Sunny Days Ahead Blog Hop
Hello hello crafty friends and welcome back to another tutorial. I’m extremely excited to be apart of Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop for their latest release Sunny Days Ahead. Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from their blog comment section. They will pick a winner from each blog and post the winner on Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, the 29th of April. So make sure you leave a comment below not to mention the free gift!! Let’s get started with my first card.
I began watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper using my distress inks. I wet my paper and used Seedless Preserve as my darkest color. Once I dried it with my heat tool, I went back in with another coat and didnt go as high up. Heat set it. Then I used a tiny bit of Black Soot just to get the purple a little darker. And I went back and forth until it was nicely blended. Dried it completely.
I used the graduation hat from the CZ Design Grad Party and cut it out. (stamped it in SSS Intense Black Ink)
Then I used the sentiment that came in the stamp set. I treated my watercolor panel with my anti static tool…inked up my sentiment..stamped it in the middle of my panel..used white embossing powder and heat set it. I did the same thing with the other sentiment but used black cardstock.
I trimmed down my panel and adhered it to a piece of trimmed down SSS Fog Cardstock. I adhered it to a A2 size card base. I used foam tape for my cap and sentiment and the card is finished. Very simple and easy. I did another on in blue. (see photos)
My second card I started it out with using a trimmed down card panel. I tore the end of one side of my panel so that I can use my embossing ink…sprinkled gold embossing powder and heat set it. on the other side, I used SSS Mesh stencil in SSS Fog Ink and used the stencil just a bit on the other side of my embossing.
Once the stenciling was done, I cut out CZ Design Extra Large Congrats die cut in black and white cardstock (both SSS) I cut the black out once and the “congrats” in white 3 times and used GinaK Connect glue to adhere them together. then I glued my “congrats” onto my black outline.
I used the cap from CZ Design Grad Party again but this time I added some embossing ink on the tassel and used some gold embossing powder and heat set it. I also stamped a sentiment on a black piece of cardstock and used white embossing powder and heat set it as well.
I adhered my panel onto a black card base. Attached the “congrats” in middle of my panel and used foam tape to adhere my cap right on top of the C. I placed my other sentiment under “congrats” and that completes card #2
My last card I began by using an A2 size panel and used some distress oxides inks. Mowed Lawn, Cracked Pistachio and Worn Lipstick. Once Everything was blended, I drizzled some water on my panel…waited a few seconds and dabbed it with a clean paper towel and put it aside.
I used SSS Stylized Tulips using white cardstock. ( SSS 120lb cardstock) I cut it out approx 5 times and glued them all together. set that aside as well. I selected a sentiment from the SSS Mother’s Day Sentiment Strips and added some foam tape to it for dimension.
It’s assembly time. I trimmed down my panel to clean up the edges and have that nice clean edge around my card base. I adhered it with some glue. I attached my tulips with glue and put a block to hold it in place. I attached my sentiment and removed my block. I finished my card off with some clear embellishments. And that’s it!
Blog Hop Order
Simon Says Stamp Blog
Laura Bassen
Yana Smakula
Amy Rysavy
Heather Hoffman
Bibi Cameron
Gayatri Murali
Vicky Papaioannou
Preeti Chandran
Sidnie Des Jardins <——-You Are Here
JD Collins
Anna-Karin Evaldsson
IN ADDITION – the following ladies will be part of the hop featuring previously released Mother’s Day, Graduation, and spring floral Simon Exclusive products:
- Amanda Korotkova
- Debby Hughes
- Karin Äkesdotter
- Yoonsun Hu
Great cards! Thanks for all the inspiration!
Beautiful cards. I especially love the tulip one.
Wow! I love Cathy’s graduation set, and your cards with the gradient background look great with the simple graphic design of the stamps and dies. Very impressive and a fabulous way to honor the Class of 2020!
Wonderful cards. Your gradient backgrounds are gorgeous.
Yeah, this year is bad for those graduating this year like me.
But, your cards are awesome. Love the ombre.
I really like your cards but I especially love the backgrounds of all of them. You are so talented
Fantastic cards! Love the tulips.
Thanks so much for sharing.
loving the ombre effect. I like CAS cards, these are great grad cards.
I love your graduation cards! So beautiful, and so many good ideas!
Your cards are terrific. I like the hombre background for the graduation caps and the tulip die is one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Wow! Such beautiful cards. I especially like the tulip card, simple but elegant.
Love all of the cards. I especially love the color blending you did on the mother’s day card and the layerd tulips.
Awesome cards! Love the purple graduation card & the fun sentiment. And the colors you used for the Mother’s Day card are so pretty.
Love the masculine edge to your grad cards and I just love that tulip card!
I’ll be making some of those grad cards – love the simplicity
These are such pretty cards, and I especially appreciate that some of them work for guys!
Your watercolored backgrounds are so pretty! I love how you used just the outline of the die cut, it really stands out on the background.
Love your cards. Those backgrounds are awesome.
Thank you for your graduation card ideas. I have a grandson graduating this year and will be making cards for him and his friends. I have ordered the necessary tools to make their cards. Thanks again!!
Loving your cards today — The grad cards are just perfect – love their clean designs
I love the blending on the first few cards. Beautifully done. I’ll have to try tearing the edge of the card and embossing it. It’s looked very cool.
I love the look of the graduation cards.
Such pretty cards. Thanks for sharing with us!
Love the way CONGRATS is rocking that cap! Your use of that tulip die is inspiring. Gives me lots of ideas. Thanks for sharing your talent.
Lovely graduation cards!
Love the watercolor background of the grad cards. Very sophisticated design. The outline tulip card is lovely!
Wow! Very beautiful cards and that blending!
Simple and awesome
What a beautiful title for a beautiful release. So many wonderful products and artists for us to follow. As an Australian 🇦🇺 I especially love the “Mum” die. A lot of the cards I used to make for my Mum, before she passed, had the top of the “O” cut out of them🙂 Thank you to Simon for the release and to you for so much inspiration 💖
So pretty! I love how you play with the inks and give your cards such a gorgeous look!
Such lovely tulips.
Love all your cards. Thanks for sharing. I love bog hops so many pretty things.
So many wonderful cards. I especially liked the gilded torn edge on the one graduation card.
Great use of the tulip dies
Love these cards. My heart goes out to all the grads this year.
very nice clean and simple cards
Pretty variety of cards! I love the graduation ombre cards. They would be perfect to customize to the graduates school colors.
Great cards and love the colour selection
Love the graduation cards. They are awesome
Wonderful cards! I especially love the tulip card.
Fabulous cards!
Really great cards … I especially like the ombre look in the first two
Beautiful cards! Love your ombre backgrounds! The Stylized Tulips die is a favorite of the release! Such a pretty Mother’s Day card!
LOVE your distress watercoloured backgrounds!! Pretty!
Beautiful color blending. Love the bright white tulip against it.
The Distress Ink watercolor ombre backgrounds are such a great touch to add some texture to a simple and elegant card design. I think my favorite card is the one with the Stylized Tulip Die and the Distress Oxide ink blended background — such a unique color combination that evokes springtime.
Thanks so much Colleen. I really enjoy playing around with distress oxides and inks!
Thanks for sharing these super cool grad cards!!
Good ideas for ways to add a background.
Wow, all of these are lovely! I especially like the first and the last ones, but they’re all fab!
What a wonderful collection of cards. Your black and white grad card is stunning!