Hey crafty pals! Happy Saturday! Welcome back to this edition of Weekender with Wanda on the Simon Says Stamp blog! I’m always really happy that we get to spend part of our weekend together! Did you already check out the awesome Reason to Smile Release Blog Hop that was posted yesterday? There is still plenty of time! Seventeen crafty bloggers posted projects and cards. There are prize giveaways for each blog valued at approximately $50 each! Scroll down to see the list and start hopping after you read my post!

As I talked about last weekend – I am really into Spring crafting right now. I thought it would be fun to share some of my Top Product Picks for Spring today. I have chosen five sets of my favorite new products that are perfect for your Spring crafting. I made a card to share using one of my top picks too! All of the awesome new items from CHA are rolling in and I am very excited to see it all and get busy in the studio. My link list at the bottom of the post lists all the products I used to make today’s card, and also all the links to my favorites. Do you have a favorite new item in your crafty stash right now? I’d love to know!

My card to share today was created using beautiful products from Altenew. I inked up the Garden Grow and Label Love stamp sets to make a soft watercolor card full of images. The stamp set has so many images to choose from, and I wanted to use them all! I didn’t actually use them all, but I found a way to stamp a bunch of them!

I started by stamping several images loosely into a square onto a sheet of watercolor paper. It’s easy to do this because there are so many shapes and sizes of images. When I was finished I took the tiny heart stamp and filled in some of the bare spots in my cluster.  This doesn’t have to be exact or precise. I kind of like that it is sort of organic and soft. I used Distress Markers and a paint brush and water to color the images.

This is very free-handed watercoloring. No need to stay inside the lines! After I was done coloring the images I cut out a square using the Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Stitched Squares dies. I layered a pretty shade of green cardstock and then a kraft card base. Some Natural twine completes the garden theme. I stamped the Hello Label in SSS Intense Black Ink.

I really could make a million variations of this card! Different color choices, different images…. I’ll be making more with this one for certain!

Now that I’ve shared a card – I want to share my Top Picks For Spring! First up is the Altenew Garden Grow stamp set and dies, and the Label Love stamp set. Click on any of the images to learn more about the products.

My three favorite Spring card-making paper pads are Echo Park Spring, Pebbles Spring Fling, and Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid! These are all 6×6 paper pads that are the right size and scale for cards! (I may have ordered three packs of one of these choices!)

My next Top Pick For Spring is the newest collection from Reverse Confetti. I adore the new Flower Wrap Die! It cuts a perfect shape for a bunch of flowers – and I like it with the Garden Bunch stamp set. I am also loving the cute Hippity Hoppity Stamp Set.

My next Top Pick is something I really loved right away when I saw it at CHA. It’s the French Riviera Collection from Prima. There are papers, flowers, gems, wood pieces and chipboard shapes that all coordinate in beautiful blue beach tones. So pretty.

And of course – my final Top Pick is everything from the Simon Says Stamp Reason to Smile release!! In particular my favorites are the new Gingham Background Stamp and the Melody’s Easter Stamp set.

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY’S CARD & LINKS TO TOP PICKS: