Card Deconstruction

After getting the photos for my sister, I pulled apart the entire card and played with the pieces to make something totally different.  This card just came together from nothing but I love it.  I started with a Heidi Swapp stencil to add my falling snow.  Before my embossing paste was dry, I added some Judikins Embossing Powder for a little sparkle.  I then added a night sky with about six (!) colors of Distress Ink (Scattered Straw, Seedless Preserves, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass and Black Soot).  I cut out the rolling snow hills with my Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies.  To the two in white card stock, I added some Versamark Dazzle and the same sparkling embossing powder.  I stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts set with the houses in some Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy ink and fishtailed the banner.  Love this card, even though it not mass production friendly.

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 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.

Hello Card 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 a Darice Basketweave embossing folder with my Distress Inks (this time I think Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers).  Once my panel was finished, I wasn't sure what to do with it.  After all, it was the last of four panels I made using the same technique.  So it sat on my desk for while, but in the hurricane of craft products on my desk I got an idea (if you remember this picture from my social media feed):

In fact, you can see the card in progress on my craft mat.  It started with the Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Journaling Card.  It's meant to cut a 4 by 6 panel for Project Life, but I've seen it used on cards on videos and blogs (although I can't remember where I specifically saw it), so I pulled it off the card and used it to cut the panel for my card.  I then used that piece of Soft Navy card stock from Simon Says Stamp that you can see on the right side of my picture to make a card base.  I used the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper to round the corners of the panel to match.  For the sentiment, I cut out the word hello several times with the Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello die (see the paper on the right) then stacked them.  I brushed the finished product with white Wink of Stella for a little glitter, then adhered it to my embossed panel.  I added that on top of my card base, then finished it off with some Doodlebug sequins (although I'm not sure I like the color on the finished the card and I may switch them out for clear ones) and some Glossy Accents on the hello. 

 

 Here's a close up of the sentiment:

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.

Thanks Card Inspired by Catherine Pooler

While reading blogs on my iPad, I came across a fun card made by Catherine Pooler using the reverse side of a stamp.  You can find the post and video here.  I thought I would give it a shot.  Since I didn't have the stamp she has, I used the backside of the Dahlia stamp from Crafty Secrets along with the Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks.  I wasn't sure I really liked how it turned out, so I set it aside and worked on something else, but once it dried, I actually thought it wasn't too bad.   Sometimes things just have to grow on me.  So I cut the panel down to 4 x 5 1/4.  Then I used the Lawn Fawn thanks die to cut my sentiment into the panel.  I then taped the panel down to a card base made from Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy card stock, which is quickly becoming a favorite.  I used some extra of that card stock to cut out another thanks using the die.  I then inlayed the sentiment, which is a very popular technique right now.  I added a few clear sequins to finish it off.

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

In my quest to use up my Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit, I had another piece of floral paper that I had used with the envelope stamp, but still had quite a bit of the sheet left.  I decided it would be good time to use my new Lawn Fawn Stitched Party Banners die.  I used the largest banner die to cut a banner out of the floral paper.  I then used the smaller banner die with vellum.  I then stamped the sentiment with some Versamark ink and used Ranger Walnut Stain Embossing Powder to finish off the sentiment.  I layered the banners together, hole punched some matching holes in the floral paper then tied the two layers together with some Hemptique baker's twine.  I ran a piece of Soft Navy card stock from Simon Says Stamp through the Darice Chevron Background embossing folder for a little added texture.  I then layered the embossed card stock on my card base and topped it off with the banner pieces I had previous tied together.

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.