Living My Dream: Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Days Blog Hop Day 2: "One Stamp, Five Ways"

It's day two of the Simon Says Stamp two day blog hop celebrating their brand new Beautiful Days release. I have a "one stamp, five ways" post to share with you using the popular Garden Fresh stamp set which comes with a set of matching dies. You can see the bundle here:

I have shared two other cards using the new release that I'll show you and link you to the blog posts. The first uses the Mother's Day Dogwood stamp set and the Chunky Knit stencil. You can see that blog post HERE and here is the card:

This one uses the new Yarn Love stamp set and matching dies and you can see the blog post HERE.

And now for my "one stamp, five ways" using the new Garden Fresh stamp set. Here is a photo of my 5 cards together and then I'll show you each one with directions (very detailed ones)!

CARD ONE:

My first card is a slimline one that uses the stamp in sort of a "random stamping" way... I die-cut a rectangle with the SSS Nested Slimline Rectangle Dies from white cardstock. I then stamped all of the floral stamps in the Garden Fresh stamp set on the top and bottom edge of the cardstock with Latte PSInk (my no-line coloring ink of choice). I lined the jar tops right against the edge so just the flowers showed. I did the same with the watering can. Before I started stamping them, I positioned the two sentiments so I could make sure they fit around them nicely. I showed more of the flowers on the top half and less on the bottom half so it wasn't too symmetrical.

I stamped the "Spring" stamp from the Garden Fresh stamp set with Orchid Pawsitively Saturated Ink. I hadn't thought of using these inks for stamping sentiments since they are so juicy. But they work perfectly and are very sharp and precise just like I like my sentiments! I stamped the secondary sentiment with Intense Black Ink which was a hard decision as there is no other black on the card. Was it the wrong decision? I used the new sequin mix called Lilac Sparkle around all the flowers and sentiments. I attached it to a purple slimline card base.

CARD 2:

I mentioned on a previous blog post that I bought a set of pink floral papers that are thick like 110 lb. cardstock by 49 and Market called Color Swatch Blossom. I love stamping on this paper and coloring images in with colored pencils as they are fairly opaque, but show just a little of the pattern under them. I die-cut a piece of the paper with the SSS Basic Rectangle Dies. I then stamped the watering can and flowers on it with black ink. I colored the design in with colored pencils. I prefer the most opaque ones over this paper which are Caran d'ache Luminance (very pricey) and Prismacolors (the least pricey of good pencils, but very waxy). I attached this piece to a card base made with Heffy Doodle Bubblegum Blush cardstock which is the perfect mix of coral and pink and I adore this color!

I have a bunch of scraps of paper that I have painted with Nuvo Shimmer Powders I use for card backgrounds or for die-cutting. I have now put my grandkids in charge of making these for me as kids LOVE Shimmer Powders! They do it all the time and sometimes I get lucky and get a good color combo haha (they are 5 and 8). This one was painted with Catherine Wheel and Cherry Blossom so it had some coral areas and bright pink areas with speckles of yellow. I die-cut the new Fancy Mom and Shadow Die from it and also from white cardstock and layered them for the main sentiment. I then added a sentiment from the stamp set stamped with black ink directly on the paper for the second part of the greeting. I used some SSS Gilded Sequin Mix around the sentiment and also some small green pearls from the Honeybee Happy Hearts Pearl Stickers (I love that they have glue dots on the backs of them).

CARD THREE:

This is my favorite card of the five! I die-cut a rectangle with the SSS Basic Rectangle Dies from white cardstock. I stamped there three jars/vases with Latte PSInk on the bottom portion. I used the Botanical Jars stencil and PSInks in Tidepool, Carnation, and Lilac over each jar. I then outlined them with a matching color pencil. I colored the flowers in the same color as the jars with colored pencils and added green stems to each flower over the jars. I also added a white line with a Uniball white gel pen.

