Simon’s Top 10 Crafty Must-Haves!!!
Hello crafty friend! With so many amazing products continually being released, it’s often hard to decide what you truly need to have in your creative arsenal.
We’re resharing a recent lineup of our popular Top 10 Crafty Must-Haves!
#1 Creative Detailer Tool
Made a small inky mistake? Have some unwanted foil left behind on your project? The battery-powered Creative Detailer Tool has become one of our go-to erasers for cleaning up small trouble areas. There are even interchangeable eraser nibs for even more precise erasing capabilities!
#2 Stencil Pal
Whenever you apply pastes through a stencil, it can be tricky to get your paste completely smooth. Not any more! Whenever we use pastes and stencils, we always make sure to use our Therm O Web Stencil Pal to smooth everything out in just a few easy strokes!
#3 Purple Tape
If you ever need a temporary tape that can do it all, look no further than the Therm O Web Purple Tape! Whether you are die cutting, taping your stencil in place, temporarily holding paper together, stretching watercolor paper – and so much more – this tape is what we always reach for! The easy release and light tack of the tape prevents tears when removing from your project (which also makes for a more relaxing crafting experience!).
#4 Dot Liner Tape Runner
We love dot tape runners because the adhesive goes down only on your project and not everywhere else! Many tape runners are just continuous strips of adhesive, which can easily end up outside of where you are trying to put it down. The Kokuyo Dot Liner is instead made up of the tiny dots, which stop dispensing onto your paper the minute you lift it off your project.
#5 A2 White Card Bases
Save yourself a ton of time crafting by having a stash of pre-made card bases on hand! We love being able to simply reach for one of our A2 White Card Bases when we are ready to craft; no need to cut, score, and fold. All the hard work is done for you and now you can focus on just creating. You’re welcome! ?
#6 MINI MISTI STAMPING TOOL
Let’s face it, we all make mistakes when stamping … that is, until we met the Mini MISTI! Now we make fewer mistakes because we can simply re-stamp over top of our images if we didn’t get it right the first time! Align your paper in the corner of the MISTI, hold it down with a magnet and stamp! If it wasn’t right the first time, reink the stamp and do it again (just make sure you don’t move the paper)! Less wasting paper and ink, less frustration, and perfect stamping every time – who doesn’t love that???
#7 Teflon Bone Folder
This is not just any bone folder – this one is made from Teflon. Why does Teflon make this so special? Because the Teflon material keeps the bone folder strong and durable for years. In addition, the material will not add a sheen to your paper, which other bone folders will do. All these reasons make this Teflon Bone Folder a crafty-must have for our creative space!
#8 BLENDING BRUSHES
Whenever we want to ink blend, it seems we reach for our Blending Brushes most often these days! Why, you may ask? One of the reasons we love these brushes so much is that they are easier to hold in your hands – if you have arthritis, you’ll find these brushes much more comfortable to hold. Another reason why we reach for these most often is that you have so much more control over the blending intensity!
#9 Make Art Stay-tion
Working and cleaning up afterward is so much easier with the Make Art Stay-tion from Wendy Vecchi and Ranger! This magnetic surface wipes clean in no time, has strong magnets to hold your paper AND stencil in place when blending, adding paste, etc., and the best part? It is a low profile, which means it won’t take up a ton of space in your crafty area (it also travels well!). If you stencil a lot, we definitely feel that this is a must-have for you!
#10 Hand Crafted with Love stamp set
When you are done crafting and you have a finished project all ready to go off to its recipient, you mustn’t forget to stamp the backside! We love reaching for our Hand Crafted with Love stamp set for this very thing. The set includes stamps for cardmakers, stampers, crocheters, bakers, and more – you can even make care instruction tags for your handmade clothing articles! Whenever we complete a card, we always stamp the back for that final finishing touch!
We hope that you have discovered some new must-haves for you creative space. These tried and true items are loved by those of us here at Simon and we know that you will love them too!
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Studio Monday with Nina-Marie: Pantone’s Colors of the Year
Hello crafty friends, it’s Nina-Marie Trapani here! We are just inside of 2021 and Pantone’s Color of the Year has been revealed – this year is actually 2 colors, Ultimate Gray and Illuminating yellow. I’ll be incorporating both colors into today’s project and I encourage you to try this color palette out for yourself – it’s so refreshing!
I die cut both our Simon Says Stamp Nested Hearts and Clipping Heart dies from many different sheets of pattern paper, glitter and foil cardstocks. The varying shades of gray and yellow paper creates a beautiful pattern!
For a sentiment I went simple and used our CZ Design Friends and Thanks word and shadow dies. You’ll notice I cut the sentiment from both Smoke cardstock and silver glitter paper; the dip-dye effect is trendy and compliments the glitter texture sprinkled throughout the card.
I then matted the panels onto cards created from Fog cardstock. The light gray base provides a perfect balance to the darker grays of the hearts and sentiment.
I had so much fun making these cards I also tried it with our Chunky Hearts Panel die on both a slimline and A2 card. You could try this technique with many other heart or other shaped dies!
Want to see how I made these refreshing cards? Be sure to watch the video below! These would be perfect as non-traditional Valentines or even as a more masculine love card!
WATCH THE VIDEO
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Crafty with Caly: Love Birds
Hi friends! Happy Sunday! We hope your 2021 has started off wonderfully so far! Please join me in welcoming back special guest Caly Person in the first edition of Crafty with Caly for 2021! Be sure to watch the video for more information and enjoy!
Hello, Friends! I’m sharing a shaker card using in-lay techniques with die-cut images today. The focus of my card is the Love Birds and I made it more interest by creating a shaker window framed with the Etched Eucalyptus Wreath.
I created my shaker window first by die-cutting the Etched Eucalyptus Wreath over a white panel and attaching acetate to the die-cut window. I in-lay the die-cut wreath back in over the acetate once it’s adhered in place.
Be sure to watch the video to see how I create this card!
WATCH THE VIDEO:
Next, I die-cut the Love Birds die. Before lifting my die from the cutting plate, I popped all the pieces out – keeping them in their place on the cutting plate so that I can use Glad Press’n Seal to hold all the pieces together. I flipped it over and adhered the backside with office tape, pulled back the Press’n Seal and colored the front of the die-cut image with Copic markers. This will make more sense if you watch the video above.
After coloring, I die-cut the Love Bird die 3 more times in white and adhered them together. I adhered this stacked image over my colored one to give it lots of dimension.
Copics:
Pinks: R81, R85
Teals: BG11, BG34
Peach: YR0000, YR00
Yellow: Y15
Browns: E31, E35
Greens: G21, YG09
Black: 110
To finish, I ink-blended some Mermaid Lagoon ink over the center of a cardbase to add color to my shaker window. I added sequins to my cardbase and sealed my shaker panel using two layers of foam adhesive to give my sequins lots of room to move around.
I hope you enjoyed this project! Thanks so much for joining me today! ~Caly
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Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Caly for being our guest!
