That's Life: Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Blog Hop

Monday, 8 September 2014

Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember blog hop! The Monday Challenge blog team has a fabulous hop for you all to join in with and it all starts, HERE on Andrea's blog!

Simon Says Stamp was founded in 2002 with an interest in exclusively selling rubber stamps. It didn’t take long until we realized we couldn’t stop there. For more than 10 years we have celebrated rubber stamping and its glory. We work to bring companies from around the world together in a one stop shopping environment. Rubber stamps still remain the heart of our business and we are celebrating by hosting a “STAMPtember®" event intended to inspire, educate, and celebrate the delight of rubber stamping. Part of the enticement of rubber stamping is that stamps can be used in creating or complementing ANYTHING! From stamping dates on bank documents and postage parcels in the early 18th century, rubber stamping has dramatically expanded to include card making, scrapbooking, mixed media and many forms of altering and expressing art.

So for this week's Monday challenge, we challenge you to....use any Simon Says Stamp Exclusive product and I couldn't resist using the gorgeous Sketched Alphabet stamp set. The font of this set is just beautiful and for my extra special card, I combined this stamp set with a Wendy Vecchi set.

To begin with I wanted to create the chalkboard background, so I took a piece of black card, die cut the top section of the card using the Torn Notebook On The Edge die and then, inked up the letters, "L.O.V.E" with a clear embossing ink pad and stamped them along the bottom section of my card. I then dusted Perfect Pearls over the top of the wet ink and gently brushed away the excess. The Perfect Pearls will stick to the wet ink to reveal the lettering but it will also give the dusty effect of a chalkboard. To create the polka dot background, I used the full stop from the stamp set, inked with a clear embossing ink pad and stamped it over my background. I then applied the Perfect Pearls over the top and dusted away the excess. After machine stitching around the edge of the card, I mounted it onto a piece of red cardstock, wrapped a piece of hand dyed ribbon around the matted card layers, securing the ends at the back and then attached the completed background to the front of my card blank.

Next, I inked up the image from Wendy's stamp set using black Archival Ink and stamped this onto watercolour card. I painted the image using Distress Marker Pens and used Tim's Ovals dies, to give me my lovely shaped topper. I used a black pen to add faux stitching around the outside, inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then attached this to my card front with foam pads.

I hand dyed some more ribbon using Distress Stains and tied this into a bow, attaching a brass key charm, which I coloured with Distress Paints.

To complete the card, I die cut two hearts from grungeboard, using Tim's Mini Hearts Movers and Shapers die and painted these with Festive Berries Distress Paint. I applied a layer of Rock Candy Crackle Paint over the top and once the paint was dry, I added a small amount of Fired Brick Distress Stain, to seep into the crackles to enhance them. I attached the hearts using foam pads and added an arrow adornment to the centre of the arrangement.

Finally, I added some corners from the Industrious Stickers, Frames and Trims pack.

I always think that it's nice to have the inside of my card decorated too and it also makes a nice surprise for the recipient.

For this particular card, I added a surprise message. I stamped the word, "YOU" and the polka dots onto black card, using the same technique of the embossing ink pad and Perfect Pearls, as I used on the front of the card. I then attached this onto the inside and added an arrow through the "O".

I hope you loved this card, as much as I loved creating it.

The next stop on this hop is the fabulous May Flaum

As always, if you're looking for some more great ideas and inspiration, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from my very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....