Simon Says Stamp Celebrate You Blog Hop - Day 1

Happy Thursday, crafty friends! It's always a happy day when we are celebrating a brand new release from Simon Says stamp, right?! Their latest collection is called Celebrate You, and it is full of lovely products! Simon is doing a free Tim Holtz Idea-ology Butterfly Adornment as a FREE gift with purchase promotion - just use the code BTF842 upon checkout to take advantage while supplies last! The code will expire on Sunday, 05/19 at 11:59 pm ET.

This is day 1 of the Celebrate You Blog Hop, and we've got quite the lineup for you! I will put all of the blog hop details at the end of my post, but how about we get to my cards first? Today I have focused on the Gerbera Daisy cling stamp and Words of Hope dies. I've paired them with some teeny sentiments from the previously released Comfort & Prayers stamp set, and they were the perfect addition to these lovely word dies.

 I quite often get the background cling stamps that SSS releases each month, and I always love to do my simple drop & spray technique with my Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolor. This is where I drop a few drops of each color, then lightly spray here & there with my Distress Sprayer to create the background. This worked okay with this image, but I will be honest and let you know that I had to mop a bit of water in places, and use my brush to really make them look how I wanted. Liquid watercolor is really forgiving when it comes to this, so I wasn't worried and the backgrounds came out just as I planned!

I did end up doing a video, but please be gentle with me...it's been awhile and my voice over is a little clunky. Plus, my camera died, so you only get to see the heat embossing and watercoloring done on video...which is technically the more important part.

I hope that you liked my video, and getting to see how I fixed my mistakes, and how forgiving liquid watercolor actually is! One thing that I forgot to mention in the video is that once the panels were dry, I did gently wipe them down with a damp paper towel to help reveal the white embossing again. And I also wanted to mention that the photographed cards are the actual panels from the video - I know that sometimes people create cards in advance to try out their technique, but I'm going to be real with you...I don't have time for that. Lol! Thus, you got to watch me figure out how to make a little bit of a hot mess work. :)

I started by heat embossing the images in WOW! opaque bright white - superfine to Arches hot pressed watercolor paper. I actually prefer the cold pressed version, but I wanted less texture to interfere with the heat embossing. The cold pressed paper is far less textured, so it was the best choice. I watercolored each background like I mentioned above, then set them aside to fully dry.

While they dried, I diecut each word three times: once from DCWV gold glitter paper and twice from heavyweight white cardstock. I stacked & adhered them together with a Zig chisel tip glue pen. Then I stamped the sentiments in onyx black Versafine to white cardstock, and trimmed them down, adding banner edges to some of the sides. The final step was layering all the elements to the front of white A2 card bases, popping some pieces up with foam adhesive and finishing by accenting with trios of jewels.

This pink version uses the Bubblegum and Sky Blue shades of Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolor. I think the sentiment would be really fitting for someone dealing with cancer, infertility, loss and so much more. 

This version uses the Sunshine & Sky Blue shades of Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolor. This sentiment is faith based, and perfect for many occasions & scenarios...even graduation!

 I hope that you liked my Gerbera Daisy & Words of Hope card set today using Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolor and some of the amazing new products from Simon Says Stamp!

That is what I have for you today! How about we get to all the fun blog hop info now?!

PRIZES:
Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from the blog comment section. They will choose the winners and post on the Simon Says Stamp store blog on Wednesday. Winners can email SSS to claim their prize.

BLOG HOP LINK LIST:

Be sure to hop along and leave comments along the way for your best chance to win one of the prizes!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Kristina Werner
Cathy Zielske
Nina-Marie Trapani
Nichol Spohr
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Suzy Plantamura
Amy Rysavy
Lisa Addesa
Kathy Racoosin
Heather Hoffman
Lea Lawson
Emma Williams

Wow....what a lineup that is! I know I am excited to grab a cup of coffee and see what everyone else created!

Finally, if you'd like to see even MORE inspiration from this release, check out the Celebrate You Collection Gallery. And be sure to link up YOUR creations too!

Before you move along to Emma's blog, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. I would love to be crafty friends!

INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK

Alright friends! Happy hopping, and happy Thursday!

SUPPLY LIST
For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. {Includes affiliate linking where possible - this allows small compensation for me at no cost to you. Never fear - I will only ever link to products that I truly love & use!}