Simon Says Stamp and Pretty Pink Posh STAMPtember Collaboration Stamp Set Topiary

During STAMPtember, Simon Says Stamp collaborates with many stamp companies to bring a stamp set together sold by Simon. This month the stamp set with Pretty Pink Posh is called Topiary and I got a chance to work with it ahead of time. I have two cards to show you that I made with it. They are almost exactly the same, but they show how the stamp set can be used in two different ways to get the same result. Let's get started!

Here is an image of the stamp set. Take note that the trees come with both flat stamps you can ink and with outline stamps you can color. This also allows for two-step stamping which means layering the outline stamp over the flat stamp. My second card uses that technique.

CARD 1:

I stamped all of these trees with MFT Natural Ink on white cardstock. I arranged them like a puzzle in a "random stamping" fashion as I call it. I always use a Misti on this technique. I colored in all of the trees with colored pencils using an ombre color theme. I started with the lightest color on the tree trunk and then got darker and darker as I moved to the top of the tree.

I die-cut the stamped piece into a rectangle and mounted it on a dark teach card base. I stamped the sentiment banner on white cardstock with Garden Patina embossing powder (my favorite teal that I use all the time!). I stamped the sentiment on the inside with black ink. I cut around the edges and attached it to the bottom of my card. I added some Caribbean Blue jewels and some Sparkling Clear Sequins around the sentiment.

CARD 2:

I wanted to try the same "random stamping" technique using inks and the flat tree stamps. I used two colors of each ink color - a lighter and a darker. I used my Misti on this one as I was applying more than one stamped image over each other. I stamped it first with the lighter color. Then I applied the darker ink to just the top part of the stamp and used my finger to gentle wipe off the edges so it appeared to fade when stamped. This gave the top of the trees a darker or ombre color. I then lined up the outline stamp and stamped it the same way - the lighter color first and the darker color on just the top. I messed up lining up a couple - the purple one by the sentiment banner isn't very well done and I almost started the entire thing over, but I resisted!

It takes practice, but after a few trees I had the two-step stamping down and didn't make any more mistakes. I eye-balled where the outline stamps were placed by looking at the sides of the stamp. I die-cut the piece into a rectangle and mounted it on a black card base. I stamped the banner and sentiment with white embossing powder on black cardstock as well and attached that to the bottom of the card. I added some black jewels around the sentiment.

Which of these two cards do you prefer? Which way would you do it if you were making one? I would like to say the ink method is way less time consuming, but getting the stamps placed perfectly over the flat stamps does take some practice. I think both cards took about the same amount of time. I had more fun coloring in the little leaves with colored pencils. They are the perfect coloring medium for small little items like these leaves. Would love to hear your opinion though! 

Thanks for visiting today. You can purchase the Topiary collaborative stamp set between Simon and PPP HERE in the Simon Says Stamp store. There are links to all of the products I've used in this post to the SSS store down there south of here. Have a great weekend (it's Friday as I type this!). Suzy

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Comments

[Andrea H]

I really love the colours you've used on both cards but to be honest I really can't see what's different apart from the 2nd card looking a bit darker. I think I'm really missing something here lol. Xxx

[W Reese]

I love, love, love your cards! And love them both equally, wouldn’t change a thing!