For The Love Of Plants ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hey everyone!

Welcome to a new week here on my blog and to a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog! This week our challenge is all about "For The Love Of Plants" and whether you stamp a tree, stencil a leaf pattern or use a floral embellishment ~ we challenge you to do something with a plant and can't wait to see what you create!

For my project, I chose to make a piece of home decor. The brand new Watering Can die from Tim Holtz had just arrived in the craft room and how could I resist not using it for this challenge, it was a match made in heaven and works so well combining it with a few other pieces to make this wall hanging! Hope you enjoy the tutorial of how I made it...

To begin with I took a 6" square MDF frame that I had in my stash and gave it a coat of gesso before adding some colour to the frame using Weathered Wood Distress Paint. Once the paint was dry, I used my finger tip to add some Frayed Burlap around the edges, I only wanted a light application so my finger works perfectly for this! After a blast with a heat tool I then applied some Picket Fence Distress Paint to my Cracks stamp and stamped directly onto the frame. When using any Distress Paint on stamps, please make sure to clean them straightaway as the paint will be much harder to remove if left!

Once the stamped cracks were dry, I then inked up the stamp again using Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival Ink and lightly stamped a few more cracks directly to the frame.

For the next stage, I wanted to create a bricked wall effect and for this cut a piece of card to fit into the recess of my frame. I applied Texture Paste through the Brick Wall Layering Stencil, allowed the paste to dry before dry brushing over the top with Pumice Stone Distress Paint.

When completely dry, attach the "wall" section onto the centre of your frame. As a finishing touch to the frame, I added some metal corners which I painted with Picket Fence Distress Paint.

Now, came the fun bit and time to create all those beautiful embellishments.

I started by die cutting my petals using the Tattered Garland Strip die (at this point I didn't have the Tiny Tattered Florals die but this would work just as well). I love layering my flowers to make dimensional blooms and for this you will probably need about three sets of die cuts to create small and larger sized flowers. Once you have enough flowers and leaves, it's time to add some colour and for this I used a combination of Victorian Velvet, Mustard Seed and Spice Marmalade Distress Spray Stains. For the leaves I used Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. Dry all your die cut pieces using a heat gun and then start layering up each of the pieces to create dimensional blooms, shaping the petals to give a more realistic look.

For the watering can I added some metal tape over the top of grungepaper and die cut each section. Apply a small amount of Black Soot Distress Paint over the top of the die cuts, leave the paint to become slightly tacky in consistency before wiping away some of the paint to create a vintage worn look of galvanised steel to the die cut. For the band that fits across the watering can, I added some Tarnished Brass over the top before wiping away the excess. Attach the band to the watering can and then add four small dots of Liquid Pearls to give the appearance of rivets.

For the final set of embellishments, I used some Letterpress words to spell Garden and applied Spun Sugar and Wild Honey Distress Paint over the top of the letters. Once dry, attach the letters across the bottom section of frame recess and place the watering can above. 

Attach all the larger layered flowers around the wooden blocks...

...and add the smaller blooms to the watering can, placing the leaves and foliage between the flowers. 

Add some dried moss and pop some pearls in the centres of each flower.

Finally, I added a hanger to the frame and popped a Chit Chat Sticker into the bracket.

Now all that I need to do is hang my piece of home decor in pride of place!

I really hope you've enjoyed how I created this garden panel and if you love your garden as much as I do, this is a beautiful way of celebrating it all year around. 

If you need any further inspiration for this challenge, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the 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....

Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Stamps: Cracks & Specks

Tim Holtz Dies: Tattered Garland Die, Watering Can

Distress Paint: Tarnished Brass, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot, Picket Fence, Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone, Spun Sugar, Wild Honey

Distress Spray Stain: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Victorian Velvet, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters

Tim Holtz Bricked Layering Stencil

Mediums: Ranger Texture Paste, Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival Ink, Pewter Liquid Pearls

Idea-Ology: Chit Chat Stickers, Letterpress Blocks, Metal Corners

Embellishments: Kaisercraft Chocolate Pearls, Ivory Pearls, Hanger

Surfaces: White Card, Metal Tape, Grungepaper

Ranger Craft Sheet

Heat Gun

Big Shot

Blending Tool

Dried Moss and MDF frame from my stash