Simon Says Stamp DieCember Blog Hop Day 1!

Hello, hello!   I'm so excited to be participating in the day 1 blog hop celebrating Simon Says Stamp's DieCember release!  It is huge and full of wonderful new products!   You should have arrived at my blog from   blog.    As you can see from the graphic Simon Says Stamp is offering a free gift with any purchase from the DieCember release and that free gift is an absolutely adorable snowman!  And Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 gift certificate at each stop on the hop!!  YAY!  

Simon Says Stamp was so kind and sent me several different products from the release.  Today I'm sharing cards that I made with a few of those products.   Let's take a look at what I created. 

First up is a card that I made using the really cool Forest Background die.  The die cuts out multiple tree lines and a thin border.  You can create a background like I did by keeping all the pieces together or create more depth to the layers by adding dimensional foam.   I started my card by coloring a piece of watercolor cardstock with Rustic Wilderness reinker.   I squeezed out the color from the bottle on to my Tim Holtz glass mat and then applied it to the cardstock with a wet paint brush.   Before applying the reinker I did wet the watercolor cardstock lighty with water.   I tried to have the bottom darker than the top.  It worked, sort of, lol!  Once my cardstock was dry I die cut it and then placed tape on the back to keep everything in place.   I did discard the top portion of the cut as I had created a second watercolor piece using Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot reinkers.    I let that piece dry and then die cut it with the top portion of the die.   Both pieces were then placed in my splatter box, liberally splattered with Simon Says Stamp white splatter medium and set aside to dry.  For the sentiment I used an older Simon Says Stamp peace die and two sub-sentiments from the SSS Stained Glass Greeting stamp set.  I die cut the word three times from glossy black cardstock and layered them.   To assemble the card I added foam squares to the back of the main portion of the background and adhered it to my card base.   For the top portion I used glue so that portion was flush with the card base giving a little dimension to the card.  I finished with the sentiments placed in the center.

For this card I used the new Radiant Burst die and the poinsettia image and sentiment from the SSS Holiday Gift Giving stamp and die set.  I placed the Radiant Burst die slighty off center on a white cardstock panel and then die cut it.   I stamped the poinsettia with Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored the image with Copic markers.   Die cut the poinsettia, two additional layers and glued them together.  Same was done for the sentiment.  I added some glossy accents to the center of the flower and then covered it with Rock Candy glitter.   I'm trying to be mindful of postage costs so I adhered the Radiant Burst panel to my pink cardstock base with glue.   I then adhered the poinsettia and sentiment.  My card is based on the sketch from Sunday Stamps so I will be adding it to their gallery. 

This card is a duplicate of the first card just with a different image, sentiment and color palette.   I couldn't decide which image I wanted to use for the initial card and so decided to just create two.  That means two more cards for my Christmas card stash.  The image was also stamped in Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic markers.   Diecutting and assembly is exactly the same as the first card.    

Which card do you like best?  I like both versions, but I'm a little more partial to the second card as I like bold jewel tone colors more than softer pastel colors.  

My final card is a departure from Christmas and a move to birthday.  This card was made with the Sweet Treat Critters stamp set and the Scalloped Shaker Shapes die set.   I did some masking to keep my card fairly flat for mailing.  Everything was stamped with Tuxedo Black ink and then colored with Copic markers.  I then die cut the image with the larger scalloped shaker shape.  Pink cardstock was die cut with an SSS A2 Frames die and then embossed with a fun puffy heart embossing folder.  I adhered the pink panel with double sided tape and the image with glue.  I finished with the speech bubble sentiments that were popped up with thin foam squares.  

Well, that is it for me.  Your next stop on the hop is   .    A full list of blog hop participants can be found on the Simon Says Stamp blog.  You can find the full release right here.