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’ve taken all the guesswork out of deciding by providing you a fresh, new 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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Did You Know? Fun Facts and Crafty Tips! May 2020 Edition
Hello crafters, it’s Shari here with you! Today I have a new edition of our popular Did You Know series!
If it’s your first time seeing this feature, each month we bring you fun facts, creative tips, and even crafty hacks about your favorite supplies and brands; you can then use these awesome tips that you learn in your next crafting projects! Are you ready to learn some fun tricks? Keep on reading!
SIMON SAYS STAMP INTENSE BLACK INK:
Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink was designed to be used with watercolors and all types of markers including Copic, Zig, Tombo, Spectrum Noir, plus color pencils and more. It’s also a great choice as your everyday stamping ink.
It’s quick-drying, smudge-free, and a permanent ink that is an intense black.
Tip: Barely Beige and Barely Blue are made with the same formula as our Intense Black ink so you can use them with all your favorite coloring mediums. The colors were designed for No-Line coloring. Use Barely Beige for warm tone coloring and Barely Blue for cool tones.
TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS EMBOSSING DABBER:
This handy dabber delivers embossing ink where ever you’d like it. With a quick swipe, you’re off to embossing with your favorite powders. It is clear embossing ink with a light, pleasant cinnamon scent in a bottle with a cloth covering.
Inking through a stencil is quick and easy! You can also draw your own shapes to emboss!
Tip: If you have smaller areas to cover or would like to emboss your handwriting, give the Distress Embossing Pens a try!
TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS EMBOSSING GLAZES
These embossing powders are like no other. They are translucent. They will tint anything you emboss with them. You can use them over stamped and printed items and they will actually accentuate the black print. There are presently 12 colors to chose from.
Tip: A set of 12 glaze jars fit perfectly into a Distress Crayon Tin for easy storage.
If you’re in need of creating your own fabric masks, Simon Says Stamp carries this lycra, 5/32 inch round elastic. It is soft and pliable and does not pinch or pull the hair or skin and it is made in the U.S.A. This rounded elastic is very comfortable behind the ears. Each spool is approximately 100 feet in length.
NEW PRODUCT WEBSITE NAVIGATION
Did you know that our brand managers are constantly updating our website with New Arrivals? The coral banner at the top of our home page will take you to the latest and greatest product available. Be sure to check often!
I hope these tips have helped you learn a few tricks for your upcoming crafting projects and how to find them. Thanks for joining me today!!
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Doodling with Debby: Easy Embossed Watercolor Background
Hi friends! Happy Sunday & Happy Mother’s Day to all the SUPER HERO Mom’s out there! We appreciate you all! Please join me in welcoming back the always inspiring Debby Hughes as a special guest for our May 2020 installment of Doodling with Debby. Be sure to watch the video and enjoy!
Hi, it’s Debby here and thank you for joining me for Doodling With Debby this month. For last month’s video of a woman and umbrella with a textured background, I went for lots of technique and detail. For this month, I wanted to mix it up with an easy heat embossed and watercolored background and include my key tip for keeping your white embossing white!
I used the Heart To Heart Background stamp, and although I love Daniel Smith watercolors, I’m also enjoying exploring other watercolors, and so I used the Mijello Mission Gold watercolor set on this card.
I taped a piece of Fabriano Artistico Extra White cold-pressed watercolor card to a board and using a broad brush, liberally applied water over the piece. I chose an analogous color scheme from the Mission Gold paints of Prussian Blue, Bright Clear Violet and Red Violet with a touch of Peacock Blue too. With the paper wet, the colors mix and blend, creating beautiful new hues. I didn’t mix the colors on the palette; all the action was right there on the paper. With a background like this, I aim to get a variation in the depth of color with some darker patches and equally some lighter areas too, and a great way to do the latter is to add water splashes which push the color away to the edges of the water droplets. I also added splatter from a solution of Perfect Pearls for a bit of sparkle to the mix and then dried with a heat tool.
It was only at this point that I got out the Heart To Heart Background stamp to white heat emboss the pattern. And this is my tip; you could’ve heat embossed the pattern before watercoloring which does allow for lovely puddling of the color in the wells created from the heat embossing. However, you often get paint over the embossed lines, which isn’t always the easiest to wipe away without disturbing the painted background. By heat embossing after watercoloring you don’t have that problem, your beautiful white embossed lines will stay pristine and white.
I placed the Heart To Heart Background stamp in the Misti along with the watercolored panel. I kept the paper in place with a piece of masking tape as I stamped this multiple times to get a good impression on the watercolor card. I treated the card with anti-static powder to prevent the embossing powder randomly sticking everywhere and then I inked the stamp with Versamark ink and gently pressed the stamp onto the card. My tip here is not to go in with heavy pressure but gently rub the stamp onto the card and repeat stamp several times. This way the resulting embossed lines will be as delicate as they are intended to be rather than heavy and squished out by too much pressure. I sprinkled the card with white embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp, making sure to cover the whole area and then gave it a good tap off before using a hot heat tool to melt the embossing powder.
I love splatter, I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, it adds extra layers of color and dimension and as such interest. I splattered with leftover paint, Perfect Pearls solution and white gouache. These may muddy the white embossed lines a little, and you could do this step before heat embossing to prevent that, but sometimes the splatter leaves a less than smooth surface and I didn’t want to risk lumps and bumps preventing me from getting the best embossed design.
I think we are all missing seeing people at the moment, family and friends in particular and so I pulled out the Miss You dies from CZ Design. These dies have the letters and then a background piece. I wanted to cut the words themselves from toning card. So, I took another piece of watercolor card and using the same Red Violet and Bright Clear Violet paints from the Mijello Mission palette, I quickly whipped up a custom piece of colored card, dried with a heat tool and then ran the letters through my die cutting machine. I also cut the background piece from the plain watercolored card while I did so. This way, everything matches up nicely.
I adhered the letters to their background with Gina K Connect glue and then added foam adhesive to the back. I took a coordinating sentiment from the Reverse Miss You sentiment strips from CZ Design and added foam adhesive to the back of that too. I then started playing around with placement I did debate whether to cut the watercolored piece with a circle die as I felt the sentiment was getting a bit lost, however, in the end, I plumped on simply trimming the background down a bit. This leaves the focal point less lost in a big space and also frames the panel nicely with a broader border from the card base which I’d cut and scored from Ivory card.
I added foam adhesive to the back of the panel and adhered it to the card base and then, in turn, added the Miss You dies and coordinating sentiment. I die cut a few hearts from the leftover watercolored card using the Holiday Shapes dies from Simon Says Stamp and adhered these with foam adhesive before taking them up a notch with a coating of Nuvo Crystal Glaze to give them a lovely shine. Following on from the shiny theme, I also added Nuvo Droplets and Little Things From Lucy’s cards pearls.
Well, that’s me for this month, thanks for joining me today and I hope you join me next time for Doodling With Debby.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
Watch below or in HD on YouTube.
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Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Debby for being our guest!
