Happy Saturday! It’s time for the latest edition of “Weekender with Wanda” here on the Simon Says Stamp blog! I could not be happier to see you today…because that means I finally get to share this project! It’s been driving me crazy – wanting to show you all! Today I’m featuring awesome items from Tim Holtz via his Ideaology and Ranger Alcohol Ink product lines. Remember last year when I was doing my monthly “Tim Holtz Color Pop” feature? I was sorry to see that come to an end, so we decided that I will continue to do a monthly feature with Tim Holtz and Ranger products. Today is the first one!

I really wanted to think of something new and different. This entire project was inspired by the new Charmed Findings. I saw these at CHA and they go with one of my favorite Ideaology products! So an idea was born. Inspiration is like a thread for me sometimes…you pull one little string and it unravels a whole sweater! So, this one product led me to think of one possible idea, which led to a big idea! Today I’m sharing my personalized Ideaology Charm Bracelet!

Here is a photo of the completed bracelet. This was really fun to make, and I hope you will try this. It is so easy to customize it for a friend, your mom, sister… I made this one for me, but I am already thinking of making (lots) more.

The Charmed Findings that started this idea are holders for the gorgeous Gumdrops gems (in green). The gumdrops are clear,  and then you can dye them with Ranger Alcohol Inks. Alcohol Inks come in lots of beautiful colors. For my bracelet I made two of each color and then glued them back to back with Glossy Accents. Now they look like pretty spheres! The Mirrored Hearts are a new product also from CHA (in red). I dyed one with Cranberry Alcohol Ink and glued it to a Typed Token Charm.

Here is another gumdrop sphere dyed with Pool Alcohol Ink. The Heart Charms come with a package of different stickers so you can choose your own saying. I love the camera from the Souvenir Charms package!

Here’s how I started…. I bought the bracelet part at my local chain craft store. Everything else is from our Simon Says Stamp Store.

It’s so super simple to dye your own embellishments: Gumdrops, Mirrored Stars and Mirrored Hearts. I used my Ranger craft mat so that I didn’t get ink all over my table. Alcohol inks will stick to almost anything! Simply drop 1-2 tiny drops of the ink onto the gems. Then set them aside for 10 minutes or so to let the ink dry. Yes, that’s all! After the color was dry, I used Glossy Accents to glue the gumdrops into the findings and then glued the two sides together. 

Here are all my finished charms ready to go. I used a Distress Crayon to get into the letters on the Faith charm. I put some Picket Fence paint onto the key to soften it.

Thanks so very much for spending part of your weekend here with me! I hope this project has inspired you to make something fun and different! Any of these ideas would make a neat necklace, or unique charms for your cards and altered books. Most of all have fun! Have a great day and I’ll see you next weekend!

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY’S PROJECT:

Blog Candy Alert!! Follow our blog via email and comment on this post for a chance to win a grab bags and blog candy! Remember to tag your awesome projects with #simonsaysstamp on social media so we can see what you are creating! See you next weekend!

Hi readers! TGIF!! I’m always delighted to welcome back the fabulous Debby Hughes to our blog for guest designing, and starting this month and going forward, she will be adding video tutorials on her monthly features. Yay! Read on and enjoy!

Hello, Debby here and for this month’s look at stretching your supplies I’ve a nice and simple project combining two of the stamps sets from the recent Reason To Smile release. The Melody’s Easter and Spring Flowers sets are absolutely adorable for all your Easter and Spring projects but it’s great to get more mileage out of them throughout the year. Little Melody has the perfect outstretched hand for holding the Easter basket from the set but she could equally be holding the string of a balloon or in this case a wand. Using one of the flowers and stem images from Spring Flowers along with a star from the Lots of Stars set and sweet Easter Melody is now an all year round fairy.

I have a video below so you can see the process – stamping and masking the elements in Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink on Neenah Solar White and then simple Copic coloring before stamping the sentiment from Best Hugs in Spring Rain and Intense Black inks.

Such a simple way to extend the use of a stamp set. The finished panel is foam mounted on a white card base and then I added a good sprinkling of sequins and some Zig Wink of Stella for a nice sparkle :D

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you take a fresh look at your supplies and make them work for you all year round. Have fun!

Watch the video:

Supplies:

Hello everyone! How is your week going?! I am still in a watercolor mood and I have a card to share today that I made using more great products from the latest Simon Says Stamp collection – Reason to Smile. I am still making projects with all the great stuff! I inked up the Spring Flowers Stamp Set with pretty white heat embossing. Then I watercolored in shades of greens and teals. Don’t you love that technique? That never gets old!

To start with, I took the leaves image from the stamp set and randomly stamped it all over a sheet of watercolor paper. I used Versamark Ink and Simon Says Stamp White Embossing Powder to heat emboss the leaves. The raised lines from the embossing make it really easy to control your watercolors.

I colored my leaves images using Distress Ink pads, water, and a paint brush. I dried the leaves with my heat tool. After the leaves were dry, I went back with more water and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and did a pretty light wash over the white background areas. I put more color next to the leaves and faded out the color.

I love the look of a crisp white sentiment on black paper. I heat embossed the words onto Simon Says Stamp Black Cardstock. I used my Embossing Magic Bag to eliminate stray bits of powder on the black.

Lastly, I mounted my watercolor panel onto beautiful Simon Says Stamp Fog Cardstock and added some Clear Drops from Pretty Pink Posh.

This card is nice and flat for easy mailing. Whenever I have gems or drops attached to a card I will put a piece of cardstock over the card when I put it into the envelope. That way it arrives all intact still!

CLICK HERE to see the “Reason to Smile” Gallery for lots of ideas! And, please add your own links so we can all share!

I’ll be back on Saturday with a really cool project made with Tim Holtz and Ranger supplies! Hope all is well in your corner of the world. Thank you for stopping by today!

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