Marital Bliss

Hello crafty friends!! It’s time for a brand new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. This week the challenge is

Add a Sentiment

We are showcasing CZ Design Products this week. If you have any of these products, we’d love to see them used, but it’s certainly not a requirement to join the challenge.

As always, the generous folks at Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $25 voucher to one randomly selected winner to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store. You can enter 5 times which means you can make 5 different projects following this week’s prompt and have 5 chances to win a shopping spree!! Sounds like a win/win to me!! I’ve linked all of the supplies that I used at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.

Nobody does sentiments quite like Cathy Zielske!! I took advantage of a recent sale Simon Says Stamp had going on where everything from CZ Designs was 20% off!! I purchased this stamp set called You Did along with the coordinating dies which is where the sentiment is from. I also purchased the coordinating Reverse Sentiment Strips, also called You Did which is where I got the sub-sentiment.

Let’s back up a bit. I started out creating my background using Simon’s A2 Masks stencil. I did this on the Waffle Flower Grip Mat (which I’ll come back to) using an A2 size piece of Hammermill 100 lb. Smooth White Card Stock. I usually ALWAYS ink blend on Bristol Smooth card stock, but I saw someone on social media somewhere say that the Hammermill was also a great paper to ink blend on so since I already owned some, I decided to give it a try. I really didn’t think I was going to love it as much as I do!! It’s a brighter white than the Bristol Smooth which was the tipping point for me. Especially for a wedding card.

Ok, back to the Waffle Flower Grip Mat. Yes, I just like everyone else who is a cardmaker/crafter watched Jennifer McGuire’s awesome video called 2023 Crafty Gift Guide on YouTube. I was intrigued by this grip mat because stenciling is something I’m always trying to improve my technique on. I’ve gone from painter’s tape to the Water Media Mat to the Make Art STAY-tion and now to the grip mat. All of them work great and each have their own benefits but I really enjoy this grip mat because I can use it in or out of my Misti and I can use it for multiple techniques like ink blending, stamping and of course, stenciling. It also comes with a printed guide which is helpful. I use a white glass mat so this grip mat sticks to my glass mat and I can see the guides very clearly. If you haven’t seen Jennifer’s video, I highly recommend you watch it, she goes over all the great features and benefits of using this grip mat.

Now, back to my process. I stenciled and ink blended my background using Scattered Straw and Aged Mahogany distress inks. Then I used another stencil called Flutter by Tim Holtz and Stamper Anonymous and I stenciled this beautiful floral arrangement over the top of my background using Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone.

I splattered the same colors using a fan brush and I added some White Gouache as well. I stamped and die cut my sentiment and then I die cut two additional layers to add dimension to my sentiment. I popped my sub-sentiment up using Black Foam Squares.