Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! So nice to see you here for the latest edition of Weekender with Wanda on the Simon Says Stamp Blog! It’s a beautiful Autumn weekend here in California. Perfect sweater days and football days and all kind of fun things. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned at your house. Did you check out the awesome blog hop yesterday? CLICK HERE to do the hop. There are prizes at each stop! The new Simon Says Stamp Holiday 2016 release is live too and it’s all beautiful. CLICK HERE to see the Believe in the Season release in its entirety.

Today is my monthly post in which I use Tim Holtz and Ranger supplies to bring you a new technique or idea to try. I’m using some beautiful new supplies from Stampers Anonymous by Tim Holtz along with some old favorites from Tim too. I made two cards using the same supplies and I had fun revisiting the Emboss Resist technique. I hope you will be inspired to give it a try! I love the Leaf Prints stamps and thought it would be nice to use those, since we are in Fall crafting mode.

This first card is made using the Mini Burlap Stencil from the Tim Holtz Mini Stencils 22 set. I layered the embossing with the Tim Holtz Leaf Prints stamps and then inked it all up with vivid Autumn Distress Ink colors of red, yellow and orange.

The second card was made using the Music Stencil from the Tim Holtz Mini Stencils 20 set. I layered just the pretty fern leaf from the stamp set and used Distress ink shades of greens and browns. For this card I distressed the paper a bit more, also, giving it a rustic feeling.

Here is a close up of the layers of inking, embossing, and then more inking!

I started with a sheet of Ranger Manila paper (this is the same paper that the tags are made of) and then I inked the mini stencils with Antique Photo Distress Ink and a sponge dauber. These stencils are not large enough to cover an A2 card front, so I taped them down and used just parts of the stencil!

This is the fun part! After the background stencil image was applied. I used the leaf print stamp with SSS Clear Ink and SSS Clear Embossing Ink and heat embossed the image right over the stenciled part. Once it’s inked over, you will see the stencil under the embossing. This also is a great technique to use with patterned paper underneath – like a text paper.

I used sponge daubers to ink Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint Inks around the images and over the entire panel. I like to ink darker closer to the image.

I did the same exact technique for the orange and yellow card.

After I inked them all up to the look I wanted, I used the Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer and splattered clean water over the panels. This gives a really cool effect and sort of mottles the ink a bit. Next I used Vintage Photo Ink and a sponge to ink all around the edges of my panels. This step really provides depth to all the other color.

This is the finished look of the embossing over the stenciling! You can see the water drops here too. I also used the Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer tool and added some specks of Vintage Photo ink. The whole key to this is just play and have fun! Every single one will turn out totally different and that’s the magic of it!

Since there is a lot going on with all the ink and stamping, I wanted to keep the rest of the cards pretty clean and simple. I used the Tim Holtz for Sizzix Celebration Words dies and rich brown paper to die cut sentiments for the cards. For the green card, I wrapped the die cut portion around the top layer of the card before attaching it to my color layer. Tip – die cut your cardstock strips to one inch wide before die cutting these words. Perfect fit every time!

To used bits of Linen Ribbon on each card for accents. These cards have a ‘nature’ feeling to them and I thought the linen was a good soft texture to use. I added Ideaology Typed Tokens on each card to complete the message.  Each card base is A2 size and made from Kraft Cardstock.

Have you tried Emboss Resist before? I hope you will try it now! Get out all your inks and get messy! Have fun and do some creative play. I believe it’s good for us! Thank you for spending part of your weekend here with me! Take care, until we meet again.

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY:

Hi folks! Welcome back and TGIF! We want to start your weekend off right with gorgeous inspiration from our exclusive collection released just yesterday, Believe in the Season!

Everyone on the hop is giving away a $25 gift card to www.SimonSaysStamp.com – including us!  We are going to randomly choose someone from the comments below. Would you please share with us what plans you have for the weekend?!  I’m HOPING to get very very crafty!

Happy Hopping!

Simon Says Stamp Blog <– You are here!
Laura Bassen
Debby Hughes
Kristina Werner
Jennifer McGuire
Kathy Racoosin
Suzy Plantamura
Nina-Marie Trapani
Nichol Sphor
Yana Smakula
Wanda Guess
Heather Ruwe
Kelly Latevola
Anna-Karin Evaldsson
Barb Engler
Shari Carroll
Heather Hoffman

The new release includes:

Don’t forget!

We have Simon Brand Galleries that we fill with inspiration! You are also welcomed (and encouraged) to add what you make from the collection too! :)

On Monday we will announce the $25 shopping spree from the comments below :)

Hi friends! Happy Holiday release day! We’re so excited to share with you this exclusive Simon Says Stamp release called Believe in the Season, just in time to start your Holiday crafting!  This release includes some super cool ink pads that are perfect for NO LINE WATERCOLORING!  Barely Beige and Barely Blue inks are a light toned dye ink formulation suitable for No-Line coloring techniques with watercolors and solvent based markers. Use Barely Beige for warm tones of coloring (Reds, Yellows, Browns) and Barley Blue for cool tones (Blues and Greens).  Stamps and dies round out the release to give you loads of options for your crafting pleasure!

My son is 9 years old now and he definitely questions the “Season” in a different way as he grows older.  I’m trying to show him the spirit of the season through a light that is not focused on just Santa Claus coming through the chimney – albeit that Santa is one of the symbolic ways we celebrate the magic.  What are the things that you find are helpful for kids in this age to focus on through the holiday season?  Our kids have friends of many religions, and even non religious, backgrounds and it’s very intriguing to me how each of us celebrates our beliefs.  My daughter is 5 years old and in her brain EVERYTHING is magical.  She still looks at me in wonder when I microwave her a hot dog ;)  The Kuerig really blows her mind! For her, magic has a whole different meaning.

Growing older, just like many other things, I view the Season in a different, and even more meaningful way. Friendships and relationships are deeper and more important to me.  I strongly believe that card making and letter sending is a wonderful way for us to connect to each other, especially from afar this time of year.  Let’s encourage each other by reaching out in meaningful ways, whatever way you choose.  It’s delightful to receive a phone call instead of a text, or a card instead of an email. Or even a hug instead of a wave. Am I right?

I’m hoping that these products, even if it’s just one, touches or inspires you.  Even if it’s just the inspiration of the product and you aren’t actually purchasing it, I truly hope that the imagery and sentiments help ignite excitement and a sentimentality in your heart for the Season!

Tomorrow we are sponsoring a blog hop jam packed with inspiration using these new products.  Stay tuned :)

Don’t forget!

We have Simon Brand Galleries that we fill with inspiration! You are also welcomed (and encouraged) to add what you make from the collection too! :)