Greetings and Happy Saturday creative people! I’m back with the latest edition of Weekender with Wanda here on the Simon Says Stamp blog! This week went by fast! Whew, I feel like it was just Saturday a minute ago. We are super busy around here lately! Did you love the new “Among the Stars” release this week? And what about the awesome blog hop? I have to say that this new release spoke to me right away. As soon as I got my box in the mail I started stamping! I hope you bought some fun things to play with too. Remember, as always, to tag your card photos on social media so we can see your beautiful projects with the new release!! (#simonsaysstamp and #sssamongthestars)

Today I’m featuring stamps from one of our favorite companies – Taylored Expressions! I’m also using a brand spankin’ new paper pad that’s perfect for summer camping cards and scrapbook layouts. It’s from Carta Bella and it’s called The Great Outdoors. I know a lot of you like to camp, fish and travel in the Summer – so this one’s for you!

I used the SUPER cute stamp set called Happy Trails. It also has matching dies. I started with a cream card base in A2 size, horizontal. I used cream instead of white since the paper has a cream tone to it . I layered a piece of kraft cardstock and then the pretty floral paper from the paper pad. Next I stamped and die cut all my images. I stamped the trees and the sentiment directly onto the focal layer.

I love patterned paper! I have tons of it at my house. I love to use lots of different patterns from the same pad. Here I’ve cut a couple of little accent strips to add a pop of texture and color. I used my Copic Markers to color the camper to match the paper.

The stamp set has cute little trailers and critters with it, and a funky station wagon too. It’s really fun. I used one of the critters as a happy addition to my card. There is a porcupine, a skunk and a bear.

I stamped my porcupine and colored him – then I cut a circle around him using the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Stitched Circles dies.

Lawn Fawn cord is a great tie in with the nature theme. Some pretty red enamel dots add one more pop of color and shine. I think it’s important to have different layers of textures on my cards and love to play around with twine, metal and dots/sequins too.

Happy Trails to you, until we meet again! Happy Summer, Happy Weekend and Happy Everything! I will see you soon – right back here next weekend!

SUPPLIES: 

Hi friends! Welcome back to day 2 of celebrating our newest exclusive collection, Among the Stars!

We have a super, ultra, mega FUN blog hop for you today loaded with inspiration from designers around the globe!  Be inspired!

Shari Carroll created this inspiration for our stop on the hop:

Dang!  Shari brought her A-Game to these designs! She watercolored a background using Tim Holtz Distress inks and put it behind the cut out mosaic star. Do you love this mosaic star as much as I do?  There is also a very popular fun stencil that we released a few years ago that served as the inspiration for this star.

Just wait until you see what Suzy Plantamura created in her blog post!  I have seriously never seen so much inspiration in one place in all of my life!  Let’s get this hop started:

Simon Says Stamp <<<<  You are HERE!
Jennifer McGuire
Kristina Werner
Nina-Marie Trapani
Laura Bassen
Kathy Racoosin
Wanda Guess
Amy Rysavy
Nichol Spohr Magouirk
Suzy Plantamura
Kelly Latevola
Debby Hughes
Shari Carroll

Thanks so much for joining us today!  I hope you enjoy the hop featuring products from our new “Among the Stars” release!

We have a super surprise!  Do you want to win a not yet released product  from a release coming later this year?!  Comment here to let us know what you are looking forward to the most about this summer and we will be choosing 1 commenter from each stop along the hop to win this ultimate fun prize!

Welcome to the reveal of our latest exclusive collection, Among the Stars!  We are featuring a special stamp set “Uplifting Thoughts” inspired by Jennifer McGuire’s Handmade Kindness campaign.  There is also a fun fresh new watercolor card set by Suzy Plantamura.  Looking for a whimsical ice cream cone or flamingo to add to your card, or maybe an interesting stacked star background or die cut?  Need a perfectly cut basic background square, rectangle or even flag shape for your “go to” product stash?  Do you like to sew our fun plush line of products?  Then this release is for you! Coming right off the heels of our incredibly popular July Card Kit (Handwritten Floral Greetings) we hope our new release “Among the Stars” keeps you excited to stamp and create!

Please join us tomorrow for a blog hop celebrating the release with even more inspiration from some super talented designers!  Comment below what you like about the collection and we would love to send you a surprise new product that we have coming out later this summer!  Three (3) random winners will be drawn Monday.

Hey friends! Are you as excited about the new Among the Stars release as I am??? I LOVE the new Build a Rainbow die, and I thought this would pair up great with the new Uplifting Thoughts stamp set to create some happy cards!

The Build a Rainbow die set is really versatile and there are so many ways you can use it. I ended up cutting the rainbow in half to create two cards… and I loved it so much I had to make two more! I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color in my rainbow, but you could definitely use other coloring mediums for this, or even cardstock if you are short on time or not a big fan of coloring!

You’ll see I created these rainbow scenes with a few other Simon products;, including the Happy Days die set. These dies are actually a coordinating set to the Happy Days stamp set that came out with the May 2016 card kit. However, all the shapes are really great for using on their own, which makes them a great addition to you stash, even if you do not have the stamp set! I used both the cloud and sun dies for my scene, but I could see all sorts of fun being had with all the other dies too. When you take a look at products in a creative way, and not just the obvious, you can come up with so many unique card designs!

To see how I created these happy rainbow cards from start to finish, be sure to check out the video below!