The Last Card With the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit

This is it!  It's the very last card I made with the 2014 July Card Kit from Simon Says stamp.  I only have small bits of paper left that really aren't enough to do a full card from and I long ago ran out of card stock from the kit.  I really made this kit stretch and I know I'm still going to get lots of use from the stamp set because it's such a fabulous design (Kristina Werner designs the most amazing stamp sets) and I have loads of washi tape left too.  But all I had left was the full sheet of this blue triangle paper.  I had a few of the stamped envelopes left over too.  I decided to use the Technique Tuesday Notebook Card die as a base for my sentiment.  I added the Sending stamped in Soft Navy ink to the thanks cut several times from the Lawn Fawn Scripty Thanks die and then layered for a little dimension.  I added a few of the last envelopes from prep for a prior card to finish it off. 

And that's it.  I went back to count them up and  I made (by my count) 19 cards using supplies from the kit by adding in some extra plain card stock from my own stash.  I did use a bunch of dies and ink and a few extra supplies from my own stash, but I'm pretty impressed by how far this kit went.  I'll definitely be buying others in the future.  In fact, I'm debating about the August kit right now, but I'm not sure if I can trust myself to make so many cards featuring ice cream without eating a bunch of it myself!

Sending My Love Using the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit

I don't have much left of the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit, but I had some leftover envelopes from a previous card that were the inspiration for this card.  I thought this full sheet of text paper was subtle enough that I could stamp directly on it.  I chose to use black so it would have the best chance of standing out.  I used Lawn Fawn's Jessie's ABCs to spell out the "my" and then used the heart from the set inked in the Lipstick Red ink that came with the kit.  I added a little Wink of Stella and some Glossy Accents to make the heart pop.  When I started putting the card together, I decided the patterned paper needed a bit of a frame, so I pulled out some random blue paper from my stash that seemed to match the pattern paper pretty well.  I then just layered up the envelopes to finish it off.

Sending My Love Card Using Simon Says Stamp's July 2014 Card Kit

I've almost used everything from the kit but I had this leftover piece of the envelope paper and this red chevron paper and I thought they would work well together and decided to go with a simple card since the patterns seemed busy enough on their own.  I cut a hello using some Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy card stock using the Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello die, layered the papers on a card base made from Soft Navy card stock and then added one of the stickers from the kit to finish it off. 

Happy Hello Card

I think this is probably one of my favorite cards of the recent batch.  I am still trying to use up the last of the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 card kit and I saved this cute hello paper (I really loved it and would have hoarded it if I wasn't so bound and determined to use up the kit).  For this card, I pulled out my Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello die and the heart die from the Large Stitched Journaling Card dies.  I die cut the hello and heart from card stock in rainbow colors plus black. I then layered them together so that from the side, there's this cute little rainbow effect.  I cut the paper down to just a bit under the standard A2 card size and adhered it to a card base from Soft Navy card stock (love that Simon Says Stamp card stock).  I then added the heart and the hello, covered them with Wink of Stella and then coated the top in Glossy Accents.  I love, love, love this card in person. 

 

 

Sending Happy Thoughts Card

After a bit of a break to do some other card marking and such, I returned to my quest to finish using the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp Card.  I only have a few full sheets of paper and some scraps (plus a ton of washi tape) so I spent a little time stamping the various envelop stamps on some of the scraps.  I used one of the full sheets for the background, then pulled out some white card stock from my stash to counteract this buys paper.  I stamped the sentiment using the Lipstick Red ink that came in the set along with some Soft Navy I had purchased separately.  I then layered on some of the envelopes to finish it out.  It was a super quick card once I had the envelopes ready, but I like how it turned out.

Thinking of You Inspired by Jennifer McGuire

As I posted before, I was completely enthralled watching Jennifer McGuire use Distress Inks with embossing folders.  You can see her beautiful work and check out her video here.   I immediately knew I had to give it a try by making several panels.  For this card, I used the Darice Heart Background with my Distress Inks (Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves I think) to make the lovely embossed panel.  I wasn't quite sure how I was going to use it on a card, but the idea came to me when I made a mess of a my craft desk.  I hate when it's messy but I do have to admit that I'm more creative when things are chaotic on my desk.  Somehow the mess of supplies leads me to think of things I might not have thought of if I hadn't seen random things laying together. 

It all started with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Party Banners dies and I thought about using the smallest banner shape for my sentiment.  But I didn't want to cover over all the texture and color, so I found some vellum in my stash.  Fortunately, I have several weights of vellum because the first piece was way too heavy.  It really was too opaque for what I wanted.  But then I found the lighter weight pack and realized it was perfect.  After cutting out my banner, I used the stamp from the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit inked in Versamark and heat embossed with some Ranger Super Fine White Embossing Powder to finish the sentiment.  I then marked the holes in the banner on my panel and used my Crop-a-dile to hole punch in the back panel.  I used some Sky hemp cord from Lawn Fawn for a bow and then cut my panel just a bit smaller than the width of my card base made from a half of a sheet of Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy card stock.  Once I had adhered it to the card base, I decided it really didn't need any further embellishment.

