shine to try to mute the colour down a bit.  It was still a bit vibrant for the effect I was after so I cut a piece of vellum and tore one edge to reveal the card stock underneath.  This softened the Mint colour  so it didn’t overpower the focal point of the card.  I finished with some enamel dots from My Mind’s Eye 🙂

 

So now it’s YOUR turn, Happy Crafting
 
You have until Wed  8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in
No backlinking allowed, Only 5 new creations will be eligible in the prize draw

word-verif

 


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11.02.2015

Simon Says …All Creatures Great and Small

wed-newchallenge-header

Hi all and welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Thank you for joining us for the All Things Bright and Beautiful Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

We would like to see animals on your creations this week.

We are showcasing PAPER SMOOCHES PRODUCTS this week. You don’t have to use them to join in but if you have some we would love to see them used

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away $50 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store

50dollar_voucher_600px

I’m loving the smaller scale of these little 4-bar sized cards I’ve been making recently – they’re so cute!  For my interpretation of the challenge I looked to the smallest creatures of all – microbes!  In a previous life I obtained a degree in microbiology so this stamp set, Healthy Vibes from Paper Smooches is really quite appropriate!!  I stamped each of the bugs onto a sheet of gorgeous Taylored Expressions paper from the new Rainbow Brights paper pack and fussy cut them out.  I then took the Borders 1 dies and cut my white front card panel across the bottom third with one of the dies (the heartbeat one – no idea of the technical name??).  With a strip of one of the other papers from the same pack I placed it behind the gap.  I then simply stamped the greeting and popped the little bugs onto the front with foam adhesive and added some googly eyes – for which I never need an excuse!!!

all creatures great and small

 

So now it’s YOUR turn, Happy Crafting
 
You have until Wed  8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in
No backlinking allowed, Only 5 new creations will be eligible in the prize draw

word-verif


Posted By 19 Comments