Simon Says Stamp Mini Haul
Hi friends!! Ok, I know I said I wasn’t going to be posting for a bit, but I just have one more fun little post to share with you. I have a video of this haul on my YouTube channel which you can access by clicking here. I just want to share with you my latest Simon Says Stamp order. There’s some really cute stamp sets here!!
I’ll list each item with a link in case you want to check it out.
This first stamp set is called Bring the Sunshine by SSS. The main reason I wanted this set is because I really like the big sentiment there on the left. “You are my sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.” I have a painting in my guest bathroom that has this song painted on it and I just love it! It makes me happy when I see it.
I just got some Halloween twine so that I can start making some Halloween card. This is simply called Halloween by Tim Holtz Idea-ology.
I absolutely adore this set called Fawning Over You by Memory Box/Poppy Stamps. Those little deer are so darn cute!! So is the little boat and the trampoline!
I’ve been eyeing this one since it came out so it was only a matter of time before I had it in my hot little hands… bwahahaha (That’s my evil Halloween laugh right there. Just envision it sounding really scary…)
I’ve been seeing so many cute panda stamp sets lately!! And I want them all!!! This one stood out to me because I really like that you get several different pandas, but you also get a mailbox and a mail bin and a cute little stack of packages and individual letters. All those images are versatile and can be used for many different types of cards. This set is called Incoming Mail by Mama Elephant.
I also got the Stitched Banners die by SSS because I liked that they are wide enough for a sentiment and short enough that I won’t have to always cut an end off of them. I also have Stitched Fishtail Flags by My Favorite Things and I like them as well. They’re longer and thinner than this set from SSS.
I was thinking ahead for super easy Christmas cards when I added this to my order. We only send out about 50 Christmas cards (when I actually send them) but the easier, the better. Right? This is called Village by SSS. I might even try and play around with this for a Halloween card… The wheels are turning.
I couldn’t resist this ADORABLE unicorn set!! I LOVE these unicorns. I love the little wings that you can add to them and the castle. This is Magical Unicorns by My Favorite Things. My favorite sentiment though, is “Write Your Own Fairy Tale”. There’s just something about that sentence that warms my heart and gives me butterflies at the same time.
I FINALLY got the Sophisticated Script Uppercase set by Concord & 9th!!! I LOVE my SS lowercase and could not WAIT until this came out, but then life happened and I kept forgetting about it. Until now. I’m really looking forward to using this with the lowercase set. I’ve really been wanting to learn how to do lettering but I just don’t have the time these days so until I learn how to do my own lettering, this set along with the lowercase set will help me fake it.
And last but certainly not least are these two lovely felt sets by Taylored Expressions. They were on sale at SSS and I’ve been wanting to give them a try so I bought these two to try out. I really like the colors and wanted to know how they felt (hehe, get it?) Some felts that I’ve handled are kind of rough. These are actually quite soft. I was impressed.
And that is my Simon Says Stamp order, ladies and gentlemen!! I hope you saw something here that maybe you hadn’t seen before or wasn’t sure about and now you are. Or you just like checking out crafty hauls.. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this post and if you’d like to see the items up close and personal, please take a look at my video on my YouTube channel by clicking here. Thanks!!
This was actually perfect timing because I had the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge rolling around in my head which was called “Emboss It” this week so I started this card with embossing on my mind. I used 
I used my Copic markers to color the lovely flower (V12, V15, V17). I wasn’t paying attention to staying in the lines because I knew I’d be cutting it out.
It drives me nuts when I forget to do this tiny little step. It makes such a huge difference when you’re not the best fussy cutter to go around the edge of your image with a black marker. I used my Memento black marker to do this, but any marker will suffice.
I used 
I decided to use my favorite 
I had originally planned on using this 
I finally realized it was the black trimmed flower that wasn’t working for me. Once I decided to heat emboss the flower to match the rest of the card, I was on a roll!!
So I colored the flower once again and fussy cut it out, once again and I was back in business.
All I had left to do was add some fun foam to the back of the card front and also behind the stitched strip where the sentiment was. I chose a really pretty purple card stock from my paper stash that matched the flower beautifully.
I dropped the Clustered Leaves and added a few 
As lost as I was when I first set out to CASE this one, I actually had a lot of fun making it. Dawn does such a beautiful job of explaining everything as she goes along. I NEVER would have attempted this if it hadn’t been for this class. I highly recommend everyone taking 
The products I used for this card were, of course, WPlus9’s Coming Up Roses and Spring Blooms. I used several distress inks as well. I haven’t really used either of these stamps sets yet until now. How horrible is that?!? I’ll be honest with you, I was pretty intimidated by them!! I’m not really a floral person so I just wasn’t really sure how to make them look amazing, like everyone else I see that uses them does… They are absolutely beautiful stamp sets though. I look forward to using them again.
