Sparkle and Shine

 

 

 Hello Monday, my friends! And welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thank you for joining us for the  Delicious Drinks Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

It's been wonderful having Carrie with us this month. I am sure you have enjoyed her amazing creations as much as I have! I'm looking forward to seeing more, Carrie! 

This week the challenge is: SPARKLE AND SHINE

I craft so hard I sweat glitter... 

I have really been enjoying working with products from Studio Light Art by Marlene . She has such a fun and funky creative style! Her tags have quickly become a favorite surface to work on (as you may have noticed, lol!)

I started with some ink smooshing and speeded up the drying time with the Heat It tool. I am just not very patient waiting for things to dry.  

Next step is to stencil in some bubbles with Simon's Cadette blue Pawsitively Saturated ink. I love the small blending brushes from Simon Says Stamp for this! 

To add lots of sparkle and shine, I dabbed Simon's Craft Glue across the tag in certain areas, then applied the sequin glitter. 

I like the dimension it adds too. 

When I saw this quote from Marlene, I knew it would be perfect for this week! When we use glitter and it ends up everywhere, don't we feel like it's coming out of our pores? 

Marlene's Out of This World Paper Elements have some glitter on them too, and they are just so fun! 

Kind of a clown, kind of a witch...whatever this blue guy is, he's cute! 

Get out your sparkly and shiny bits this week and come join the fun!.I look forward to seeing your sparkly creations! 

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $25 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store 

Supplies:

Art by Marlene Out of this World Glitter Paper Elements 

Studio Light Funny Paper Tags

Art by Marlene Sticky Quotes

Simon Says Stamp In The Round stencil

Foam Tape 

Simon  Says Stamp Craft Tacky Glue

Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat

Bearly Art Precision Glue

Simon Says Stamp Small Blending Brush Twilight

Tim Holtz Sprayer

Heat it Tool

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated inks - Cadette and Citrine

Simon Says Stamp Gilded Sequins

So now it's YOUR turn, Happy Crafting! Maura

Follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

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

You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in .

Delicious Drinks

 

 Hello Monday, my friends! And welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thank you for joining us for the  Your Favorite Technique  Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is: DELICIOUS DRINKS

Are you looking for a cool, refreshing, and FUN drink this summer? How about a Bubble Tea? 

I was inspired by Tim Holtz's Bubbles stamp to make my bubble tea. I stamped it in mocha so it would look like tea, although bubble tea comes in a myriad of flavors. To create my striped straw, I swiped ink diagonally across the watercolor paper with the blending brush.

I did an ink smooshed background on the tag. I began with the light color, dried it a bit, and went in with the darker color. I wanted a contrast to the bubble tea image, but in retrospect I think I would have chosen different colors for the background. 

I sketched my straw and glass over the inked areas with a Fine Point Sharpie. This time I used the big girl scissors to cut out my sketched images. The longer blade works better for long straight lines. 

To create a look of colorful bubbles in the tea, I blended ink into the bubbles with the tip of the blending brush. (This might be a good place to use the detail brushes if you have them.) I used a cutting blade to cut two lines into the glass so I could fit the straw in.

I decided I needed to pull the background together with the tea, so added some bit dots of mocha.

Then, I found these acrylic pop up circles in my stash and thought they would add to the bubble idea.

I used an alphabet stamp set to write out bubble tea, and cut the strips to add to the tag. 

Here you can see how I fit the straw into the drink.

I also added Glossy Accents to several bubbles in the tea for more dimension.

I'm having fun sketching some of my own pieces lately. And I love popping it all up on this Funky tag from Studio Light. (Confession - I think I have all of Marlene's tags to play with, I love them!)

Time to enjoy some bubble tea!

MINT TEA

Are you looking for a refreshing summer drink? I've been brewing my own mint tea all summer. I grow the mint in containers on my deck. (If you plant it in the ground, it will take over.)

Cut a handful of mint leaf stalks, put them in a container (I use a big ole pickle jar, well cleaned) and pour boiling water over the leaves. I like to add a smidge of demerara sugar, Let steep about 10 - 15 minutes, remove the leaves, cool, then refrigerate. Add ice, and a sprig of mint, then enjoy!

 

 

 

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $25 voucher to shop at the

                                                      fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store 

Supplies:

Art by Marlene Funky tags

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Bubbles stamp

Simon Says Stamp Irregular Dots stencil

Foam tape

Simon Says Stamp Small Blending Brushes

Canson Watercolor paper

Black Fine Sharpie

Simon Says Stamp Everyday Scissors

Tim Holtz Ground Espresso ink

Simon Says Stamp Black Dye ink

Ranger Glossy Accents

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated inks - Citrine, Aegean, Mocha, Orchid, Sweets, Pucker

Clear Acrylic dimensional Circles

Heat It Tool

Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat

Alphabet stamp set (similar to)

3M Tape Glider

Craft Knife

So now it's YOUR turn, Happy Crafting! Maura

Follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

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

You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in .

Your Favorite Technique

 

 Hello Monday, my friends! And welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thank you for joining us for the  Birthday  Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is: YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUE

Once of my favorite techniques is layering color and pattern. I love to use stencils and acrylic paints for this technique, but stamps and other media work beautifully too. 

"GO OUT ON A LIMB FOR THOSE YOU LOVE"

I began with a blended paint layer on my art journal in warm colors, pink, yellow and orange. Staying in the same color range, I started to stencil areas on the page using several stencils.

Here you can see the Diamond Circles and Mermaid Scales designs. 

I continued to layer with these stencils and colors.

Next I added in pops of white using the Bubble stencil. I dried the paint, then added a layer of clear gesso and let that dry. The cool technique here is that with a layer of clear gesso, I can wipe down through any layers on top of it and get back to this layer.

Next, over the gesso layer, I began blending my cool colors - blues, purples and greens. Once again, I layered more paint on top and this time blended with my fingers rather than a brush. I also smudged out edges by going over it with a baby wipe.

Time for the Bubble stencil again and a darker blue = Lapis.

Detail...

This time I added black stenciling with the Mermaid Scales.

And now for the really awesome part of the technique ! I used the White Lotus stencil and a baby wipe and scrubbed back the cool color layer to reveal the warm colors and patterns beneath.

It does take a bit of elbow grease to do this on both pages. Maybe if I had done it when the paint was still a bit wet it would have been easier, but I din't want to blur the design on top.

Detail...

Close up - if you look carefully you can see the stenciled pattern in the underlayer.

I tried out several characters to add to the pages and decide on these colorful owls.I also fussy cut a tree branch for them to stand on.

Final step was to hand letter with a paint marker "Go out on a limb for those you love"

Sweet owl side...

Patterns and layers of color...

I really love working like this in my art journals and need to do this more often. It makes me happy! What technique do you have that brings you joy? I'd love to hear about it.

 

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $25 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store 

Supplies:

Dylusions Creative  Flip Journal

AALL and Create White Lotus stencil

Simon Says Stamp Mermaid Scales stencil

Simon Says Stamp Diamond Circles stencil

Tim Holtz Bubble Layering stencil

Studio Light Art by Marlene Out of This World Paper Elements

Dina Wakley Acrylic Paints - Lemon, Tangerine, Magenta, Lime, Evergreen, Ocean, Turquoise, Lapis, Blackberry, Orchid, White, Black

Clear Gesso

Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Scissors

Simon Says Stamp Black Card Stock

Bearly Art Precision Glue

Ranger Heat It Tool

Acrylic Paint Brush

Baby Wipes

Paint Marker

Cosmetic Sponge 

 

So now it's YOUR turn, Happy Crafting! Maura

Follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram

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

You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in .