Sending Lots of Love Using the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

A while back I posted a picture of my craft desk with what's left of my July 2014 Card Kit from Simon Says Stamp: 

Well, actually, there's some extra there too in that some of the card stock is from own stash, but the 6x6 papers there are all that is left of the paper except for one sheet of Neenah Desert Storm card stock.  The Lawn Fawn packaging in the back was from the You've Got Mail set that I had pulled out for an idea I had for today's card.  I colored the mailbox from that stamp set and fussy cut it out.  I knew the background needed something so I used the little dotted border stamp from the stamp set in the kit and some Simon Says Stamp Fog ink (the lightest of their grey colors) to add a little grounding in the background.  I then stamped the sentiment using Lipstick Red ink that came in the kit and added the Lots of Love using some Soft Navy ink I had bought myself.  I stamped the smallest envelope stamp onto some patterned paper from the kit then fussy cut it out.  I added a little heart stamp from the kit, topped with Wink of Stella and some Glossy Accents.  Then I drew a dashed line for the envelope.  The mailbox was taped flat to the card, but I used pop dots for the mail.  I used some striped paper from the card kit for a mat and some Soft Navy card stock for the card base.

 

Thinking of You Using the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

I've got a few sheets of paper left from the July 2014 card kit from Simon Says Stamp, some of which I love so I've been hoarding and some I wasn't quite sure how to use.  This card uses one of the later.  The busy floral print is pretty, but I wasn't sure how to use it until I pulled out my new Avery Elle Pinked Elements.  The big rectangle seemed perfect, but I wasn't sure on the card stock.  So I decided to go with vellum instead.  I stamped the sentiment from stamp set in the kit then heat embossed it in Ranger Super Fine White embossing powder.  Then started stamping the flowers in the corners then heat embossing them in colors to match the paper. 

 

Mixing Lawn Fawn with the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

I still have a few pieces of paper left from my Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit and I'm determined to use up the kit before the peek of the August kit tomorrow.  So over the next few days you'll see the cards I've been working on to finish this kit.  Those who follow my social media saw a tweet earlier today of this picture from my craft room desk as I was working on this card:

When I was young, Mom took a painting class everything Thursday night and Dad watched us kids.  I have a lot of fun memories of those times with my sister staying up to watch shows past our bed time and such.  Of course, Mom knows all about the mischief we got into under Dad's watch, but isn't that part of being a kid?  When it was just me, sometimes Dad would go back to work and take me with him.  I got to run around the office and do silly things like eat sugar cubes from the stash for coffee and ride on the big industrial vacuum cleaner with Woody, the custodian who was a heck of a nice guy.  I loved those nights.  I was thinking of those days when I colored the typewriter today because I remembered these tan typewriters with black keys.  So after the photo, I colored in the keys and the roll bar with a dark grey because I thought black might be a bit too dark and I wanted the colors to go nicely with this piece of paper from the kit with the circles that remind me of keys on the old manual typewriters. 

The card was pretty simple.  I used the Neenah Desert Storm card stock from the kit to make my card base and cut the circle paper down to fit on the front with a bit of a frame of the card stock. After coloring and fussy cutting the cute typewriter from Lawn Fawn's Just My Type set, I used pop dot to adhere it to my card.  I found this Studio Calico (I think) hearts in my embellishment egg carton on my desk (love that little porcelain egg carton that I picked up in the store of the Willamette Valley Fruit Company a couple of weeks ago).  For one last touch, I used some Glossy Accents to highlight a couple of words in the pattern of the paper.  Here's a close up of that last detail:

I Thank My Lucky Stars for You

I started looking through the papers in the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp card kit when I got an idea to use the paper with my Simon Says Stamp Star Parade die and a background embossed with my Darice Stars embossing folder.  It turns out, I didn't use a whole lot of paper from the kit other than card stock, but I like how it turned out.  For the sentiment, I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Lucky Stars stamp and used some white embossing powder to really make it pop. I added some sequins (okay a lot of sequins) to finish it off.

Happy Birthday Inspired by Lauren Bassen and Simon Says Stamp

Today I got to spend the whole day in my craft room (whoo hoo!) and, for once, I actually had some  mojo.  It all started with some big screen time watching videos.  I loved one on the Simon Says Stamp blog with a card created by the talented Lauren Bassen that you can see here (really, go check it out.  It's fabulous.).  

I didn't have the stencil, but I was able to find an image on the Silhouette store (design ID 38579) that worked for my purposes.  I then used a stack of Distress Inks and my mini round blender to ink up some balloons.  Since I still have the fabulous stamp from the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp card kit, I decided to selectively ink the happy from the happy mail stamp then added the birthday from the it's your birthday stamp on the Fiskars All Year Greeting set.  A few sequins finished the cards off.  So much fun I had to make two.