I attached this piece with foam tape behind it to one of the Pastel Color Blend Cardstock pieces. I die-cut the Fancy Mom and Shadow Die again out of another one of the Pastel Color Blend Cardstock pieces. I attached the Mom to the top of the card. I stamped a secondary sentiment from the stamp set below it using Orchid PSInk. I added some pearls around the sentiment from a new set I just bought called Little Things From Lucy's Cards Crystal Collection. I was really into pearls when making these cards!

CARD FOUR:

To make the background for this card, I used the new Chunky Knit Stencil. I applied Trio 2 Ink over it with the darkest color in the center and getting lighter as I moved outward. I then die-cut a SSS Nested Oval Die out of one of the Pastel Color Blend Cardstock pieces. I attached that over the stenciled background.

I stamped two of the floral bundles with Latte PSInks and colored them with Copic Markers. I then die-cut two of the Spring Blossoms Wafer Dies from white cardstock, which have the same exact flowers on them! I colored one with Copics, punched the white parts out and then glued it over the other white one for more dimension. I attached the two stamped ones tucked inside each side of the bottom of the oval and the die-cut one I attached over the oval so the stems showed using foam tape behind the top of the flowers. I then stamped the two sentiments on white cardstock using Blush PSInk and a SSS Sentiment Label Die. I didn't have the Garden Fresh dies, so I fussy cut out all of my images and it really wasn't that hard. I attached both to the bottom of the card with foam tape behind them.

CARD FIVE:

I ended up making another slimline card, which wasn't my plan! I had the idea of using the watering can from the Garden Fresh stamp set with the floral stem from the Mother's Day Dogwood stamp set. They fit nicely on an A2 size card, but I didn't want it to look too similar to the other card I made with the watering can. I switched it to a slimline card, but the can hangs over the edge. I give my mom lots of cards without envelopes, so this doesn't bother me, but you may not like it this way. Same concept works on an A2 size! I die-cut a slimline rectangle with the SSS Nested Slimline Rectangle Dies. I applied Flannel Ink to the bottom to be behind the watering can, not going out to the edges. I then applied Lilac Ink to the top making it lighter as I moved upward. I attached this piece to a slimline card base made with Heffy Doodle Wildberry Cardstock (another color I adore as it is a bright orchid which is hard to find!).

I stamped the watering can from the Garden Fresh stamp set with black ink. I cut my flowers off the top of the stamp, but it would be easy to just wipe the ink off the flowers before stamping or use a mask under that portion of the stamped image. I colored the watering can in with Copic Markers and added white lines with a white Uniball gel pen. I fussy cut around it and attached it to the bottom of the card with foam tape behind it. I stamped the flowers from the Mother's Day Dogwood stamp set with black ink and cut them out with the matching dies. I colored them in with colored pencils. I attached them above the watering can with foam tape behind them. I cut off the bottom of the stamp I used on the top where it says "on your birthday". I then stamped the remaining part on the top center of the card with black ink. I then positioned the words "on your" in the center of those two lines and stamped them with black ink, making sure not to get any ink on the word "birthday". I stamped the large script birthday below the other sentiment also with black ink. I added some Honeybee Happy Hearts Pearl Stickers and Honeybee Rainbow Birthday Gem Stickers around the flowers.

BLOG HOP DETAILS:

Today is day two of the two day blog hop. The hop is on April 7th and April 8th. You can start on the SSS Blog to see all participants for both days.
Visit the SSS Beautiful Days Gallery to see ALL of the creations that have been shared using these releases. And make sure to post your cards with the releases in the galleries as well. If you are on Instagram, you can see all of the projects under the hashtag #sssbeautifuldays.
At the top of this post is a graphic that shows the promotion that is part of this blog hop. Use the code BUD to get a Flower Garden emboss and cut folder FREE with a purchase of $30 or more! The promotion will expire 4/9 at 11:59 pm EDT.
You can see the entire Beautiful You Release HERE in the Simon Says Stamp store. I have linked to all of the products I used in this post below.
SSS is giving away a $25 coupon on every stop of the hop from the blog comment section. They will choose the winners and post them on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, the 12th of April. You can email them to claim your prize.
Next on the hop is: BIBI CAMERON