This experience brought a whole new level of love to my distress inks. I knew how amazing they were for ink blending and watercoloring, but I’ve never really used them like this before. When I’ve watercolored with them, it’s mostly for backgrounds or to color an image in. But to actually stamp the image in the color I’m using to fill the image, I don’t think I’ve done that before. You gotta remember, I’m still a newbie at card making. I’m only a little under a year and a half in so there’s sooo many techniques I haven’t even experienced yet!! That was a huge part of why I wanted to start a blog. I wanted to keep track of all the new experiences I have.
From a distance, this doesn’t look all that bad!! I NEVER in a million years would have imagined that I made this card. ME! I’m still in shock. I can’t even express to you how grateful I am for these online card classes. They’re simply amazing. If I can go from never before watercoloring florals, to this card I’m sharing with you today, just by watching this class, AND on my first try, then anyone can do this. Anyone!! Yes, they are THAT good. I would put money on it.
But like I said, I won’t go into too much detail on this one. If you want to make this beautiful card or are interested in learning how to watercolor, then you definitely want to check this class out.
So let’s start with the Spring Flowers set since that was my intention. I wanted to play around with some different watercoloring techniques. I started out with my Zig watercolor brushes. I quickly learned that they are NOT my favorite. And that’s not to say they won’t end up being my favorite, but for now, let’s just say I didn’t spend too much time with them. I am an equal opportunist however, and I do intend to spend a little more time with them because I think if I actually learned how to use them, I might just change my mind about how I feel towards them..
Then I moved on to my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. I knew I liked these, I just love how vibrant the colors can be. Or they can be muted down by adding more water. At this point I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in the lines or just cover the image with color. So I did a little of both. I still had no idea what I was going to do with all these images.. Truth be told, I still don’t. But that’s ok! 
Next, I busted out my Mission watercolor palette and dabbled in a few different color combos. I really haven’t watercolored that much in my whole year and 5 months of card making experience. I was more experimenting with combining colors and seeing what would happen if I added this color to that or more water or less. This thought process is what lead me to take a peak at the Online Card Classes Watercolor class. I purchased the class quite a while ago, but haven’t really had time to play around with it just yet. Before I got totally sidetracked, I played with a couple more watercolor techniques. Next on my list was Distress Inks!!
I’d say this is my favorite technique so far!! It just doesn’t get any easier than this. I really liked Peeled paint and Mowed Lawn for the leaves. And Victorian Velvet made for such a beautiful mauve colored rose. 
Lastly, before moving on to my Copics, I used my distress inks one last time to do some ink blending. I think I am in love with ink blending. You can have two totally different colors come together and blend so flawlessly, it’s almost magical. And it’s not just distress inks that you can do this with. I used many Simon Says Stamp ink pads as well. I cut these in rows so that I didn’t cross contaminate the colors and also so that I got that really bright concentrated color at the base of the flower. 
Once I was done with the coloring, I fussy cut all the images out. I tried cutting them out using my Scan N Cut, but it just wasn’t working out for me so I fussy cut them instead. These were pretty basic shapes so fussy cutting wasn’t a problem for me. It’s definitely not my first choice, but at this point, it was my only choice.. And just when you thought you’ve had enough…
I bring in the Copics!!!
There’s just something about copic coloring that totally melts me heart. I love the control I have, I love the flicking in color, I love all the different possibilities, and bringing a black and white image to life. I love everything about them!!! 
I could color for days without coming up for air. And I probably would if it weren’t for this little thing called a FAMILY that I have to tend to. I can’t believe school is starting on Monday already!! Where did this summer go?!!?
And then when all the coloring was complete, the real fun began. Picking and choosing which colors to put together and which flowers go with what… Can watercolored flowers be mixed with copic colored flowers??
Check out all this color!! I LOVE it!! And then a card started to take shape.
I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it took me awhile to figure out how to keep that cute little curly cue in the long, straight leaves. I didn’t want a one layered card and I knew I wouldn’t be able to cut around that tiny little thing, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I stamped the leaves on the card front and then layered another colored image over the top!! Voila!! Problem solved. 
To finish this off, I added some foam adhesive behind some of the images and the sentiment. I attached a few sequins here and there and some mini rhinestones on the 3 smallest flowers to add some sparkle. I used the Spectrum Noir Crystal Clear glitter pen on all of the flowers which gave it even more sparkle. The sentiment came from the Choose Happy set from Simon Says Stamp. I really like how simple this card looks. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably add some color behind the flowers. Either a light watercolor wash, or maybe some ink blending. The Clarity brushes would have been perfect!! Ok, I know what I’m doing for my next card now. I have a craft fair coming up on Labor Day weekend so I’ll be making as many cards as I can between now and then.
Happy Ink Designs 