Happy Easter Bunny Circle Card

Hi crafters! Today I have a sweet Easter card to share with a circle design. 

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

The Easter scene was stamped and watercolored and all the papers were die cut into circles and then layered. Circle cards are a fun variation to the normal rectangular or square cards.

I used products from Simon Says Stamp Favorite Things release: the Bunny Blessings stamp set and the Basic Shapes Circles. Die cut the circle from watercolor paper and stamp the bunny and flowers with waterproof ink. I used Archival Ink Jet Black.

Watercolor the images, leaving some of the white paper showing for highlights.

Watercolor the sky and add shading.

Add details with a black pen and highlights with a white gel pen.

Don't worry about perfection when watercoloring.

Distress the edges of the watercolor panel. The cardstock circles were die cut from Simon Says Stamp cardstock. Fold the green cardstock before die cutting and let the folded edge go slightly outside the cutting plate. The Simon Says Stamp Basic Shapes Circles is a very versatile die set. It consists of 18 circle dies.

I also added some sequins to the card.

I hope you enjoyed this project! Easter crafting is so joyful.

Thank you for visiting!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Layered Ephemera Card

Hello friends! I hope you had a fun weekend! This was a Pokemon-weekend for us and a lot of fun.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

This week we have a Use Ephemera/Layer It Up theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog. I hope you will join us! Don't miss the project by our March guest designer Rox aka Red Dirt Crafter.

I made a 6x6 in card using a whole bunch of ephemera and also some scrap pieces which were left-over from previous projects. These projects are a lot of fun to make. I really enjoy deciding which pieces to use and then moving them around until I am happy with the look.

I started by going through some scrap boxes and also picked out a bunch of Tim Holtz idea-ology ephemera. I didn't use everything and added a few more items after taking this photo. I used ephemera from: Organic Layers, Palette Ephemera, Snippets, and Snippets Number Strips.

Sand all the edges and fold and crease some of them. Ink with Ground Espresso and then distress with an edge distressor tool.

After planning where to place everything, I started adhering it in layers to cream background cardstock.  

I made sure not to cover up any words, numbers or images which I wanted to keep visible, such as the title of this book.

The dragonfly was left-over from another project. The stamp comes from Stamper's Anonymous Classics #1 and was stamped on acetate and colored with alcohol ink. I added Stickles to the wings. The circles in the background were also in my scrap box and were die cut with Simon Says Stamp Thin Frames. The cloud background from Organic Layers is really nice.

Here you can see the glitter effect on the wings better.

I gathered little groups of ephemera on the tag, and also added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Gold Gems. 

The ticket was stamped with Tim Holtz Odds & Ends and was also in my scrap box, as was the ribbon, cheese cloth, and the very old paper flower. 

Join us this week in our Use Ephemera/Layer It Up challenge! You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for visiting today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Simon Says Stamp Rain or Shine Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to take part in the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop to celebrate the new Rain or Shine release. If you are following along in the hop, you should have come here from Tina Smith.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

The Rain or Shine release is full of wonderful new and versatile stamps, embossing folders, stencils, dies, ink and gems, perfect for spring-time crafting. You can find the entire Rain or Shine release here.

The exclusive Balloon Bouquet die will be automatically added to your cart that contains $23 or more of Rain or Shine release products! This gift with purchase will expire 3/31 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last. 

I made thank you tag with lots of words and lots of little ducks. The sentiments from the new Simon Says Stamp Thank You Basics are the perfect length for a tag and I always did enjoy covering an entire background with words. The little ducks from Farm Life were watercolored with Distress Ink. 

I started out by planning where to place the sentiment stamps from the Thank You Basics set. This set is filled with very useful thank you sentiments. Snap a photo so that you will remember. 

White emboss the sentiments on the background, working one or two sentiments at a time. 

Smear Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet and mist with water. Press the tag into the ink. I liked this first background, but wanted more color and texture. Let dry and repeat.

After having repeated the process above three times, I did a layer with only a tiny bit of Uncharted Mariner. 

And finally, the background was finished with Mermaid Lagoon and Mustard Seed Distress Oxide Ink. Smear on the non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and just lightly touch the tag to the ink here and there.

The Simon Says Stamp Farm Life set is adorable! I stamped the ducks on watercolor paper.

Smear Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. I forgot to include the orange ink in the photo.

Cut the ducks out. There are coordinating Farm Life dies, but I don't have them yet, so I used scissors instead.

The May Arts Faux Wrinkled Ribbon was dyed with Distress Ink. 

I also stamped a few hearts from the Hoppy Birthday set, cut out an glued to the tag. Glue all the ducks. 

Place the ducks here and there so that it looks like they are walking towards each other, for a meeting somewhere in the middle of the tag.

The background works great on its own too, you don't really have to add anything on top. 

I also glued Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Sunbeam Gems to the tag. Don't worry about covering some of the text up. 

The final sentiment perfectly fit across the tag.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop! There are of course prizes to be won too, and at each stop on the hop SSS is giving away a $25 coupon, randomly drawn from those who leave a comment. The winners will be posted post on the Simon Says Stamp store blog on 26 March.

Your next stop on the hop is my friend Karin Åkesdotter. Don't miss to the wonderful project she has created. If you get lost along the way, here are all the stops:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Caly Person

Nichol Spohr

Suzy Plantamura

Jennifer McGuire

Debby Hughes

Emily Midgett

Lisa Addesa

Tina Smith

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Karin Åkesdotter

Sandi MacIver

Tracy Ware

Barb Engler

Michelle Short

Charlene Madrid

For more inspiration, remember to check out the Rain or Shine gallery at Simon Says Stamp, and if you make something with products from the range, it is fun if you post it in the galleries too. There are galleries for all releases, and for the card kits, full of inspiration.

This is the first Rain or Shine blog hop, don't miss blog hop number day number 2, which is tomorrow.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! 

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Watercolor Hearts Tag

Hello stampers! Today I have a tag to share with lots of hearts and fun watercoloring.

Please note: this post has affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

I wanted a tag filled with hearts, using products from Simon Says Stamp To Love release. I designed most of these products and had particularly looked forward to using the stamps with the hearts in different sizes from the Retro Hearts set. I used watercolors to color both the background, the hearts and the title.

White emboss Simon Says Stamp Outline Hearts on a tag cut from watercolor paper.

Paint with watercolor paint and let the paints run into each other.

White emboss Simon Says Stamp Retro Hearts on watercolor paper. 

Paint the hearts with the same watercolor paints as used on the background.

Die cut the hearts with the coordinating dies. Die cut one more time from Simon Says Stamp Navy Cardstock.

White emboss the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Love Letter and watercolor with the same paints. Let the colors blend into each other.

Die cut with the coordinating Love Letter dies. 

I tied the tag with a mix of organza ribbons and a piece of fiber.

I stamped and die cut the arrows from Love Letter. 

The hearts are a fun way to test different color combinations. The hearts were adhered with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Perfect Foam Tape. 

I also glued Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Opal Gems to the tag. When you combine watercolors and heat embossing you can get surprising effects as the paint can pool inside our around the the embossed design.

The smaller sentiments come from Simon Says Stamp Love Letter and Lined Heart.

Distress the edges of the tag.

Thank you for visiting!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.