Fond Farewell to Simon Says Stamps

Hidy ho, crafty peeps!

Well, today marks my last day as the Spotlight Designer for Simon Says Stamps.

*sigh*

I've really had a good time playing with the SSS DT! Thank you very much for such a wonderful opportunity! I hope to play with y'all again!

 It's Wednesday...and that means...

This week's theme is  

"ANYTHING GOES"

featuring products by Art Impressions

I, personally, love Art Impressions stamps. Their "Golden Oldies" and "Girlfriends" lines are HILARIOUS. They also have some seriously artistic stamps too! 

As always, enter the challenge for your chance to win a

 You can't beat that with a stick!!

I actually did 2 projects as my "Simon Says Swan Song". 

Yeah, 2!!! (One is really a "thank you" to SSS for having me).

My first project is a CAS card (well, for me it is). I don't usually do CAS (clean and simple). So, it was a challenge...believe it or not.

It's pretty straight-forward...stamped image, colored with Prismacolor pencils, Copic-dotted background, stamped foreground, bow, sentiment and 9 sequins. You can't tell, but their bathing suits and hats are coated in Glossy Accents to give it that embossed effect. Ok, so maybe it wasn't so CAS.

My final card is also a CASish card.

This card is my little way of saying "THANK YOU" to Heidi, Lols, and all the lovely and talented ladies on the SSS design teams.

It's a "Dutch Door" style card...where the card front is actually only half a card front. I just made up the name of the card style. It sounds good though. 

Here is the outside 

and, the fence "Dutch door" swings open to reveal the inside

I used one of Art Impressions super-ingenious "Front 'n' Backs" stamp sets--Becky. For those of you not familiar with the "Front 'n' Backs" and "Spinners" stamps, they're 2-piece sets of stamps designed to have their images glued back to back...to produce a perfectly matched 2-sided image.  I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.

I created the fence using the same stamp I used on the other card...I just cut apart the image and rearranged it a bit to look like a fence. Although the wood stamp I used is not a SSS stamp, they do carry one that is virtually identical...like REALLY REALLY CLOSE (Wood Plank stamp by My Favorite Things). It's so close to the stamp I used, you probably wouldn't have known if I had said that this wood stamp was that wood stamp (did that make sense???)  I really love this card. It's just too stinkin' cute!

SSS products used:

Bathing Suit (AI)	Becky (AI)	Darice 8MM RED Sequins	Tombow Mono Aqua	Fiskars Premium Cut Line trimmer	Sakura Micron Pens
cutter bee	Walnut Stain - Distress Ink	tim holtz old paper distressed ink pad	Prismacolor Premier - 150	elmer′s craft bond foam mounting tape	Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black Ink Pad
AE Sentimental

Shimmery, Sparkly Goodness

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

It's time for round 4 of my month as the Spotlight Designer for Simon Says Stamps! June has really flown by. This has been a SUPER busy month for me, and I can't say I'm entirely sad to see June go bye-bye. But, today is Wednesday...and that means...

This week's theme is  

"Add some SHIMMER"

featuring products by Lindy's Stamp Gang

So, break out all your glittery, shimmery goodies and enter a project for your chance to win a...

 

Sadly, I don't own any Lindy's products...but I do have a clear Wink of Stella, so that is gonna have to suffice! I broke out a fun old die from Tim Holtz (I guess I'm still in a Tim Holtz frame of mind from a couple of weeks ago). And crafted up this fluttering beauty of a card!

I started out by die-cutting out butterflies (with the Butterfly Frenzy Die) out of the cardstock background panel and adhering the panel to the card front with foam tape to pop it off the base a bit. I scribbled some Distress Markers (more Tim Holtz product) onto a separate piece of watercolor paper, then did a water wash over my scribbles to blend the colors. After it was all dry, I die cut out my flutter of butterflies...arranged them in sort of rainbow order and adhered them to the background. Next, I brushed Wink of Stella over each butterfly and on the face of the card in the negative spaces that remained after I removed all the butterfly die cut pieces.

