Happy Weekend! And a very merry and happy Christmas Eve to you! All of us at Simon Says Stamp wish you a wonderful holiday tomorrow as you celebrate with your family and friends! Thank you for another great crafting season full of fun and inspiration. Hard to believe it’s over! Today I want to welcome you back to the latest edition of Weekender with Wanda here on the Simon Says Stamp Blog. I’m delighted to see you on this special day. I had a hard time thinking of what to share today…. Should I share one last Christmas project? Or a Valentine project? Something else? Hmmmm. So I decided to go in the middle – and make a festive New Year card! I used lots of Simon Says Stamp Exclusive products on this one! I combined winter stamps, and baby stamps, and some birthday dies…. And it came together in a cheery greeting to welcome 2017! I’m ready to kick off a new year! This coming week is a good time of calm and reflection of the year that has passed and the new year to come.

My finished card is a 5×5 inch square. I made my card base out of crisp white cardstock. Next I used rich black SSS cardstock and the SSS Exclusive Falling Snow Background Stamp and heat embossed gold snow! (Or in this case, gold confetti!) This gave me the foundation for the rest of the card. I love how this came out!

I needed a focal point for the balloons, so I die cut a Stitched Oval in white cardstock. Then I stamped confetti and stars on it using SSS Intense Black Ink, and set that aside. Next up was to stamp and emboss the balloons. I stamped the balloon stamps on vellum and heat set the black ink. The balloons, welcome stamp, and stars/confetti stamps are from the SSS Exclusive stamp set called Cuddly Critters Accessories. After the ink was dry on the vellum, I used the matching dies to die cut the balloons out. Then I used the SSS Advent Numbers stamps and heat embossed 2-0-1-7 in SSS Gold embossing powder. The numbers are the perfect size for the balloons!

I die cut the SSS Party Circle Die out of bright gold cardstock. This die has a circle around the word party – so I just trimmed the word out with some small scissors. I attached the balloons to the white oval by using a Quickie Glue Pen and putting the glue behind the numbers. That way it doesn’t show. I mounted the oval to the card using foam tape.

I used the Quickie Glue Pen again to attach the party die onto the card. I finished up by sprinkling a few gold sequins and clear gems for a bit more sparkle. Because, well, sparkle! LOL.

This little welcome stamp actually says Welcome Little One! I used a piece of washi tape over the Little One part of the stamp to mask off just the part I wanted. I heat embossed this sentiment onto black cardstock and then die cut it out with a SSS Stitched Banners Die.

Again, wishing you a delightful Christmas Eve! I’m looking forward to stamping with you in the new year, as we welcome 2017! I’ll see you next weekend right here! Thank you for spending part of your weekend with Simon Says Stamp!

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