Maura's Musings

Monday, February 2

Simon Says: Add Some Texture

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

Please join me in welcoming the very creative Cassy Lynch, our guest artist for February! Welcome Cassy!

We are spotlighting the delightful array of products from AALL and Create this week! If you have some, we would love to see them.

This week the challenge is: ADD SOME TEXTURE

I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks. I had eye surgery with a long recovery time, but I really missed creating. I found it was very hard staying away from my "studio" during the first part of recovery, something was just missing from my life. So, I am slowly working my way back into it in small amounts of time. Hence, the eye I just had to add to my tag!

I had this tag in my stash from previous play. It was made with grit paste, with Mocha ink mixed in/, which adds lots of texture

I laid several pieces of ephemera onto the tag to figure out my layout.

Now, a few gears...

I stamped the eye from AALL and Create, and added a bit of blue. I kept the butterfly monochromatic. I guess you could say I am on my "vision quest", doing my best to hold on to what vision I have, and keep trying to do the things I love.

Details...

I was reaching for a different word, when these words popped out. I think they work well with the butterfly, and my need to keep myself going forward.

REMEMBER YOUR WINGS!

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

AALL and Cr go awayeate Eyeful stamp

AALL and Create Bolted Gears Ephemera

AALL and Create Aerial Beauties Ephemera

Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers

Tim Holtz Grit Paste

Simon Says Stamp Nocturne VersaFine, Mocha and Ocean inks

Simon Says Stamp Foam Squares

Tim Holtz Ground Espresso ink

Tim Holt Hickory Smoke Distress Spritz

Simon Says Stamp Everyday Scissors

Simon Says Stamp Square Dance stencil

Canson Watercolor paper

Tim Holtz Tag

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 .

Monday, January 12

fun With Foil

Hello Monday, my friends! And welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thank you for joining us for the Something New Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.
This week the challenge is: FUN WITH FOIL

I really admire all the gorgeous cards people are making with foiling, they look so professional. But I guess I am a bit more flaky when it comes to foil, and love adding in metallic flakes. I even found some foil washi tape to work into my art journal page.

BE YOURSELF

I started by scraping some paint onto my page. You may see hints of pink in there, and that's because when I have leftover paint, I like to put it on a page for future use. I also helps if you are intimidated by that blank page and struggle to start...I have days like that too.

With a bit of glue scattered randomly, I added metallic flakes.

Looking for a bit more texture, i stamped in this lovely design in Whale ink - very subtle.

I grabbed a bit of paper I had added metallic flakes to from my stash and stamped my focal image.

Next up, bits of paper and this lovely Lawn Fawn foil washi tape.

I needed more, so dug into my stash and pulled out a flower I had made with book paper, and the words be yourself...a little play on the cute bee.

Details...

BE YOURSELF

and enjoy whatever you create, even when you find it's a bit wonky. I noticed once I was done that I was a bit off kilter. It reminded me of my teaching days and how I could never write horizontally on the board.

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

Lawn Fawn Foil Washi Tape

Prima Metallic Flakes

Paper Artsy Kate Crane MKCM024

Paper Artsy Seth Apter Mini 123

Simon Says Stamp Grid Stencil

Simon Says Stamp Nocturne and Whale inks

Dina Wakley Turquoise , (similar) Black and White acrylic paint

Bearly Art Precision Glue

Fine Line Applicator

Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Scissors

Tim Holtz Collage Medium

small art journal

Papers from stash

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 .

Saturday, January 10

Heart to Heart

Welcome to Day 2 of the HEART TO HEART blog hop!

Check out the new Heart to Heart release.

Be sure to check out the free gift and chance to win a $25 gift certificate towards the bottom of the post!

I am using the brand new Simon Says Stamp Words of Love stamp set for my little mini heart book. Open the heart and you can write love notes to your favorite person.

OPEN YOUR HEART