To finish it off, I added a scattering of iridescent sequins and a die-cut sentiment from Avery Elle.

If you hold the open card up to a light source, the cut-out butterflies on the background become illuminated. It's quite lovely. I tried to take a photo of that effect...but it didn't turn out that hot...but you get the gist!

OH - EM - GEE.....I just realized, I didn't use any colored pencils on this. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. Man, I hope they don't get mad at me like they did the last time I used another coloring medium. They got so torqued, they went on vacation for 2 weeks...and didn't send me a postcard (they claimed they had nothing to write with).

Here are the SSS products I used. Each icon below is a link to the corresponding product page on the SSS site!

Festive Berries	Ripe Persimmon	Squeezed Lemonade	Mowed Lawn	Peacock Feathers	Seedless Preserves
Picked Raspberry	Fiskars Premium Cut Line trimmer	elmer′s craft bond foam mounting tape	Decorative Strip - Butterfly Frenzy Die	AE Sentimental	Canson Watercolor Paper
Darice sequins	Sizzix Big Shot	Tombow Mono Aqua	Yasutomo water brush

Thanks for dropping by! Be sure to visit Simon Says Stamps and check out the fabulous projects the other design team members created!

E-I-E-I-OH YEAH!

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

It's time for round 3 of my month as the Spotlight Designer for Simon Says Stamps! This month is flying by...which makes me sad. I'm having SO MUCH STINKING FUN working with Simon Says Stamps products! I mean...they have EVERYTHING. I've never seen so much product under one "roof"! And, the people of Simon Says are lovely. BONUS!

It's Wednesday, so that means

This week's theme is  

"Animal Magic" 

featuring products by Paper Smooches. 

 I just love the name of that company, don't you? 

So, step right up, create a project, and scurry on over to their site for your chance to win a

For my project, I decided to make Father's Day card #2 (remember, I have 3 dads). This one is for my dear father-in-law. He's a suburban farmer. He loves to raise vegetables in his huge garden. I'm pretty much a mess when it comes to gardening. Let's just say my thumb is definitely NOT green. Looking at my thumb, it's kind of brown. Must be all the Distress Ink I used on this card.

Anyway, here's my project for today's challenge!

The "Animal Magic" part of my card is how that critter got up there in the hay loft--the one peeking out of that window, and also how that little chick got up on top of the door. It's MAGIC, I tell ya... ANIMAL MAGIC!!! 

Here is what it looks like inside!

AH HA! So, that window-peeking critter was actually two window-peeking critters! Ok, so how many of you got the pun of my sentiment? Anybody? (HINT: it has to do with the critters above the sentiment).

I paper-pieced the card by hand (the barn), and used Distress ink on the edges of the "boards" of the barn so that you could actually see that they are boards. I used stitched square dies to make the frame for the window and the X on the barn door (with some creative cutting apart). I colored my stamped images with my coveted Prismacolor pencils. I added a little bow to critter #2...and cut off her "beard". LOL 

The rest of the card is pretty much just pen work on sentiments I printed off, and some foam tape and glue. 

This card is living proof that you don't have to have a boat-load of product to produce an uber cute card. Basically, all you need are: stamps, coloring medium, cardstock, and a little imagination. Oh yeah...and some sort of adhesive helps too.

Simon Says products used:

Green Acres stamp set	Fiskars Premium Cut Line trimmer	Sizzix Big Shot	cutter bee scissors	TE stitched squares dies
Tsukineko MEMENTO Ink	Walnut Stain - Distress Ink	Prismacolor Pencils	elmer′s foam mounting tape	Tombow Mono Aqua
Sakura Micron Pens

 Well, that wraps it up for part 3 of my time at Simon Says Stamps. Stay tuned because I have 2 more projects this month before my term is finished!

Thanks, as always, for making your way out here to Left Field. Y'all come back soon!