Birthday Bubbles with Simon Says Stamp

Hello all!  I'm absolutely thrilled to be back in the Designer Spotlight this month over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  (I got a bit carried away with the length of the post in my excitement - you might want a cup of coffee to see you through!)

It's an honour to be creating alongside the phenomenal team there for the whole of August, and it's especially nice to be involved this week as they are celebrating their ninth birthday.

The theme for the week is "Happy Birthday".  Regulars here will know how rare the sighting of a card is here at Words and Pictures, but in celebration of nine years of inspirational creativity at Simon Says Stamp challenge I've managed to make two!

For this birthday celebration, I thought I'd crack open the bubbly... not actual champagne but lots of bubbles on the page.

Along with the birthday theme, we're also playing with products from the Simon Says Stamp's own line.

I've got their Polka Dot Stencil in action, as well as one of their sequin variety packs, Lucky Shamrock.

This all started out as a pair of tags, because there's no a chance that I would actually plan to make cards... it only ever happens by accident.













I did some wrinkle-free distressing with Distress Inks and Oxides in Stormy Sky and Bundled Sage (both colours in both formulations).

I never tire of the effects you can get.












Over that I stencilled through the Polka Dots with the Stormy Sky in both ink and Oxide formulation, before adding little splatters of water to break up the bubbles.















I did a bit of text stamping in Bundled Sage Oxide, just to add detail...

















... and then some stamping in Olive Archival with one of my favourite weeds by Rubber Dance.















I'm very happy with these backgrounds.  I hadn't planned to go down the floral route, but I couldn't resist it.











I fiddled around for some time trying to work out what my next step would be, trying out different bits and bobs.

But in the end I decided I didn't want too many extras detracting from Tim Holtz's Wildflower Thinlits dies.













One of these is from Wildflower Stems 1 and one from Wildflower Stems 2. 



















Some gesso-d strips of torn book page allow them to pop from the panels behind...

















... and the intricate Crochet Thinlits die, cut from plain ivory card, adds delicious detail.
















I coloured the flowers first by dipping the stems into some Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint Distress Stains pooled on the craft mat.















Then I used a water brush to pick up Stormy Sky, Pumice Stone and some of the leftover greens to pick out the petals and the centre of the flower head.












There may also be a touch of white pen work by the look of it, I think... I forget now!














This was about the point when I held my breath and chopped off the tag toppings in order to attach the panels to some of the 6x6 kraft cards I usually have hanging around.














And that's when I had the idea to have the bubbles floating off the panels and onto the kraft.















The snipped-off tops of the tags were pressed into action.  I used a 5/8ths inch punch and a regular hole punch to get myself some bubble confetti.

















And then I had a lovely time picking out the sequins to go on the panels...















... as well as to float in amongst the escaping bubbles.















I've become slightly addicted to sequins lately, something I wouldn't have predicted - though I should have known really... I've always loved to find ways of catching the light in my crafting.















Some more gesso-d book page fragments provide backing for the Small Talk stickers.













These are from the Occasions set, which I'm not sure exists any longer, but you can still get the original ones, and they are so useful to have around.















Obviously, there's lots of white splatter bringing all those bubbles to life... 















... and I used my dipping pen with some white ink to draw the scribbly border frames.















One of these cards has already been pressed into action to wish my 102-year-old neighbour a very happy birthday, and the other is being saved for my niece in a couple of months' time.

















That's why I need lots of pictures in this long blogpost, as I won't have the actual cards any longer.

Just occasionally it's useful to make cards, and these do make me happy.  I hope you like them too.










As it's a celebration there's not just one generous $50 voucher from the Simon Says Stamp store on offer but two!

... and fantastic inspiration from the team over at the main Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog.  I hope you'll all come and celebrate their ninth birthday with a project too!  Happy Birthday!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you all again soon.

Life is mostly froth and bubble;
Two things stand like stone:
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon