I’m trying to sneak this card and blog post in before we lose electricity! We are in the middle of yet another Nor’easter here on eastern Long Island. We are getting a crazy amount of snow and wind. The lights have been flashing on and off all day so I thought that I better get this card made and posted for this week’s Paper Craft Crew Challenge starts on Wednesday!
I’ve been busy exploring all of the Altenew products that I’ve purchased recently thanks to the fantastic classes I have been taking. I have truly neglected all of the other goodies I keep meaning to create with!
For this week’s Paper Craft Crew challenge, I decided to use this month’s Simon Says Stamps Card Kit. These kits are always packed full of a ton of product, but the last two months Simon Says has really gone above and beyond what was already above and beyond!
You know how I love my craft kits!
This one had gorgeous papers, two ink cubes, two sets of gorgeous stickers, two stamp sets and a NUVO Aqua Shimmer pen, just to name a few things in the kit. There was more! One of my favorite products in these kits, and this will sound crazy, is the envelopes. They have the prettiest shimmer envelopes. No matter what colors of envelopes are included, they always have this beautiful metallic shimmer. Plus, the card stock is a nice heavy card stock. The quality of the products are just amazing.
I am planning on making at least two more cards today, but I wanted to at least get this one posted just in case the electricity goes out.
This week’s Paper Craft Crew sketch is quite a busy sketch. I edited some details out and I still feel like I have a lot going on with my card. Of course, I had to play with at least one technique, but I like the end result.
I know it has a lot going on, but I did edit out some details!
When Simon Says Stamps releases their kits each month, they always have a blog hop featuring cards created by their design team. They also include a sheet of ideas from the design team in each kit. One of the details that I really liked was the use of the craft colored card base in several of the samples. I just loved the way that natural colored element pulled the pastel colors together. It seemed to ground them. It feels earthy which I think is how I always feel when spring actually gets here.
I can’t wait until it is time to start the gardens for the season! (Although there are many inches of snow on top of them at this moment.)
I only created 3 things on my card. I created the pink “ribbon” strip. That is actually a stamp in the kit. I love that stamp! I can have faux ribbon in any color to coordinate with my project.
I also created the sentiment which is heat embossed in white on black card stock.
The watercolored pennant is also my creation. I wanted to create my own background paper using a watercolor resist technique. The kit had two ink cubes. Simon Says Stamps has a hybrid ink and the kit included Holllyhock and Wisteria. These hybrid inks are permanent on paper, acid-free, archival and fade resistant. They are pigment based, but dry quickly like dye ink and are less likely to bleed through thin papers often found in planners. I found them very smooth to stamp with.
I used several of the stamps in the same stamp set that included the sentiment and the faux ribbon and heat embossed them in white on white card stock. Then I smooshed the ink cubes onto a clear block to put some of the inks on the block and then spritzed them with a little water. Using a paintbrush, I added a tiny bit of water to my embossed images and then added the watered ink to the images as well. I wanted a watercolor effect. When I was done, I pulled out a green and yellow from my Altenew cube box in warm sunshine and forest glade inks. I added these to the leaves and used the yellow as a loose watercolor background around the outside of the stamped images. It’s an easy, loose effect that works well with that patterned gingham that came in the kit. The hello is a sticky backed die from the kit. I added the linen thread and the sequins from my stash to complete the card.
I actually think this kit and this card layout would make a fabulous scrapbook page. I actually would like to try that if I have enough time today to do that. The kit has so many wonderful sticker/dies that would make a pretty spring layout.
Well…I’m going to get this posted and hopefully by the time you see this tomorrow, I will still have electricity and less snow!
Thank you for stopping by! Happy crafting and remember to embrace the imperfections!
Love the card!
Thank you, Marty!