 

Happy Mail Using Simon Says Stamp's July 2014 Card Kit

I'm back... I had to take a bit of time to do my June Project Life, plus four bonus layouts from my two days in DC in June.  Now that the first half of 2014 is in the book, I took five minutes tonight to clean up the Project Life goodness in my craft room.  Five minutes later, it's, well, not so clean as I immediately drug back out the July 2014 card kit from Simon Says Stamp and started playing.  While I watched the last episode of the first season of Fargo (not sure how I missed that one episode on the DVR until now), I put together a little card to get the juices flowing for a whole day in my craft room tomorrow (eek, so excited). 

For this card, the only items not from the kit are a piece of red card stock from my stash, the white card base and some Wink of Stella.  I used a banner die from the Hi Banner story card dies from Technique Tuesday to cut my smaller banners, but those totally could be cut by hand (although I liked that I could use the die to line up the hello paper.  So here's my quick, simple and fun card for tonight:

XOXO with the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

Now that the card samples from the kit are done, I feel free to play around with the rest.  I had this diamond panel sitting on my craft desk for a long, long time.  I made it with some multi-medium and Rock Candy Glitter using a stencil from StencilGirl Products.  I just selected a sheet from the paper left over in the kit as the background, added my panel, some baker's twine from Queen and Co., a couple of flowers punched from the kit paper with a Fiskars punch layered with a sticker from the kit to build my card.  It still seemed to need something, so I punched a Martha Stewart heart punch through some red card stock sitting on my craft table.  I added a few of the hearts, brushed them with some Wink of Stella and finished them off with some Glossy Accents.  I swear those two products have been my go to finishing touches lately.

Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

I've mentioned before that I bought the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit.  I started by making the sample cards on the sheet that comes in the kit.  None of these are my design and I followed the pictures pretty faithfully (with only small deviations) and none (except maybe the watercolor one) required much experience to replicate (the only reason the watercolor might be difficult is that a new card maker may not understand that you can use the ink in the kit to do the watercoloring and the ink splatter or feel comfortable with watercoloring or splattering ink at all).  I decided to use this kit as if I'm brand new to the hobby as I'm trying to decide if this kit would be a good choice for a relative beginning.  My boss' daughter has only recently taken up card making and since she too is fighting breast cancer (seems like I know a lot of people fighting it lately), I was looking for a kit that might be a good gift for her to play with when she's feeling up to playing with paper. My verdict?  I personally love the kit.  The stamp set is very versatile and stamps well.  There's good value in the kit and I think it's something anyone from a newcomer with only basic skills and tool to an advanced card marker could enjoy.  Honestly, I went from just trying it to see if I would recommend it for a new card maker to seriously considering a subscription myself.  I've bought a couple of their kits in the past, but haven't played with them as just the kit itself.  This is the first time I've spent a lot of time playing with just the kit and I think I'm hooked.

Anyhow, here are the cards I made from the samples:

Hello using Simon Says Stamp's July 2014 Card Kit

Today's card is more of what I had in mind when I started playing in my craft room last night.  For this card, I used some watercolor paper I had sitting on the side of my craft table that I die cut with that same Paper Smooches notepaper die.  I watercolored it using the Lipstick Red ink pad that comes with the kit and the Soft Navy pad I bought back around Father's Day.  I then inlayed the hello cut out of the watercolor paper using a Lawn Fawn die.  I then just cut down a blue card base from the card stock in the kit, added a mat of red from some card stock left over from another project and a smaller mat cut from some of the paper in the kit.  A few pop dots for notepaper along with a few of the red stars that come in the kit finished it off.  Or at least I thought so until I pulled out my Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents that were sitting on my craft desk to give the hello a little pop. 

Sending Happy Thoughts Using the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

Last weekend I played with the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 card kit.  I made my own copy of each of the samples because I wasn't quite feeling any crafty mojo.  Even after all the card samples were made, I had lots (and I do mean lots) left of the kit.  Hubby and I have a long weekend together and have been pretty busy, but tonight I slipped into my craft room after our date and just started re-arranging the papers on my desk.  I had planned to do a inlayed die cut since I've seen so many cute examples lately, but then something else took root and I'm pretty happy it did.

In addition to the card kit, I used a Paper Smooches die of the notebook paper, the white paper I cut the notebook paper from, a small piece of ribbon, some Versamark ink, some black Archival ink and the clear embossing powder, a little clear Wink of Stella on the Sending and a heart on one of the envelopes then a little Glossy Accents on the heart on the envelope.  Sure, it's more than just the card kit, but, other than perhaps the die, it's staples most of us have in our stash.  Love this kit and the stamp set with it is amazing.  If you want one, head over to Simon Says Stamp before this kit sells out.